Dear Javi,

I hope this letter finds you well in the aftermath of my death. As commanded in my last will and testament, the family jewel has been left to you, my only living son.

It is unfortunate this fate has befallen upon you.

First, I have a confession.

Clarissa is not your biological mother. My first true love, your real mother, Millie, died only a few months after your birth. The physicians never figured out what killed her. She was perfectly healthy, and then suddenly, she wasn’t. She withered away quickly and died. A year later, Clarissa came along, and in a whirlwind of passion and romance, we married soon after.

I apologize for deceiving you for all these years, but it needed to be done until the truth could be revealed.

However, this wasn’t the first mysterious event to befall our family.

Sadly, I must provide you with another confession.

Your grandmother, Patricia, wasn’t your biological grandmother either. Your biological grandmother, my real mother, Bethany, passed away similarly to Millie a few months later after giving birth to me. Your grandfather married Patricia soon after. I called her mother until your grandfather died and passed the family jewel on to me.

You were too young to remember when your grandfather passed away, but it is indeed the same way I am passing now.

Like my father before me and his father before him, I have passed to you our family jewel. Regretfully, it is the way such things must be done in our family.

Katie will wither away from an unknown illness within the year, and you will be left to raise David alone for a little while. At least until the “other woman” comes along in a year’s time. This other woman will capture your heart and soul unlike anyone else. You will soon forget about the love you felt for Katie and become completely enamored and devoted to this new woman in your life.

She will stay at your side until David produces a son of his own. Once this has happened, your second wife will vanish, and you will then begin to wither away and die like I am right now. The love and passion you felt for this new woman will vanish with her, and you’ll be left empty and drained of all the joy you ever felt in your life.

At this time, you will pass the family jewel down to David and leave him the exact instructions I have left to you.

And so the cycle will continue: From father to son to grandson and so forth.

Do not break the cycle, my son.

Your future wife will tell you why.