Destiny Rewritten

Chapter 56

Oliver was currently checking out his mom's storage unit in Orchid Bay, since with things running cold on the Church investigation, he needed to something to keep him busy, so going through his mother's past seemed like a good idea.

He smiled when he pulled out an old drawing he'd down when he was a kid. Man had he hated Thea when she was first born. Of course now he couldn't imagine his life without his little sister in it, but still, he couldn't believe how far they'd all come over the years and he wasn't just thinking about the years of this reality. In the past months since the reality change, he felt as though maybe he'd finally started to become the hero everyone else had started to see him as. Not as a masked avenger hiding in the shadows, but as the beacon of light Star City needed.

Anyways, Oliver's attention was drawn to an envelope addressed to Walter Steele in one of the boxes that read in his father's handwriting, in the event of my death.

Oliver took the letter out and after a moment of wondering what was inside it and whether or not he should open it, he tore the envelope open and grew horrified and disgusted by what the letter contained as he shoved the letter into his pocket before walking out, since right now, he wasn't sure what to do about what the letter said.

"Hey, you okay?" Laurel asked her boyfriend when she saw him enter their penthouse.

"No, not in the slightest." Oliver said.

"So I'm guessing that it wasn't a very successful trip to your mom's secret storage unit?" Laurel asked.

"The opposite actually." Oliver said as he pulled out the letter.

"What's that?" Laurel asked.

"It's a letter from my dad to Walter Steele. I'm assuming he never got it." Oliver said.

"So you opened it?" Laurel asked.

"I'm glad I did. Because now I know one of my father's worst sins." Oliver said and that got Laurel's attention.

"What does it say?" Laurel asked as Oliver unfolded the letter and began to read it aloud.

"Dear Walter, as you know, I haven't always made the best choices, and if you're reading this letter, it means I'm gone. I need your help to right one last wrong. There's a woman Kazumi Adachi. I loved her. We had a daughter. And I treated them both unfairly. I abandoned them. I'm not proud of what I did, but I'm trying to make it right. You're the only one I trust with this. Please take care of Emiko." Oliver said as Laurel took this in.

"So, you have another sister." Laurel said and Oliver nodded.

"Yeah I mean, I thought that I'd come to terms with the man my father really was, but this, I knew that he had affairs, but this is more than that, he had a secret family. He had another he loved, a child he wanted taken care of, which clearly never happened." Oliver said.

"I can't believe that Walter wouldn't support Emiko and her mother." Laurel said.

"The only explanation is that he never knew. Someone must've intercepted the letter before it reached him." Oliver said.

"We both know who it was. Your mother." Laurel said and Oliver nodded.

"She and my father ruined Emiko's life. And I don't even know how to begin to justify that." Oliver said.

"Well, maybe first you should tell Walter about this. He has a right to know about this to and also, you need to confront your mother about this. It seems like she not only knew about your father's affair and his other daughter, she went to great lengths to make sure no one else did. Like she was trying to make Emiko and her mother disappear from existence. But most importantly Oliver, I think you need to reach out to her." Laurel said.

"Not yet. I just found out about her, I want to know why she was not taken care of before I force my way into her life. And honestly, I still think I should give her a choice about whether or not she wants me to be a part of her life." Oliver said.

"So get some answers from your mom and while you do that, I'll see if Winn can track Emiko down. Then you can let her know that you know about her and also give her a choice about whether or not she wants to meet." Laurel said.

"I don't know Laurel. My father abandoned her and her mother. She's got no reason to forgive me for that." Oliver said.

"You didn't do that to her." Laurel said.

"No but I am doing it to William. I know I pay child support now, but he's growing up without his father. And I realize that was my choice, but still, it makes me wonder if I'm really as different from my father as I thought." Oliver said.

"You are ten times the man your father was. The fact that you've devoted your life to not only cleaning up this city, but also righting your family's wrongs proves that." Laurel said.

"How can you be so sure about that?" Oliver asked.

"Because I never would've fallen in love with you in the first place if I didn't think there is good in you. You are not your father or your mother. You are not defined by their sins. You are your own man. And a damn good one. Maybe it's time you stop blaming yourself for your father's choices, including the choice he made to save your life." Laurel said.

"Except it wasn't just his own life that he took to save me." Oliver said, realizing that was another sin he needed to make right.

"What?" Laurel asked.

"A third person made it to the life raft. My father's bodyguard, Dave Hackett, he made it to. My father shot Hackett and then shot himself." Oliver said.

"Wow, I didn't know that." Laurel said.

"No one did. Including Hackett's son Sam." Oliver said.

"Oliver you need to come clean with Sam about this. He deserves to know, to finally get closure." Laurel said.

"I know. But first I need to track him down." Oliver said.

"And then what are you going to do about Emiko?" Laurel asked.

"First I'm going to get answers about why we never knew about her and then I'm going to do what my family should've done a long time ago. Offer her a place in it." Oliver said and Laurel nodded as she smiled at her boyfriend proudly.