Lost . . . and Found

After playing in his final game of the season, Mason Johnson, six-time All-Pro wide receiver with the Chicago Bears, learns that his wife, daughter, and parents have been killed in a tragic car accident. For sixteen months, Mason takes time to grieve the loss of his family, and liquidate everything he owns, including his parents' immense estate. His father had been the owner of a large brokerage company in downtown Chicago, which featured several other branch offices in the Midwest.

While growing up, Mason hardly knew his parents, instead being raised by his nanny, Sylvia, who took on the role of mother, father, teacher, coach, and friend. Mason's parents had been more interested in the business and social aspects of their lives, ignoring the son who was, to them, a bother.

During his final week in Chicago, after all business matters had been settled, Mason becomes privy to a letter that his father had written to him right before he died that explained the reason for his parental inadequacies: Mason had been adopted at birth, and instead of being a relished member of the family, he had only been a constant reminder of his dad's inability to father children.

The letter is also a complete revelation of all the details of the adoption, giving the names of his biological parents, and relating how they had given their firstborn up when they were in their teens. Five years later, however, the couple reunited, married, and had three more children. So Mason learns not only the whereabouts of his biological parents, but that they had reunited and produced two brothers and a sister. The eldest son, Eric, died tragically in an accident while on duty with the National Guard when he was only twenty-five years old.

This is a story about Mason Johnson's search for his family, and how the revelation of his identity would ensue. But there was one twist . . . His deceased brother's wife, Erica.