Chapter 28
I got one more letter from Melissa that fall.
She’d been out of prison for six months.
Living in Oregon.
New name.
New life.
This one was different from the last.
No excuses.
No blame.
No “I was broken.”
Just three sentences.
*I saw Ethan’s speech online. Someone posted a video of the party. He’s amazing. You did good.*
That was it.
No signature.
No request for forgiveness.
No plea for contact.
Just… acknowledgment.
I didn’t tear this one up.
I didn’t burn it.
I just put it in a box in the back of my closet.
With the card.
With the texts.
With all the old evidence.
A reminder of where we’d been.
And how far we’d come.
I never told the kids about it.
They didn’t need to know.
Their lives were too full.
Too happy.
May you like
Too busy moving forward.
There was no room for looking back.
