Chapter 11 - Chloe's Letter

Eleven months after Napa, Chloe wrote to me.
The letter arrived through her attorney.
I almost returned it unopened.
Instead, I read it.
She did not ask forgiveness.
That surprised me.
She admitted the affair.
She admitted helping hide corporate expenses.
She admitted supplying signature samples to Gerald.
She claimed Victor's people had pressured her after she tried to leave their arrangement.
Some of it was self-serving.
Some was supported by evidence.
Then she wrote:
I knew you were pregnant. I knew you called him. I told myself your marriage was already over because that made what I was doing easier to live with.
I stopped reading.
That sentence hurt more than I expected.
Not because Chloe had stolen Julian.
People aren't stolen.
Julian chose.
But because somewhere in Napa, while I called seven times, two people had looked at my name on a phone and decided I could wait.
I finished the letter.
Then I put it away.
I never responded.
Forgiveness doesn't always require conversation.
May you like
Sometimes closure is deciding a person no longer receives access to you.
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