Chapter 15 - Maren’s Letter
Two years after the baby shower, a letter arrived.
From Maren.
She was moving out of state.
Inside was a handwritten apology.
No excuses.
No requests for friendship.
She wrote about envy.
About loneliness.
About believing Gavin's lies because those lies told her exactly what she wanted to hear.
Then she wrote:
The worst thing I did wasn't falling for him. It was looking at you every week and choosing deception again.
That sentence mattered.
Because it was true.
I folded the letter.
Then I placed it in the same locked box as Gavin's letter to Evelyn.
Not because Evelyn needed to inherit our pain.
Because someday she might ask questions.
And if she did, I wanted facts available without bitterness.
That evening Nathan came over.
I told him about the letter.
He listened.
“Do you forgive her?”
“I don't know.”
“You don't have to decide tonight.”
I looked at him.
“I love you.”
Nathan froze.
Then smiled.
“You picked a strange moment.”
“I know.”
He leaned closer.
“Say it again.”
“No.”
He laughed.
I kissed him.
And upstairs, Evelyn began yelling, “Mommy!”
May you like
Romance, apparently, had a strict bedtime limit.
---
