Chapter 10 - The Letter From Prison
Daniel wrote Emma eleven months after the trial.
The letter was screened and legally delivered through appropriate channels.
Emma didn't open it.
For three days, it sat on her kitchen counter.
“What do you think it says?” she asked.
“Does it matter?”
“I don't know.”
She finally opened it during therapy.
Daniel apologized.
Then explained.
Then blamed childhood.
Stress.
Alcohol.
Work.
Marriage.
By the final page, the apology had somehow become an argument for why Emma should understand him.
She folded the letter.
Her therapist asked, “What do you feel?”
Emma thought.
“Tired.”
Not angry.
Not devastated.
Tired.
She shredded it.
Daniel wrote again.
She returned it unopened.
Then again.
Returned.
Eventually, the letters stopped.
May you like
That silence once would have frightened her.
Now it felt like freedom.
