Chapter 14 - The Letter Rebecca Never Sent
Vanessa eventually requested one thing through her attorney.
My mother's letter.
I could have refused.
Instead, I sent a copy.
Not the original.
That belonged to me now.
Weeks later, Vanessa wrote back.
The envelope sat unopened on my desk for two days.
Finally, I read it.
There was no apology.
Not really.
Vanessa wrote about her father.
Her childhood.
Her humiliation.
Her obsession with the Ellisons.
She admitted she had watched me for years.
She believed destroying my reputation would finally balance some invisible scale.
Then she wrote:
I thought if you lost your father, your marriage, your name, and your freedom, you would understand me.
I stopped reading.
Because there it was.
The entire tragedy reduced to one sentence.
Vanessa believed pain became justice when transferred to someone else.
It didn't.
I finished the letter.
Near the end, she wrote:
Your mother was right about one thing. I became someone my pain chose for me.
I folded the letter.
Then placed it inside a drawer.
I didn't forgive Vanessa.
I didn't need to.
Understanding wasn't absolution.
But I also didn't need to hate her every morning.
May you like
That would have been another prison.
And I had already escaped one.
