Chapter 17 - THE FINAL LETTER
Ten years after the attack, Clara found a letter.
It had been sealed inside one of her old medical records.
The envelope carried my father's signature.
She brought it to me.
I didn't want to open it.
But I did.
Andrew,
If you are reading this, then I have probably lost.
Good.
You were never supposed to become me.
That was my greatest mistake.
I thought strength meant control.
I thought love was ownership.
I thought fear was respect.
I was wrong.
Your mother taught me this too late.
Clara taught me what courage looked like.
You taught me that legacy is not what a man leaves behind.
It is what his children choose not to repeat.
I know you hate me.
You should.
But if there is one thing I ask, it is this:
Do not let what I did become the story your children inherit.
End it with you.
I folded the letter.
Clara sat beside me.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“What will you do with it?”
I looked at the fireplace.
“Nothing.”
She smiled.
That was the answer.
I didn't need to destroy the letter.
I didn't need to preserve it.
I simply needed to stop carrying it.
We placed it in a box with the other evidence.
Then locked it away.
Not as a secret.
May you like
As history.
---
