Chapter 13 - Vincent Rourke’s Final Letter
Vincent Rourke received decades in federal prison.
Years passed.
Then Clara received a letter.
She almost threw it away.
Leo said:
“Your choice.”
She opened it.
Vincent wrote about Thomas Hayes.
How Clara’s father had tried to help him escape Patrick Rourke.
How fear won.
How after Thomas died, Vincent convinced himself becoming powerful would ensure nobody controlled him again.
Instead, he became his father.
The final paragraph said:
Your father tried to save me.
You finished what he started, not by protecting me from consequences, but by refusing to become what hurt you.
I understand that now.
Clara folded the letter.
“Do you forgive him?” Leo asked.
“No.”
He nodded.
“But I hope he changes.”
“That sounds like you.”
Clara placed the letter inside Thomas’s old briefcase.
May you like
Forgiveness did not always mean reconciliation.
Sometimes it meant refusing to carry hatred where the person who hurt you could no longer reach.
