Chapter 14 - Nathan’s Letter
Twelve years after my birthday party, Nathan wrote.
One letter.
I almost didn’t open it.
Emily,
I spent years blaming Dad.
Then Mom.
Then money.
Then you for leaving.
None of those explanations changes the fact that I became a man who frightened his wife.
Good beginning.
He wrote that he had completed treatment programs.
Worked.
Lived quietly.
Had no expectation of contact.
Then:
The thing I regret most is not losing the house.
Not losing the company.
Not even prison.
It is remembering the way you flinched before I touched you.
You already knew what I might do.
And I still told myself I was a good husband.
I stopped.
That was the most honest thing he had ever said.
At the end:
I heard Mom sails now.
I’m glad.
Tell her nothing from me unless you want to.
I don’t ask forgiveness.
Nathan.
I did tell Margaret.
She cried.
She did not write him.
Neither did I.
But I kept the letter for a while.
Then eventually shredded it.
May you like
Not angrily.
I simply didn’t need it anymore.
