Chapter 9
Vanessa wrote to me after Daniel was sentenced.
I expected anger.
Instead, she wrote an apology.
Not the kind that asks for forgiveness.
The kind that admits the harm without making excuses.
She said she had begun therapy.
She said she finally understood that Daniel had manipulated her too, though that did not excuse what she had done to me.
At the end, she wrote:
You did not deserve what we did. I hope one day I become someone who does not need another woman to lose for me to feel important.
I read the letter twice.
Then I put it away.
I did not respond.
Some apologies deserved acknowledgment.
Others deserved silence.
I had spent too much of my life giving people emotional comfort they had not earned.
That winter, I moved into a small house near the farm.
It had a wide porch, a bright kitchen, and a guest room for Nora, my childhood friend, who came every month with books and too much wine.
The first night I slept there, rain touched the roof.
I lay awake listening to it.
May you like
For once, silence did not feel lonely.
It felt peaceful.
