Chapter 8 - Echoes of the Past
Two years after the trial, I received a letter from the prison. It was from Claire. I held it for a long time, staring at the envelope, wondering if I should burn it without opening it.
I opened it.
It wasn't an apology. It was a letter of threats—of promises that she would be out one day, and that she would find us. It was the letter of a woman who had lost everything but her rage.
I took the letter to the fireplace and dropped it into the flames.
May you like
I didn't tell Valerie. I didn't tell my brother. I simply reached out to my contacts in the state department of corrections, requesting that her visitation rights remain permanently revoked.
I was no longer the man who lived in fear of what was behind the door. I was the man who kept the door locked, the guard on duty, and the peace in the house.
