Chapter 15 - THE LETTER EMILY NEVER SENT
Claire was convicted on multiple charges.
The investigation into Emily's death remained open.
But one mystery stayed with me.
Why had Emily kept the master ledger instead of giving it to the police?
The answer was hidden in another letter.
It arrived six months later.
The envelope had been held by Emily's attorney.
It was addressed to me.
Ethan,
If you are reading this, then you have already learned enough to hate almost everyone who failed you.
Please don't.
I know you.
You will want answers until every person who lied feels as broken as you do.
But that is not what I want for you.
I want Sophie to remember me as her mother, not as the woman whose death became the center of your life.
I want you to laugh again.
I want you to love again.
And I want you to stop apologizing for surviving.
I had to leave the ledger hidden because I knew they would kill anyone who found it too soon.
You were always my safest hiding place because no one believed you would become curious after I died.
They underestimated you.
I never did.
There was one final page.
On it, Emily had written a sentence.
When the truth is over, choose Sophie.
I read it three times.
Then I gave the letter to Sophie when she turned nine.
She couldn't read all of it yet, but she kept it in a purple box.
“Why do I need this?” she asked.
“Because your mother loved you.”
“That's all?”
I smiled.
“No.”
I tapped the paper.
“She also wanted you to know that you are not responsible for what happened to her.”
Sophie nodded solemnly.
“Okay.”
Then she asked the question I had been afraid to hear.
“Do you think about Mommy every day?”
“Yes.”
“Does that mean you can't be happy?”
I looked at her.
“No.”
She smiled.
“Good.”
That night, I finally packed away the jewelry box.
Not because I wanted to forget Emily.
Because I didn't need to be afraid of the box anymore.
The secrets inside it had already done what Emily wanted.
May you like
They had ended the lies.
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