Chapter 7 - The Letter From PrisonTwo years passed before Gavin wrote.
I almost threw the letter away.
Instead I left it unopened for three weeks.
Then read it.
Olivia,
I am not asking you to forgive me.
Good beginning.
I spent my first year here trying to separate the things Charles convinced me to do from the things I chose.
Eventually I understood that distinction was useful only until I started using it to protect myself.
I continued.
Charles opened the door. I walked through it.
That sentence mattered.
Gavin admitted the relationship began strategically.
He also wrote:
The worst truth is that I did fall in love with you, and instead of that making me honest, it made me more desperate to keep the lie alive.
I cried.
Not because I wanted him back.
Because some relationships become more tragic once you understand the love was real.
If he had never loved me, everything would have been easier.
I wrote one reply.
I believe you loved me.
I also believe you repeatedly chose a version of yourself that was unsafe for me to build a life with.
I hope you become someone different.
That does not mean I will be there to meet him.
May you like
He never wrote again.
I appreciated that.
