Chapter 24 - CHARLOTTE’S LETTER Charlotte wrote from custody sixteen months after the river.
I left the envelope unopened for two weeks.
Then read it.
The first paragraph said:
I know I cannot ask you to forgive me.
Good.
The second:
I have spent months trying to find a version where Daniel made me do it. That version would let me hate him enough to survive myself. It is not true.
I stopped.
Then continued.
He suggested the river. He told me we were going to lose everything. He said if the investigation started, he would go to prison and I would be blamed for the transfers. But I put my hands on you.
Then:
When you surfaced, I saw you.
I had to put the letter down.
Hours later:
I wanted to throw the ring. Daniel said, “She’s gone. Don’t look back.” I listened because if I helped you, I would have to admit what I had just done. For several seconds I cared more about escaping my own choice than whether my mother lived.
That was the sentence I believed.
Not because it helped.
Because it was terrible without being theatrical.
She wrote:
I am sorry for the money. I am more sorry that money became something I let myself compare to your life.
May you like
I did not answer.
Not then.
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