Chapter 26 - The second letter
Almost three years after the party? No, closer to two years later, Vanessa wrote Caleb a letter.
Not because court required.
She asked permission first.
I read it.
Eric read it.
Then Caleb.
It said:
Dear Caleb,
When you were six, you wrote me a letter offering me all the money you had because you thought breaking my vase made you responsible for what the adults did afterward.
You were wrong.
I was the adult.
I was responsible for my hand, my words, and the way I treated you and your mother.
You were responsible for an accident.
You apologized for that accident immediately.
That should have been enough.
I am returning something that never belonged to me.
Inside the envelope:
Not money.
His original apology letter.
The worn page.
Vanessa had made a copy for herself with our permission? No.
She wrote:
I do not need to keep your guilt in order to remember what I did.
That line got me.
Caleb took the original letter.
Read his six-year-old handwriting.
Cringed.
“I spelled because wrong.”
Priorities.
“What do you want to do with it?”
“Keep it.”
“Why?”
He shrugged.
“It’s mine.”
Exactly.
We put it in his memory box.
May you like
Not Vanessa’s.
His.
