Chapter 18 - The Letter
A year later, I received a completely unexpected letter forwarded to my office from the federal prison system.
It was written on cheap, lined paper, covered in the messy, frantic handwriting of Julian Sterling.
I stared at the envelope for a long time, debating whether I should just throw it directly into the shredder.
My curiosity ultimately won, and I carefully sliced the envelope open with a silver letter opener.
Julian’s letter was a pathetic, rambling mess of apologies and desperate manipulation.
He wrote that prison was a complete nightmare and that he missed his old, perfect life with me.
He begged me to put money into his commissary account so he could buy decent food and protection.
He actually had the audacity to suggest that we could try to rebuild our marriage when he was released.
I read the words with absolute, cold indifference, feeling completely detached from the weak man who wrote them.
He had not changed at all; he was just looking for a new host to attach himself to for survival.
I took a thick black marker and wrote exactly two words across the front of his pathetic letter.
"Never again."
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I put it in a new envelope and mailed it right back to his prison cell.
It was the very last time I ever acknowledged his pathetic existence.
