Chapter 17 - MY LATE WIFE’S LETTER
I found the letter at forty-three.
Not hidden.
Misfiled.
Inside the old estate binder.
Addressed to me.
Galen,
If Eira asks about me, answer her. If she does not, do not make her perform grief for you.
I sat down.
Then:
If you love again, please do. Do not punish another woman for being alive after I am gone.
That line hurt because Ainsley had probably felt exactly that fear.
Then:
But do not ask Eira to prove loyalty to your future by forgetting her past.
There.
Everything.
My late wife had not predicted Ainsley.
She had understood grief.
I read the letter to Brynn.
She cried.
I did too.
Did I show Eira?
Not then.
It was written to me.
Privacy matters even after death.
At eighteen, I gave it to her.
Later.
For now, I folded it back into the binder.
Then I went outside.
Eira was riding a bike.
Helmet crooked.
Locket tucked under her shirt.
May you like
Alive.
That was the point.
