Chapter 18 - AINSLEY’S FIRST LETTER
Ainsley wrote after three years.
Through Naomi.
I did not have to read it.
I did.
Galen,
I spent a long time calling what I did insecurity because it sounded softer than entitlement.
Good beginning.
I thought becoming your wife should make me central in the house.
Then:
When Eira kept reaching for her mother, I treated a child’s grief like rejection of me.
True.
Then:
I sold property that was not mine because I believed future marriage would somehow make present boundaries temporary.
Accurate.
Then:
I am sorry I hit her.
No excuses.
I did not show Eira.
She was seven.
Ainsley did not ask for contact.
Good.
Second letter five years later:
I do not expect forgiveness or a relationship. I only want the record to contain one thing clearly: Eira did nothing wrong.
That one I saved.
Not for Eira yet.
May you like
For later if she wanted it.
She eventually did.
