Chapter 17 - CELESTE’S LETTER TO LUCY
Celeste asked through counsel to send Lucy a letter after release.
Lucy was six.
Her therapist reviewed it first.
I reviewed after.
Then Lucy decided whether she wanted it read aloud.
The letter said:
I put you inside the suitcase. You did not want to go. I should not have done it.
Specific.
Then:
I told you I would take you to see your mother. That was cruel and frightening. Your mother died because she was sick. I did not kill her.
Good.
Then:
I was afraid of getting in trouble for choices I made with Uncle Marcus. I tried to use you to make your dad wait before telling other adults the truth.
There.
No euphemism.
Then:
You were a child. None of that was yours to carry.
Then:
I loved you while I was your stepmother, but loving someone does not erase what I did to them.
That sentence hurt.
Because I believed it.
Celeste had loved Lucy.
And endangered her.
Both.
Lucy listened.
Then asked:
“Do I write back?”
“No.”
“Can?”
“If you want.”
She thought.
May you like
“No.”
That was the end for then.
