Chapter 13 - The Letter He Never Had the Courage to Give Me
I read Thain’s letter alone.
Not because Sloan insisted.
Because some endings deserve silence.
He had written four pages.
No romance.
No excuse.
Just fear.
He admitted the company was failing financially.
He admitted hiding losses.
He admitted enjoying Lyra’s attention before the affair became physical.
He wrote that every night he came home and looked at me, he felt like he was standing in front of the last person whose respect still mattered.
So he lied harder.
That was the tragedy of Thain.
He feared disappointing me so much that he became someone who guaranteed it.
One paragraph hurt more than the rest.
I keep waiting for you to notice.
Sometimes I think I want you to.
Because if you find out, I won’t have to be brave enough to tell you.
I remembered the perfume.
The phone.
The increasingly weak excuses.
Maybe part of him really had been begging to be caught.
But asking your wife to discover your betrayal is not honesty.
It is making her perform the confession for you.
I folded the letter.
The next day, we signed the settlement framework.
Thain sat across from me.
He looked thinner.
Quieter.
When it was finished, he said, “Did you read the letter?”
“Yes.”
“I should’ve sent it.”
“You should’ve stopped doing the things that made you write it.”
He nodded.
No argument.
No plea.
That was new.
Then he slid a small box toward me.
For one horrifying second, I thought it contained jewelry.
Instead, it held my grandfather’s fountain pen.
I had been looking for it for years.
“You kept this?”
“You left it in my first office.”
I picked it up.
My grandfather had used it to sign the papers that eventually created the inheritance I gave Thain.
“I thought I lost it.”
“So did I. I found it when we emptied the office.”
He stood.
“I’m sorry, Kala.”
This time, I didn’t tell him forgiveness was coming.
I didn’t tell him it never would.
“I know.”
He walked toward the door.
Then stopped.
“There’s one thing the settlement doesn’t say.”
I looked up.
“The first investor in that company was always you.”
May you like
He left before I could answer.
The next morning, I discovered that statement was about to become public.
