Chapter 24 - Celia and Grant Had Different Endings
Celia wrote first from prison.
Six pages.
Half apology.
Half argument.
She said I humiliated them with money.
I hid Blackridge.
I chose Marcus over family.
I turned law against children I once promised never to abandon.
The last line:
You adopted us and then proved blood would have been easier.
I cried.
Not because true.
Because cruel.
I did not respond.
Two years later another letter.
Shorter.
I keep trying to make you responsible because otherwise I have to sit with what I did.
That one I kept separately.
No reply.
Five years after conviction:
I am sorry I told Grant to leave you there.
Direct.
No explanation.
I wrote back one sentence.
I received your letter.
Nothing more.
Grant wrote almost nothing for years.
Then, after anger-management and prison education programs, he sent:
I still don’t know if I wanted you dead. I know that sounds monstrous. I know I was willing to let death answer the problem after I pushed you. That may be the same thing.
I read it three times.
That was the closest he came to truth.
I answered:
Yes. That is close enough.
No reconciliation promise.
No prison visit.
I was not obligated.
Their appeals ended.
One technical merger.
No new trial.
No hidden evidence.
Convictions stood.
Celia remained incarcerated.
Grant remained incarcerated longer.
They did not die mysteriously.
Did not escape.
Did not discover secret inheritance.
Their lives became consequences measured in ordinary years.
Owen rebuilt outside.
That was the difference among them.
May you like
Not blood.
Choices after choices.
