Chapters (38)
- one
- two
- three
- four
- five
- six
- seven
- eight
- nine
- ten
- eleven
- twelve
- thirteen
- fourteen
- fifteen
- sixteen
- seventeen
- eighteen
- nineteen
- twenty
- twenty-one
- twenty-two
- twenty-three
- twenty-four
- twenty-five
- twenty-six
- twenty-seven
- twenty-eight
- twenty-nine
- thirty
- thirty-one
- thirty-two
- thirty-three
- thirty-four
- thirty-five
- thirty-six
- thirty-seven
- epilogue
You used to laugh when you said it, but it’s true, you know—everybody loves you. But I love you more than anyone, and I believe you know that. I believe I am going to see you again someday, and I hope you can somehow forgive me in your heart. If I never get the courage to tell you what I did out of love for you, well, you’ll know after I’m gone.
Yours forever,
Chet
“This is unbelievable,” I put the letter down and picked it up again immediately, as though the words might have changed. “All that time, and she had no idea. She was in love with a man who destroyed her life, Rick.”
“Makes you wonder what else he kept from her.” Rick drummed his fingers on the table, a sure sign he was in deep thought.
“We’ll never know for sure what happened with Tolly, Rick. We’re not going to find out if Chet had anything to do with his death, but if he did he was trying to protect Violet from him, and I understand that. Tolly might have killed Violet if he’d lived.” I grabbed Rick’s arm. “Oh my gosh. There wouldn’t have been a Tolly if Chet hadn’t done this. Maybe she’d have stayed with Johnny. Maybe she’d have married Sam and raised a beautiful daughter with him. Maybe several children.”
Rick took the letter from my hands and said, “He killed Johnny’s sister and nearly killed Johnny. He caused her to marry a cruel man who beat and tortured her, then she fell in love with him. I’ve never heard of anything like it, and I’ve seen a lot. Son of a bitch should’ve been in jail.”
“I don’t know, Rick. He was a child when he did all that.” I pictured the neglected little boy Chet had been; the lunch money Violet gave him and the nights he spent wondering where his mother had gone. No one understood him as well as I did.
“You have got to be kidding me. He was a psychopath. At least a sociopath.” He swept an arm toward the window. “There are bad people in this world, Ronni. They smile at you in the grocery store and help old ladies cross the street and charm the hell out of strangers and make proclamations of love. Don’t be naïve.”
“Maybe your job shows you the worst of humanity, but mine doesn’t, Rick.”
“Oh my God. You live in an idealistic world, Ronni. I’m a realist. And the truth is, someone you loved with all your heart had her life wrecked by a criminal. What do you think Violet would have said if she knew any of this? You think her precious Chet would still have been precious?” He threw Chet’s letter down on the table, exasperated.