Chapter 16 - A Letter from the Cage
The postal system has a funny way of delivering ghosts right to your doorstep.
Six months into Frank Hale’s prison sentence, a letter arrived in our mailbox. It was stamped with the unmistakable, bold red ink of the state penitentiary's screening facility. When I saw my father’s messy, aggressive handwriting on the envelope, my heart gave a familiar, involuntary jolt of anxiety. Old habits die hard, and the fear of his anger had been deeply ingrained in my nervous system.
Daniel was in his home office taking a conference call. I stood alone in the kitchen, holding the envelope by the corner as if it were coated in poison.
I carefully slid a butter knife under the flap and pulled out the single sheet of lined notebook paper. I expected apologies, or perhaps a sudden realization of his monstrous behavior. But sociopaths do not change simply because their zip code does.
Lena, the letter read. I hope you are happy now. You ruined this family. Tyler is locked up with a bunch of junkies, your mother is living in a cheap motel, and I am in a concrete box. All because you wanted to play the victim and act high and mighty with your rich husband. You owe us, Lena. You always will. Tell your lawyer to file an appeal for me, or God help you when I get out.
I read the words twice. A year ago, a letter like this would have sent me into a spiral of guilt and panic. I would have drained my savings to appease him. I would have believed that it was indeed my fault that the family fell apart.
But as I stood in the sunlight of my beautiful, peaceful kitchen, I felt absolutely nothing. No fear. No guilt. No obligation.
May you like
The words on the page were completely powerless. They were just the pathetic ramblings of a broken, irrelevant man who could no longer reach me.
I didn't cry. I didn't show the letter to Daniel. I simply walked over to the paper shredder tucked in the corner of the pantry, fed the notebook paper into the metal teeth, and listened to the satisfying, mechanical whir as my father's threats were turned into meaningless confetti.
