Chapter 36: The Letter He Wrote
Evelyn stood frozen at the doorway, rain misting the hallway behind Adrian. The envelope in her hand felt like it carried more than paper. It carried everything they never said, everything they were afraid to feel.
She glanced up at him. "You wrote a letter?"
Adrian gave a small nod, his voice low. "It's… not perfect. But it's everything I couldn't say when I should have."
She stepped aside, letting him in without a word. The silence between them wasn't cold anymore. It was careful, like two people walking barefoot across shattered memories.
Inside, Evelyn lit a candle — not because they needed light, but because it felt gentler than turning on the ceiling lamp. Adrian sat on the edge of her couch while she stood across from him, the letter unopened in her hands.
She finally sat down and unfolded it.
His voice echoed in her head as she read.
"Evelyn,
I don't know where to begin.
Maybe that's the problem — I always waited too long to start.
There were so many days I could've told you what you meant to me. But I thought we had time. I thought if I didn't say it, it wouldn't matter as much when things started slipping. I thought silence was strength, that emotions would make me weak.
But the truth is, not telling you was the greatest weakness of all.
You changed me. You taught me how to see the world differently — how to notice people's quiet pain, how to find poetry in silence, how to hold someone's hand without holding them back.
I hurt you. I left when I should have stayed. I let fear dictate my steps, and in doing so, I lost the only person who ever truly listened to the parts of me I never spoke aloud.
I don't expect forgiveness.
But I want you to know — I never stopped thinking about you. Not once. I saw you in every book I opened, in every late-night walk under streetlights, in every coffee I drank too fast.
I saw you when I looked at the mirror and didn't like the man staring back.
You were the light I tried to live without — and failed.
This letter isn't to ask for a second chance. It's to let you know: if you ever turn around, I'll be there. Not to fix what I broke — but to walk beside you, no longer afraid.
Always yours,
Adrian"