Chapter 13 - VICTORIA CAME OUT OF PRISON AND ASKED CHLOE FOR FORGIVENESS
Victoria was released when Chloe was seventeen.
Her attorney contacted mine.
She wanted permission to send an apology.
My instinct:
No.
Chloe's:
“I want to read it.”
So we did.
Victoria wrote:
I do not deserve to be called your mother. I never did.
Good start.
I believed love could be created by forcing a child into the role I wanted. I punished you for loving your real mother because your love reminded me that I was an outsider in a family I wanted to steal.
Chloe stopped.
“That's harsh.”
“Truth sometimes is.”
She continued.
Practice Room Six was abuse. I called it discipline because the real word made me ashamed.
I looked at Chloe.
She kept reading.
You do not owe me forgiveness. I am not asking for contact. I only want you to know that nothing you did caused what happened.
Chloe finished.
Then folded the letter.
“Do you forgive her?”
I asked.
“No.”
“Okay.”
“Maybe someday.”
“Okay.”
“Would you?”
I thought.
“I don't know.”
That was true.
Forgiveness wasn't a graduation requirement.
Some wounds healed without reconciliation.
Chloe eventually sent one sentence.
I hope you never treat another child the way you treated me.
Victoria responded:
I won't.
No further contact.
Enough.
Marcus remained incarcerated.
His relationship with Chloe grew slowly through visits.
At eighteen, she called him Dad for the first time.
He cried.
She later told me:
“It felt okay.”
That was enough for me.
I had no need to punish him through her.
My boundary was mine.
May you like
Her relationship was hers.
That distinction became one of the greatest achievements of my life.
