The Unsent Appeal novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Four Letters

The envelopes were thin and soft at the corners, and each one had a stamp.

The first was dated in my own hand, one month after the plea.

I turned it over.

The flap had been opened and pressed shut again.

"You read it," I said.

"The first one."

Elliott was sitting across from me on the bare floor with his shirt back on.

"It was addressed to me, so I opened it. Then I read the others."

"All four."

"Yes."

"Those were mine."

"They were mine too. Your name was on the back, but mine was on the front."

I got to my feet and pulled on my sweater with my hands shaking.

"I told you what was in them. I told you I wrote to you. You didn't need to check."

"I needed to know if you were lying," he said.

"And?"

"You weren't."

He stood up slowly, bracing his left leg against the wall.

"They don't sound like a woman who got away with something, Rose. They sound like a woman who can't sleep."

I held the packet to my chest.

"You bought this house," I said. "My house. Why?"

He took a long moment.

"Because the listing came up and I saw the street name."

"I wanted to stand in the place where your family went on with their lives."

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