Chapter 23 - DOUGLAS’S LAST LETTERDouglas served sentence.
At seventy-one, health declined.
He wrote Charlotte from prison.
She ignored first three letters.
Then Holden asked:
“Do you want know contents before he dies?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then have someone read and summarize.”
Good boundary.
Therapist read.
No threats.
Douglas wrote about Meredith.
He admitted love.
Jealousy.
Entitlement.
He said:
“I never intended her death. This is not excuse. I intended to stop her. I believed I had earned right to stop her because I had given Solmere thirty years and because I believed she was destroying what we built. That belief was the crime before any statute.”
Powerful.
He admitted Section Twelve change after death.
He rationalized protecting company and Charlotte from “instability.”
He knew it was fraud.
He apologized to Caroline.
Charlotte.
Meredith.
Did not ask forgiveness.
Charlotte eventually read full.
One line:
The last thing Meredith said to me in person was, ‘You confuse being needed with being entitled.’ She was right.
Charlotte cried.
That line also applied old Holden, old Charlotte, perhaps.
She wrote back only once.
I believe you loved my mother. I also believe you harmed her. I will not make one fact cancel the other. I do not forgive what you did. I hope you use whatever time remains to stop lying to yourself about it.
No warm closure.
Douglas responded:
Fair.
He died two years after release? Maybe at 75. But not necessary. Could remain alive.
Caroline divorced, rebuilt life, served on victim-support foundation? Maybe.
May you like
Gideon released later after five years. Celestine did not reconnect.
Some consequences last.
