Tags:
Suspense,
Erótica,
Humorous,
Literature & Fiction,
Mystery,
BDSM,
Urban,
Romantic Erotica,
Lesbian,
Lgbt,
bisexual
baby face, and her family always remarked how much Jenna looked like Jeanie when she was that age. But having your husband arrested had to take a toll on the body. During the trial, everything in his name, from their house to their cars, had been seized and then taken away.
Jenna understood her mother’s desire to sweep it under the rug, ultimately forbidding him as the topic of conversation, but it was hard not knowing the details of what had happened. It was even harder not knowing what was happening to him now. Just because her stepfather had gone away, leaving a hole in their lives, didn’t mean she didn’t still think and care about him.
She held the letters in trembling hands, realizing she was being given a chance at obtaining some answers. They’d been shoved to the very back of the old secretary and she was sure her mother wouldn’t miss them—unless another letter arrived, perhaps. Then her mother would probably put it with all the others, and that’s when she’d noticed they’d all been opened.
But maybe she could open them, take out the letters, and return the empty envelopes?
Jenna took the letters with her down to the kitchen. Her mother was still at work and she had the house to herself. She sat the kitchen table and, with the sharp edge of a knife, she opened all of the letters, careful to keep them in chronological order. The glue was in the secretary, and she went to get that, grabbing some plain white copy paper as an afterthought, taking her spoils to the kitchen.
She went to work, replacing the letter in each envelope with a folded, blank sheet of paper, before sealing the envelopes again with glue. She took a moment to admire her handiwork before returning everything to its place—knife to the drawer, glue to the secretary, and the envelopes, now weighted with blank paper, to the very back, behind all the office supplies.
Back in her room, Jenna glanced at the clock on her bedside table, seeing she still had a few hours still until her mother got home. Plenty of time to get to reading. She didn’t know why she was shaking, except she knew her mother didn’t want her to see these letters. And Jenna knew it, given the lengths she’d just gone to, concealing the fact that she had them.
But that wasn’t the only reason. Until that moment, Jenna wouldn’t have admitted, even to herself, how much she missed him. She missed his voice, she missed his smile, she missed his hugs. He’d been a good stepfather—far better than her biological one—and she had often wondered if they had meant so little to him, that he could just completely ignore them after he’d been taken away.
He didn’t forget me.
That was the first thing she thought as she began to read. Tears came to her eyes as she read her stepfather’s words. He said that prison wasn’t all that bad—she was sure he was trying to mitigate it, even though she knew his was a white-collar crime and he was in a low security facility—and then he said the words that made her throat close up. I miss you both so much, I love you. Tell Jenna how much I miss and love her too.
He spoke about regret, about his sense of loss, and it hurt her heart to read it.
Then, in the next few sentences, everything changed.
Jeanie, I forgive you for what you did to me, to our life together. I’ve had a lot of time to think, and I get why you embezzled the money from my company. I remember every horrid detail you shared with me of the abuse, both mental and physical, that you suffered at the hands of your first husband. So, I can try to understand why you didn’t trust me to provide for you and your daughter. But, I think I have more than proven that now, by taking the rap for you. I let you keep your life outside, instead of behind bars, to raise your daughter, why I rot away in this hell hole. I know you lost the house, but you still have my money, somewhere. When it’s safe, I know you’ll have it to live the life you want. I forgive you.
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