Chapter 29 - piper learned that understanding selene did not require making room for her
Piper did not see Selene again for seven years.
She finished college.
Changed graduate programs once.
Worked in publishing.
Moved to Boston.
Hated Boston winters.
Refused to admit Tristan had warned her.
Anna married a quiet man named David who collected first-edition science fiction and knew better than to surprise her by closing doors.
Mara and Tristan married in a courthouse ceremony when Piper was twenty-two.
Piper attended.
Anna attended.
No one called Mara a new mother.
No one needed to.
Selene wrote one final letter when Piper was twenty-five.
Not annually.
Not persistently.
One.
Piper read it.
Selene wrote that the meeting at eighteen had forced her to confront another form of control.
She had believed confession was hers to schedule.
She had waited until Piper asked because she feared criminal consequences earlier.
Then later convinced herself silence protected Piper from more pain.
Another explanation serving Selene.
Another adult choosing when Piper received her own truth.
Selene wrote:
I understand now that even my eventual honesty arrived on a timetable centered on me.
Piper appreciated that sentence.
Then Selene wrote:
I do not expect another meeting.
I hope the absence of one can be something I respect rather than something I wait for you to correct.
Piper folded the letter.
Her partner, Noah, sat across from her.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“Want to answer?”
“No.”
“Then don’t.”
Simple.
Piper looked toward the window.
Snow.
Boston.
Different walls.
Different life.
“Do you think people really change?”
Noah shrugged.
“Some.”
“That’s profound.”
“I’m an engineer, not your therapist.”
She smiled.
Then:
“I think she changed.”
“Does that bother you?”
“A little.”
“Why?”
Because change complicated anger.
Because if Selene became safer, part of Piper’s old brain asked whether she now owed something.
A meeting.
Forgiveness.
Proof she had healed.
Piper shook her head.
“I don’t want her in my life.”
Noah nodded.
That was all.
No:
But she’s changed.
No:
Life is short.
No:
Closure.
Piper felt relief.
Selene’s growth belonged to Selene.
Piper’s boundary belonged to Piper.
Neither one had to invalidate the other.
She placed the letter in the same archive as the others.
Not displayed.
Not destroyed.
Known.
May you like
That was enough.
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