He Mocked My Scar, So I Left Him to His Regret Chapter 21

Holden’s package arrived in Melbourne that winter.

There was no gift inside-only a check for twenty-three hundred

dollars and a short letter.

He wrote that the money was what he had taken back from Bianca

three years ago.

After I left, he had never known how to get it to me.

*Lucia, I used to think that if I made you a doctor’s appointment and got your money back, that counted as treating you well.*

*Later, I understood that when you needed me to speak up for

you most, I chose silence.*

*I wasn’t fooled by Bianca for three years.*

*I wanted to believe her, because standing on her side got me more approval from everyone else.*

*I will cooperate with every investigation. You don’t have to forgive me, and you don’t have to reply.*

He didn’t end the letter by asking for another chance.

At last, he had accepted that we would never have one.

I turned the check over to the agency handling the theft complaint as part of the returned funds.

Then I filed the letter away.

Mom asked me, “Aren’t you going to burn it?”

“No.”

I gently closed the drawer.

“I’m not keeping it because I can’t let go.”

“I’m keeping it to remember that some apologies can prove the truth-but they can’t restore a relationship.”

Later, I heard Holden left Mooncrest, too.

Even after losing the honor of giving the graduation speech, he finished university, but he never joined the Mooncrest patrol.

He had once cared more than anything about how other people

saw him.

Now, he had to live with the wrongdoing he’d admitted to and decide for himself what kind of person he wanted to become.

That was his life.

It had nothing to do with me.