Two years of thinking she'd chosen silence. Two years of believing she'd moved on, found someone better, decided I wasn't worth the wait. And she thought the same about me.
"Nate."
Ollie's voice pulls me back.
He's standing beside me, face pale, looking like he's carrying something heavy and isn't sure how to put it down.
"Can we talk?"
We walk past the lights,the laughter, the celebration, until the lake hums softly beside us and the music is just a distant murmur.
"There's something I need to tell you."
I turn to face him. "Are you okay?"
"No." His voice is strained. "Because you're probably going to punch me after I tell you this."
"Tell me what?"
"She never got your letters."
The words land slowly, carefully, but they still hit like a fist to the gut.
"What?"
"The letters you wrote, the ones you sent every week for like two years? She never got them."
"You knew?" My voice is low.
"I made sure of it."
The admission hangs between us.
"You—" I can't finish the sentence because I can't process it. "You kept them from her?"
"She was falling apart when you went to rehab," he says, and there's desperation in his voice now. Guilt. "Nate, you didn't see her. She couldn't eat. She couldn't sleep. She'd lost Dad, then Jake died, then you left, and she was just breaking."
"So you decided she couldn't handle hearing from me?"
The anger is building now, hot and sharp.
"The first few letters came when she was completely spiraling. She locked herself in her room for days and wouldn't talk to anyone. Mom was worried and I was fucking terrified."
"So you took them."
"I was trying to protect her." His voice cracks. "You were fighting for your life. She was trying to build a future. I didn't want either of you dragged backward by this impossible situation where you both wanted each other but couldn't have each other."
"That wasn't your choice to make Ollie.” My whole body is rigid. "Those letters were mine to send and hers to receive. You had no right?—"
"I know!" Ollie shouts. "Don't you think I know that? I've carried this guilt for two fucking years. But I saw what losing you did to her, Nate. I saw how much pain she was in. And I thought if she could just move on, if she could just heal without the constant reminder of what she couldn't have, maybe she'd be okay."
I look across the lawn.
At Nora laughing with Liam. At the life she's built without me and that same aching pain that once numbed me completely, surfaces again.
"She looks happy."
"She is happy," Ollie confirms.
