Chapter 17 – Letters Never Sent

**Lakeside Clinic – Julian’s Room**

Sunlight streamed through the open window. Julian sat at a small desk, ink staining his fingertips.

He opened a fresh envelope. Inside was another letter he wouldn’t send.

> *Serena,*

> *You once told me trust is a currency too rare to spend twice. I spent it. Lost it. Gambled your life away with my silence. And somehow, you came back—not to me, but to the world. I won’t ask you to come back again. But I’ll stay here. Learning. Until I’m not a danger to the good I once ruined.*

> —Julian

He tucked it behind a row of others—dozens of unsent letters, dated from every day since the trial ended.

His nurse knocked softly. “Visitor.”

Willow poked her head in. “I brought you something.”

Julian’s eyes widened. “Serenity?”

She stepped in, holding a watercolor of two swans. “Mom said I could call myself that now. Like a new chapter.”

He accepted the painting with reverence. “It’s beautiful.”