The Eleventh Letter
Dear Lily, I dreamt of you yesterday. Finally, your presence appeared in my sleep after so many nights of absence. But even though it was you, something about the way you moved and looked felt unfamiliar, as if the version of you I saw had been changed by a life I no longer had access to. In that dream, I found myself in your home, visiting you just before your wedding, which was only a month away. That was also the first time I saw your future husband, he was there too. You were visibly distressed, but not in the quiet way I’ve known you to be. There was something storm-like in you, a sharpness in your voice, as if you had been carrying too much for too long and had finally let it break. I wasn’t sure whether I had arrived at the wrong time or if I simply did not belong there at all. From the fragments I overheard, you told him he had betrayed you more than once. And this time, with your sister. I stood there frozen, not knowing where to place ...