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FORTY-FIVE

Alderney State Penitentiary,

Dear Amethyst,

I lied. Your Rapunzelita story was so captivating that I read the entire manuscript in a day. It ended with a cliffhanger. Have you already started its sequel?

Turning Rapunzelita into the most dangerous person in the story was a work of genius. The final chapter made me reassess my opinion of Dame Gothel. Will Gothel recapture Rapunzelita before the next full moon? I await your reply on tenterhooks.

Please extend my gratitude to the fans. Thanks to them petitioning the warden for humane conditions, I now enjoy a full hour of exercise each morning. There is also a new prison guard to take on the extra workload, and I’m no longer under the control of Officer McMurphy.

The other prisoners on death row are also thankful for the extended recreation time. One of them even provides me with Italian snacks, lovingly prepared for him by his housekeeper. They are quite delicious.

With the new male prison guard, our daily conversations, your beautiful letters, and the home-cooked meals, my time in prison is becoming significantly less bleak. It’s all thanks to you, my love. You’re awakening emotions I thought were long gone.

No, I didn’t get to confront my father. He stopped visiting the academy after I checked out Lolita from its library. The headmaster agreed to pass on messages, but I don’t know if they ever reached him. Even if they did, I suspect he knew his days were numbered.

My father must have known I would piece together the facts. Perhaps he thought he was safe because he held my sisters’ lives in his hands. The knowledge that once I graduated from the academy, they wouldn’t have me to watch their backs made me put aside thoughts of revenge.

The first thing I needed to do before tracking down that heartless, conniving bastard was to extract my sisters. Failing that, I would need to wait four years for them to graduate.

However, that idea crumbled to dust the moment I was in the thick of the academy’s graduation run.

Fan questions:

Your campaign for more humane conditions succeeded. The warden called me into his office to explain that he wasn’t aware of the breach in protocol. He wants to assure the public that the guard in question has been reprimanded, and I can confirm that he has employed an additional officer to watch over the prisoners on Death Row.

I have been to Paris multiple times. Every visit to Europe has a detour in Paris. I was fascinated by the Père Lachaise Cemetery, which is equally as impressive as La Recoleta in Buenos Aires. Most importantly, I fell in love with the catacombs.

Love,

Xero