Page 53 of Midnight Between Us (The Timberbridge Brothers #4)

Chapter Forty-Eight

Keir,

I didn’t expect a letter.

I didn’t expect anything, honestly.

There was a time I used to imagine you coming back and explaining everything. Telling me why it had to be that way. But you didn’t. You stayed gone, and I stopped asking why because it hurt too much to be stuck in a loop that didn’t offer closure.

But here we are. Again. You, writing from thousands of miles away from here. Silverthorne Bay is beautiful. I’ve been there a couple of times while I was interning at Luna Harbor. Me . . . I’m reading your letter and feeling everything I spent years trying to bury.

I don’t want an apology. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

Not until you know what you’re apologizing for. And maybe, once you do, we’ll both realize it was never really about an apology at all—but about closure.

Yes, the way you left was shitty. Yes, it definitely gutted me.

Yet, I had no idea you . . . what happened between you and your father that night justifies the way you bolted from this town.

But—and I say this without cruelty—that could’ve been the moment you finally asked for help.

By the way . . . what happened to him?

To your father?

It’s something I never let myself ask. Maybe I thought it was irrelevant. Or perhaps I didn’t want to invite more darkness while I was just trying to blend in in town.

I heard your mom died. Sorry about that. She was a hardworking, a brave woman, and . . . I wish I could say a good mother, but I never understood why she never kicked your father out of the house.

That’s their story, and I hope that all of you Timberbridge men write a new one, that is full of love and healing. One that, even when it’s messy, is not hard or brutal the way yours was. Something beautiful, filled with laughter and conversation. Without violence or guilt.

For now, I need to know you’re not just writing because you feel guilty. Guilt doesn’t build bridges, Keir. And it sure as hell doesn’t raise the dead.

Don’t write again unless you mean it.

Sim

P.S. I can attest that Willie is a name they use often. I wouldn’t be surprised if Atlas changed it to Ben just to fuck with you.