I returned his letters without reading the final one

Dear Delyara, My abusive former partner sent letters for years after I left. I kept them all because I thought I might need evidence and because part of me still searched them for the apology that would make sense of what happened. With my therapist and solicitor, I separated what needed to remain for legal records from what I was free to discard. One envelope had never been opened. It arrived five years ago and sat at the bottom of the box because I was simultaneously desperate and terrified to know what it said. Last week, I decided not to read it. I returned it unopened through the appropriate channel with a request for no further contact. Healing did not require hearing his final explanation. For years, he had controlled conversations by deciding when they began and what I was required to respond to. That unopened envelope had become one more conversation waiting for me. I chose not to enter it.