Invisible || h.s.

7: James Bond

[edited]

_________

Julia,

I'm really sorry about leaving without as much as a word of goodbye, but please know that I'm happy and safe. Last month, I met someone. He's a good man, and thanks to him, I am experiencing what it means to fall in love for the first time. 

I know it must be hard to accept that I left with someone who's essentially a stranger to me, but I promise that you would have liked him, too. You're the one who taught me that sometimes there is no choice but to follow your heart, and this is me doing exactly that. 

As you're reading it, you must be wondering why I'm writing this letter instead of saying all this to your face. Well, the truth is: Robb would have never let me go. 

There are some things about him that you don't know; painful things I've been hiding for years. Being an orphan isn't easy, and as much as you welcomed me in your home with open arms, I was scared no one would believe my words. The thought of ending up abandoned once again, just like I'd been by my real father, terrified me. 

Today, I'm starting a new life. Free from Robb, and all the anger, fear, and shame he'd made me feel over the years. I'm picking up the pieces and moving on.

At the bottom of my wardrobe you'll find a box with my journal in it; I want you to read it. You may not believe it at first, or even choose to deny it, but everything I wrote there is the truth. 

Please don't blame yourself after you read it, Julia. It wasn't your fault. You were the best thing that's ever happened to me and I consider you to be my mother. Robb's the one responsible for everything—he and my weakness. Had I been braver, I would have told someone. 

The truth will hurt at first, but I decided to reveal it because you have to move on and let him go. Please leave him, Julia. Don't stay with that monster.

I hope that one day, once we both let go of the painful past, we can meet again. We will go to our favourite spot near the lakes, sing campfire songs all night, and forget about the things that once divided us. 

Just you and me.

I love you always, 

Hope

As I sat in the car waiting for Harry to come and get me, I stared at the letter in my hands wondering whether I should leave it that way or change it.

When I had first started writing it, I most certainly did not expect my confrontation with Robb to turn out the way it did. It was supposed to be nothing more than a brief note informing Julia that I'd decided to run off with a man, but it had since become more of a confession. 

It dawned on me that I couldn't leave this town with a clear conscience, not before telling Julia the whole truth first. I couldn't carry on knowing that she would continue to live side by side with a monster, completely ignorant to the fact that the man sleeping in her bed each night was someone who had abused her foster daughter for years. That, in turn, prompted me to reveal everything, although I quickly realized that it had now become pointless considering Robb was dead. Killed by my own hand, too.