Chapter 309: To Erasmi
Erasmi sat in the dark library as he looked down at the thick stack of envelopes in his hand. While the others had been given a letter each, his envelope had contained a key to the old man’s locker, where he’d left him a stack of letters.
As he looked down at the yellowed envelopes, he could not help but want to ignore the letters. He’d not planned to open a single letter until Gabe’s warning gave him a pause. Elijah Frost was not one to do things only out of sentimentality. He was an astute and cunning man who always had a motive. And the fact that no one was willing to talk about the letters made it clear that something was fishy.
However, he was not interested in the motive or the result. What he wanted to know was if there was something in the letters that would give him the answers he needed.
With deliberate care, Erasmi gently set the current envelope aside, his attention now focused on the one with the most recent date.
It was from a year ago... when the old man discovered that he had survived...
Erasmi,
When you read this letter, I will have already gone from this world. I know you think I have done you injustice over the years, and I accept all blame but one.
Believe it or not, I was the happiest about your survival. All these years, watching you wither away slowly and surely had been as painful for me as for Demetri.
I write to you now, not to justify, but to offer a glimpse into the depths of my heart, where remorse and love for you reside in equal measure. Erasmi, when I signed that Do Not Revive letter, it had been almost ten years since you had been in that state. Only Demetri and I had been aware of your meagre existence.
Before I explain, take a minute and answer this one question, if it was Demetri in your place, would you have fought as fiercely for him as he did for you? Even while smothering yourself in guilt?"
Erasmi paused as he rubbed his forehead. He did not need the moment. He knew the answer, he would not have given up. In that regard, he and Demetri had been same. But he also knew that knowing you would do it and doing it were very different things. He dare not forget the sacrifices that Demetri had made for him.