I am so sorry for making you feel, all these months, like I didn’t trust you, like I was shutting you out.

You are the best mother anyone could ever have asked for, and the thought of leaving you, of leaving you alone with all of this, breaks my heart more than I can say.

I lied to you, the letter went on, because I was trying to protect you.

That is the only reason.

Not because I was ashamed, though I was, and not because I didn’t trust you, because I trusted you more than anyone in the world.

I lied because the truth was dangerous, Mom, and the less you knew, the safer you were.