I Found a 1991 Letter from My First Love That I’d Never Seen Before in the Attic – After Reading It, I Typed Her Name into a Search Bar

My full name was written in that unmistakable, slanted handwriting.

Her handwriting!

I swear I stopped breathing!

Her handwriting!

I sat down right there on the floor, surrounded by fake wreaths and broken ornaments, and opened it with shaking hands.

Dated: December 1991.

My chest tightened. As I read the first few lines, something in me broke open.

I’d never seen this letter before. Not ever.

At first, I thought maybe I’d misplaced it somehow. But then I looked at the envelope again — it had been opened and resealed.

A knot formed in my chest.

My chest tightened.

There was only one explanation.

Heather.

I don’t know exactly when she found it, or why she didn’t tell me. Perhaps she saw it during one of her cleaning purges. Or she thought she was protecting our marriage. Perhaps she just didn’t know how to tell me she had it all these years.

It doesn’t matter now. But the envelope had been inside the yearbook, tucked on the back shelf of the attic. And that wasn’t a book I ever touched.