Page 95 of Glass Jawed
Running.
And maybe he was right.
I’m not proud of that.
But I’m not running away from the truth. I’m runningtowardit. Limping, crawling, dragging myself to whatever painful clarity I deserve.
So I reached out to her.
Diana Marie Graham. Sixty-seven. Lives in Dallas, Texas. I found her through a podcast where she spoke about what was done to her—how a man she loved turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. He married her. Slept beside her. Lied through his teeth. And when the operation ended, so did the illusion of their life. She sued the agency. But the case went nowhere.
He never even said he was wrong.
Butshedid.
She turned her pain into something. BuiltThe Purple Box, a not-for-profit for survivors of sexual assault—especially those whose lives were torn apart by deception. She’s raw. Brilliant. Unapologetically furious.
I never expected her to reply to my cold email.
But today, she did. For some reason... she’srespondedtome.
Maybe I don’t deserve that grace.
But I need it.
Because if I don’t face this—if I don’t name what I did—I’ll never crawl out of this grave I dug myself into.
From:[email protected]
Subject: Seeking Perspective
Hello Diana,
I’m someone who has been accused of something that happened to you, too. Like your ex-husband, I deceived someone into a relationship. I wasn’t part of an agency. I didn’t have a mission. But I did have intent—malicious, manipulative, harmful.
You owe me nothing. But I want to understand the damage I have caused to this woman. I don’t want her to carry something that should be mine.
I hope you respond.
Best,
Lucian Vale
My hands tremble as I click open her response.
From:[email protected]
Dear Lucian,
You’re not the first person in your position to reach out. But youarethe first to acknowledge the wrongness of your actions and center the survivor, not yourself.
You didn’t write to absolve yourself. You asked abouther.
This is my calendar link: [link].
