This is a note I left for Elio as I approached the end of my life, a form of reconciliation with the past.

“Elio, by the time you read this note, I will have already be gone. I’ve loved you since high school, and when you proposed to me back then, I was overjoyed. I thought my unspoken love had finally been answered. I knew you didn’t return my feelings, but I believed that my love for you was enough. I thought you would eventually understand it. Yet, I never imagined we would end up like this. Your constant defense of others and your doubts about me have left me...