Dear L & E,
I want to apologize for you because I know that you can't do it yourself as you have so much to loose if you did.
My wedding "gift" from Mother was really a gift to you both as she repaid the money you owed me and didn't really give me anything. I know where her heart was in the giving: she felt it was a really big gift to me. But in fact it wasn't as it was my own money that she was giving back to me. You both received a gift of being debt free to me, that's all.
You both knew this, knew it was wrong and yet let it happen because your debt payment was more important to you than doing what was right by me. I know you know this because you said so in so many words.
I can feel by the tone of your emails that you are sorry it happened and that you regret your decision rather than doing what was right. But you still can't say you are sorry.
So I am going to say it for you here:
"I am so sorry my Brother, for not doing what was right on the day of your wedding. I should have stopped Mother from paying my debt to you and considering that payment as a wedding gift. It wasn't. It was a gift to E and I not you. What a horrible thing to happened especially on your wedding day. I know it created a huge amount of troubling feelings for you - and that it soured your wedding night and honeymoon days you spent with M. I know it also affected M's feelings like she didn't receive a wedding gift from our family. It also created friction between you and M as you contracted, didn't feel generous, and didn't want to share Mother's "gift" because you felt it wasn't a gift at all. All of this could have been avoided if I had just done what was right rather than being happy that Mother paid the debt for me. I could have told her to just give you a real gift...and then later on pay off my debt if she wanted to. But no, I did nothing.
I'm also sorry that I felt you were using me. I know the agreement we made and the generosity you showed by giving me so much money. When it grew to such a large sum because of the stock market, I was just overwhelmed by it and forgot the goodness you showed by giving it to me in the first place. I feel ashamed that I thought it was "usery". It wasn't, it was simply our agreement and in fact had the stock market gone the other way, I would have benefited not you. I'm also sorry for the times I was happy that you lost money in the stock market because your loss was my gain. I just forgot how much you cared for me to loan me the money when you didn't have much to loan in the first place.
And I'm sorry for myself that I have so little money and worry so much about my existence that I get consumed by it and forget that you matter so much to me and that I wouldn't want anything to hurt you or not be right for you. I'm sorry I can't just see what is true and follow that rather than being so contracted that I live in my own little world and forget you and your feelings.
I love you so much and I know this has created a deep wound in our relationship that may take years and years to heal. I am so sorry for that as you are my only Brother and deep down the only thing that's true is that I love you. Perhaps if I had the courage to just look and see I could call you and apologize in person to you for what I've let happen. But I just can't. That doesn't mean anything about you or how I feel about you...it just means that I can't do it right now.
I hope you'll understand all this and know that I love you as I always have.
L.