Nepeta's answer only ended up troubling Rita a bit more. It was entirely possible the photograph was from the past, if she was guessing correctly at what "time compression" was, but that didn't explain the letter. There was no way her parents could have written the letter.

They told her they died in it.

They apologized for it.

"It..." she trailed off and turned away from Nepeta, looking down at her hands clenching in her lap. She tried not to think of the contents of the letter and the smiles on the faces of her parents, but she couldn't help it. Her body shuddered with silent sobs, and some time passed before she started to mutter again.

"It was a letter and a picture." Tears started to leak out, then, running down her cheeks. She lifted her hands to start wiping at them. What bothered her most was probably that she didn't know why exactly she was crying, and that she couldn't stop herself.