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“The only thing they would want is for you to be happy.” My throat burned as it worked to hold back a sob. “I know. But sometimes being happy feels like the worst betrayal of all.”
I never used to think happiness could be painful. But now I knew the truth. Happiness was the greatest torture of all because it could all be taken away—and it was so much worse than if you’d never experienced it at all.
Only the last section of each book remained dusted with black flecks from the fire. Because as frequently as I revisited each one, I couldn’t seem to force myself to make it to the end. Of any of them. Something about the endings was too painful, too final, even if they were happy.
This was why I didn’t talk about the past. Because when it got a foothold, it could drag me down and swallow me whole.
Dog looked up at me with pleading eyes. I’d had him for a week, and he still didn’t have a name.
But I knew better than most that the Universe didn’t pull any punches when it came to pain. It could lash out when you least expected it. And take out the most undeserving in its wrath.
“But good can come, even out of those darkest depths. It doesn’t mean we’re glad we went through it. It just means we won’t let it change us for the worse.”
“Sometimes, being the one who’s left behind is the heaviest weight. But it doesn’t mean you stop fighting.”
It was more than that. Anson saw the dark, twisted parts of me and understood them. They didn’t scare him away or make him see me differently. And just maybe, he even cherished those parts because they were part of who I was.
Trace slammed the door of his SUV. “You did not seriously say you are making opium tea in front of me.” Lolli just shrugged. “I’m not selling it. The seeds are legal, you know.”
My eyes burned. “You want to live with me?” “Home is wherever you are,” he whispered. “You’re my sanctuary. Where I feel peace. Where I feel seen. Don’t want anything more.”
