Release Me (New Haven Series #3)

by J.L. Seegars

“Because even when someone is offering you something good, you should always remind them that you deserve better.”

“Which part of what happened this weekend bothers you more? The violence or the fact that it was done in your name? Because I can promise you that I’ll never be violent towards you, but I can’t say that I’ll never be violent for you.”

“I don’t pray, Sebastian,” I blurt out, needing to say something, to lay some part of myself bare to him as a means of reciprocation for his vulnerability. “I don’t pray, but on the rare occasion I find myself in conversation with God, I talk to him about you. Even before we were us, I spoke your name to Him, submitted it to the heavens at the top of a list of the few things in this world I’m thankful for. I don’t believe or trust in anything, but I trust you. I believe in you. And I know that maybe that’s not enough—”

“I see the hurt and traumatized woman lurking in the shadows of your eyes, and I love her. I see the woman I’ll build a future with, and I love her. I see my wife, the mother of my kids, the partner I’ll trust with everything and deprive of nothing, and I love her. I love you. I know everything there is to know about you, and what I don’t know I’ll learn. You don’t have to run from me, Nadia, and you don’t have to be scared. I don’t just want the polished, perfect version of you. I want the broken one too. I want every version of you because every version of you belongs with me.”