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Two years ago, I would’ve laughed if someone had said I’d think those things about myself. It was shocking how fast things could change. How quickly a mind could be twisted. And how long it took to undo that kind of damage.
It didn’t matter that I hadn’t seen or heard from Brendan in almost two years. The routine was ingrained in me now. And it did soothe.
I was alive. I never took those reminders for granted.
Having Brendan destroy so much only made me value what I had now all the more. Moose, my home, my garden, even the tendrils of friendship I’d found with Sutton and Rhodes. I didn’t need more.
Nikki had gotten a bad feeling about my relationship with Brendan. She’d asked careful, gentle questions. And I’d lied like my life depended on it. It wasn’t until after he’d ruined me that I told her most of it. But even then, I hadn’t been able to tell her everything.
“We can’t always see a person’s capacity for evil. But that doesn’t make us culpable. It just means we see the good in those around us.”
“I know what it’s like to live with monsters. Ones you can recognize, and ones you can’t. It changes you.”
There was enough hardship in the real world. I needed hope in my stories.
Shep had parts of me I hadn’t been sure still existed coming back to life. Parts I only remembered when I was reading an especially good romance—one that reminded me there were still happily ever afters out there, even if they were just in the pages of a book.
That was always the problem. I never knew when my mind was playing tricks on me and when it was right and telling me to run.
“Hasn’t anyone ever told a lie about you, but they’re so convincing, you start to believe it yourself?”
“There’s no way he could possibly be happy with everything he did to me. Happy people don’t try to break others down. They don’t try to ruin them. That’s what I’ve realized. He must be absolutely miserable, and that’s the only solace I have.”
“Your heart is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever experienced. Beautiful because it’s been broken. Those cracks let it become something else entirely. Stronger. Wiser. The fiercest defender of anyone who needs it. And the gentlest confidante for anyone who needs understanding. You see it all. And you don’t look away. You come alongside without judgment, and you simply love. You can’t ask me to walk away from that after I’ve experienced it. It would be like living in the sun, only to exist entirely in darkness.”
