The Last Letter

by Rebecca Yarros

“Sometimes you have to leave so you can know what it is you left. You don’t really value something until you’ve lost it.”

“We attack it immediately and without mercy. We start with chemo, and we move forward. We fight. She fights. And when she’s too tired to fight, then you do what you can to fight for her, because this is an all-out war.”

I’ll save you a seat on the other side, brother, but take your time. Take every single second you can. You are the only brother I would have wished for, and my very best friend. And just in case no one ever told you—you’re worthy. Of love. Of family. Of home.

“She looks like such a docile little thing. You’d never guess she’d be capable of ripping someone apart.” “She’s like any other woman in that regard, ma’am.”

“Like someone picks up your life and shakes it like a snow globe,” Ella offered. “It seems to take forever for the pieces to settle, and then they’re never in the same place.”

“Don’t let go,” she whispered. Her hands were still between us, but she wasn’t pushing me away, they were simply resting on my pecs. If anything, she leaned in. “I’d forgotten what this felt like.” “Being hugged?” My voice was sandpaper-rough. “Being held together.”

“Play my position, show no fear, and tonight we dine on the souls of our enemies!”

As you get bigger, you’ll see that it’s not how you handle the wins that make you a good man, it’s how you handle the losses.”

We are imperfect people made that way by an imperfect world, and we don’t always get a say in what shapes us.