The Wish Collector

by Mia Sheridan

“I believe everyone deserves grace, Clara. What you will have to ask yourself is if you should offer that grace from near or from afar. Offering grace does not mean offering your heart. That, my darlin’, must be protected at all cost.”

“Because everyone deserves to tell their own story in their own voice, and I know I stayed away for a little while and I’m sorry about that, Jonah. I needed time to process, but I hope you trust me enough to share your version with me. I’d like to listen.”

Had he hoped she was unattractive so she might want to give someone like him a chance? To kiss him again, only the next time with nothing between them? And was he really so insensitive—so superficial—that he thought unattractive women had to settle for disfigured men like him anyway? Or that people loved each other based only on looks? Then again, why shouldn’t he? Hadn’t he chosen women solely on their physical characteristics once upon a time? Hadn’t he been proud to enter a party or a restaurant with some beautiful woman on his arm that he’d replace with a new one once things grew stale as they inevitably always did?

“It’s always about you, Jonah. It’s always been about you. The world will react the way the world will react. That’s not your business. You have faith in your own worth and the world won’t matter.”

He could have asked her to keep coming to Windisle. He wouldn’t have to wear a mask anymore, not now that she’d seen him and accepted him for what he was. Maybe he could even go to her sometimes in the dark of night. But what kind of life was that? And what kind of bastard would he be if he asked her to accept it?

“It’s not easy,” Ruben said, sitting up on the couch and gesturing to his own marred face. “Wearing your mistakes and regrets on the outside where others can judge them. But, man, the problem is not that others judge you harshly, it’s that you believe what they say.”

They’d both been so busy trying not to be their father, and trying to be their father, that neither one had figured out who they were as individuals. The sadness of that, the true regret, the wasted time, was a knife to Jonah’s heart. But maybe it wasn’t too late.

"He picked her up. They were laughing and crying and he swung her right around, and they disappeared together into the mist. Oh Glory

Legendary love story😍