Written with Regret (Regret #1)

by Aly Martinez

I can’t think of a man less equipped to be a father than you are, but you’ll figure it out. You’re a good man with good intentions. That’s, like, ninety percent of parenting right there.

One day, she’d be a grown woman, holding a baby of her own, looking back on her life. She didn’t have a mother, but I could give her something worth remembering. I could give her a father she wanted to pass on parts of to her children—DNA she could be proud of.

Within a few weeks, Saint Alejandra had my girl on a daytime schedule, which caused her to start sleeping in six-hour stretches at night. It was the most glorious thing that had ever happened to me.

“If you objectively look at life as a whole, it’s a daunting and impossible process. There are just far too many obstacles for one person alone to conquer. The world sucks. People are judged rather than accepted. Hate spreads far more easily than love. Power and money are valued more than morality. Insecurities are preyed upon rather than quelled.”

“Why would any of us want to live like that?”

“Because life isn’t lived as a whole. You aren’t given a hundred years all at once. Time is doled out one very manageable second at a time. Stop looking at the big picture and find happiness in the seconds.”

“We aren’t given a hundred years all at once. Time is doled out one very manageable second at a time. If all you focus on is the big picture and worry about tomorrow, you lose the happiness that can be found in the seconds.”

There’s a reason time only marches in one direction. You can choose any second to start over again.”