She was proud of me, but where had she been when I’d needed her most? Their love had been conditional, and that was no love at all. Holy wow. I let that thought ping around my head, knocking over long-held pillars of assumptions. Maybe it wasn’t love that hurt. It wasn’t love that screwed me over. Real love didn’t have conditions and limitations. People had failed me, let me down, hurt me. But not everyone was like that. Hadn’t Alden shown me compassion over and over? Was what we felt for each other the real deal?
