The Lies That Bind

by Emily Giffin

Television, I’d discovered in the week since Matthew and I had broken up, had the numbing effect of alcohol without the obvious pitfalls, and it eventually lulled me to sleep, one step closer to the elusive promise of time healing all.

I guess that’s always the case when it comes to intimate relationships. There are some things that only the two people involved can ever really comprehend—and sometimes those things are elusive even to them.

“It’s always fear that holds us back.”

a cautionary tale to always follow your heart, but never stop listening to your head, either.

and I began to learn that the world treats you the way you demand to be treated.

Suddenly, instead of seeing the world in black and white terms, I saw before me a good person who had simply done some bad things. And I was no different. We had both made mistakes and told lies—some bigger than others—but those mistakes and lies didn’t have to define us. We could embrace the shades of gray and begin again, together.