It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2)

by Colleen Hoover

I give myself one last look in the mirror, but all I see is an exhausted, overworked single mom.

My choice helped me realize that sometimes the hardest decisions a person can make will most likely lead to the best outcomes.

The guilt is always followed by doubts like, Am I being too hard on him? and What if he really has changed?

I didn’t know how rare men like Atlas were, so I didn’t know how lucky I was to have him in my life.

Hearing him call my daughter the best thing to ever happen to me makes me damn near melt. I hug myself and hold back my smile. “You’re going to make this difficult for me, huh?”

“Jealousy doesn’t have an expiration date, apparently.”

I didn’t save him. All I did was fall in love with him.

I don’t know if every move I make is the right one, but I’m doing my best. I don’t need his manipulation and gaslighting on top of that.

I can’t afford to allow anyone to break me anymore. I have a daughter I need to be whole for.

“I don’t need compliments. You’re naked and in my bed. Not much else you need to do; you won me over years ago.”

“I can draw a seedling with two tiny branches. Yours and mine. We’ll be on our own brand-new, tiny family tree—one that starts with us.”

Life to me had always felt like a burden I had to bear.

She spent years with a man who left her no voice, so I’m sure it’s been hard for her to learn how to use it again.

The purpose of a vow is to make an intentional promise that is witnessed, whether it’s witnessed by God, or friends and family.

If half of all marriages end in divorce, that would mean half of every set of vows ever made have ended up broken. How do we ensure we’re not one of the couples who becomes a statistic?

If it’s my destiny to end up a statistic, there’s no one else I’d rather become a statistic with than you.

It’s you and me, Lily. In good times and bad, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, in the past and for forever, you are my favorite person. Always have been. Always will be. I love you. Everything that you are.