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

by Colleen Hoover

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

Society has obviously been worshipping the wrong heroes this whole time because I’m convinced it takes less strength to pick up a building than it does to permanently leave an abusive situation.

Nothing you have done and nothing you could do would excuse any man’s hands on you out of anger. Remember that, Lily. You made the right choice by leaving that situation. You should never feel guilty for that. Pride is the only thing you should feel.”

Marshall

We’d just been two people who helped each other when we needed it and got our hearts fused together along the way.

“I’m going to make a promise to you,” he said. “When my life is good enough for you to be a part of it, I’ll come find you. But I don’t want you to wait around for me, because that might never happen.”

Imagine all the people you meet in your life. There are so many. They come in like waves, trickling in and out with the tide. Some waves are much bigger and make more of an impact than others. Sometimes the waves bring with them things from deep in the bottom of the sea and they leave those things tossed onto the shore. Imprints against the grains of sand that prove the waves had once been there, long after the tide recedes.

Sometimes people think if they love a broken person enough, they can be what finally repairs them, but the problem with that is the other person just ends up broken, too.

I realize in this moment that the hardest part about ending an abusive relationship is that you aren’t necessarily putting an end to the bad moments. The bad moments still rear their ugly heads every now and then. When you end an abusive relationship, it’s the good moments you put an end to.

Lily

My loyalty is to the people who bring positivity into my life. My loyalty is to the people who want to build me up and see me happy. Those are the people I’m going to make decisions about my life for.

I’m going to continue doing the best I can, and that’s all I can do. I may not have made all the right decisions in the right time frames, but the fact that I found the courage to make those decisions at all is what I’m going to keep focusing on.

There’s this toxic belief that family should stick together simply because they’re family. But the best thing I ever did for myself was walk away from them.

I do that a lot. Mentally note significant things that are clues my life is finally getting back to normal. I don’t do it as often as I used to, but that’s a good thing.

I even felt a desire to make something of myself because you were the first person I ever wanted to become something better for.

I smile when he says that. “Yes. That’s exactly what I meant. Do you need me to come home and give you a hug?”

We don’t focus too much on what isn’t working out in our lives. We focus on what is, and there’s a lot to be grateful for. The

“It feels good knowing the men in her life can at least pretend to get along for her sake.”

“What a magnificent place for a garden,” my mother says. “You think he chose this place on purpose, hoping you’d come back into his life?” I shrug. “I was actually wondering that myself, but I didn’t want to assume.”

“Atlas. Come on. I’m trying to help you. For all I know, you probably end them with something like, It is my wish for you to be my fish.”

And then, like a miracle, I was given the opportunity to fall in love with you all over again. Two times in one life.

All things considered, the fact that I made it here, that we made it here, to our wedding day, is quite frankly more than I ever dreamed I would get out of life. One breath, one kiss, one day, one year, one lifetime. I’ll take whatever you’ll give me, and I vow that I will cherish every second I’m lucky enough to spend with you from this moment on, just as I’ve cherished every second I’ve ever spent with you before this moment.