The Atonement (The Arrangement, #3)

by Kiersten Modglin

I was disappointed—no, not a strong enough word—I was furious with myself for ever letting a man—a monster—control me. For ever letting him make me think my only choice was to do whatever it took to keep him in my life. For ever letting him believe I was something less than whole without him.

There are few things that appear stronger than a woman who seems put together.

When the place you’re visiting hasn’t changed a bit, but you have. When you’re so different from who you were the last time you were there—be it a day or ten years ago—that nothing feels right or normal or familiar anymore.

Life never stopped, did it? Not even when your world was ending.

“Sometimes things just don’t work out. Sometimes people are more broken together than they could ever be apart.”

“You know, you say you know what this feels like, but if that’s true…you’d have to be the most selfish person on the planet to do it anyway.”

I chose to believe I was the exception, but we’re never really the exception, are we? None of us.

There was a freedom that came with that. That came with burning it all down and rebuilding. Handpicking every part of your life, every person in your life.