“I don’t want to be angry anymore, Belle. I have been for so long. Because I thought it was a way to insulate myself from the memories. It never worked, though. It just made me too proud to do what I should have a long time ago.” Belle, not Marian. I drop my gaze, afraid to hope. “Which was?” “To swallow my bloody pride and come find you. If I had, I would have known Zachary. Been a part of his life—and yours. Instead, I wallowed and drank too much and wrote books that turned out the way I wish we had.”
ah! he came to it on his own! he put all the onus on her to find him but he's right and I'm glad he admitted that he could have looked for her too
