Finding Eden (Acadia Duology, #2)

by Mia Sheridan

It felt like, again, I had woken up to a whole new story and I was a different main character, stumbling through unfamiliar territory, trying to understand my new role and play it well.

That’s our plan because I swear to you, my beautiful, sweet love, everyone deserves a love story that doesn’t hurt.”

Sometimes it seemed so much of the beauty in life resulted from the ugly. And how did you make sense of such things? How could you be thankful for an outcome that had sprung from suffering?

“We all attach things to our hearts, kind of like how I pinned those articles up on the back of my closet door or the way you covered your studio with paintings of me. We attach the things we value, the things we need, the things that make us brave in the face of fear. But maybe…maybe it’s only when our hearts are broken open that those things can fall inside. Maybe it’s only then that those things truly become part of us in a transformative sense, and because of it, we’re more able to understand and recognize pain in others. Perhaps that’s where real mercy comes from. And mercy in a world lacking in it, is the purpose of pain. It’s that light in the darkness.”

Knowledge made me feel powerful and enlightened—it always had. He had given me that gift, so I knew he’d never take it away.

As pretty as a flower…as strong as a weed.