But I’m here, aren’t I? Me, the woman who hasn’t let a man get past a second drink in five years. I still sleep with the lights on, for God’s sake, but I came here, despite the fear and the memories that haunt me day in and day out. I showed the f**k up for something that terrified me, on the mere sliver of a chance that there might still be a happy-ever-after hidden in the shadows.
If I can do it, he can damn well do it, too.
His father murdered his mother in cold blood and then buried her in an unmarked grave, and their son saw it all, and yeah, that’s about as horrible as things get. But a stranger stole my body and my innocence from me, and in a sick f*****g way, stole the greatest blessing of my life from me, too, so it’s not as if I’m not speaking from experience here. We both arri
