The first time he kissed me again, it was outside my front door after an evening spent going through Lily’s letters with Emily. He paused and said, “You can tell me no.”
I looked at him for a long time and said, “I would have to be a complete fool.”
I still do not have a neat label for any of this.
Ryan was the love of my life, then the great wound of it, and now something softer and more honest. Emily is not my daughter, but she is blood, memory, and miracle all tangled together. Lily is the sister I lost before I even knew I had her.
And me?
I am still learning how much of my life was stolen from me.
And as I do that, I am enjoying how full and blessed it feels now.
When one secret unravels your childhood, your family, and the man you thought abandoned you, do you let the shock destroy everything left standing, or do you try to build something honest from the wreckage?
