Chapter 15
Five years after David and I got married, we stood in the backyard of our home.
Emma was thirteen now.
Beautiful.
Smart.
Confident.
She’d just been elected class president at her school.
Jake was thirteen too.
Almost as tall as David now.
A star on the soccer team.
They were still the best of friends.
And the worst of enemies, sometimes.
But they loved each other.
That was what mattered.
David and I had built something wonderful.
A life.
A family.
A home filled with love and laughter and honesty.
I was still working at the women’s shelter.
I’d been promoted to director.
Every day, I got to help women who were where I’d once been.
Women who felt broken.
Women who thought they’d never be happy again.
And every day, I got to show them that they were wrong.
That they could survive.
That they could thrive.
That they could build something beautiful out of the ashes of their old lives.
I’d even written a book about my experience.
A memoir.
It had become a bestseller.
Women from all over the world wrote to me.
Telling me my story had given them hope.
Had given them the courage to leave their own toxic situations.
It was more than I could have ever imagined.
Michael was still in prison.
He’d be up for parole in two years.
Emma wrote to him sometimes.
She visited him once a year, accompanied by a therapist.
She’d come to terms with who he was.
What he’d done.
She loved him.
But she didn’t idealize him anymore.
She saw him as a human being.
Flawed.
Broken.
But still her father.
I was proud of her for that.
For being able to love someone who’d hurt her so deeply.
For being able to forgive without forgetting.
Sarah and I had built a tentative friendship.
We talked on the phone once a month.
Got together for coffee a few times a year.
It wasn’t the relationship we’d had when we were kids.
It would never be that.
But it was something.
Something real.
Something built on honesty and regret and the slow, hard work of forgiveness.
Diane had passed away the year before.
Alone in Florida.
Her children had gone to the funeral.
I hadn’t.
I’d sent flowers.
And I’d found myself feeling something I hadn’t expected.
Pity.
For the woman who’d spent her whole life being angry and bitter and cruel.
Who’d died alone with nothing but her money and her regrets.
I didn’t hate her anymore.
Hating her took too much energy.
I just hoped she’d found some peace in the end.
As I stood in the backyard that day, watching Emma and Jake laugh as they chased each other with water balloons, David came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
He rested his chin on my shoulder.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
I leaned back against him.
“I was just thinking about how far we’ve come. How far I’ve come.”
He kissed my neck.
“You’ve been through more than anyone should have to go through. And you came out the other side stronger. Braver. More beautiful than ever.”
I turned in his arms and looked up at him.
“I couldn’t have done it without you.”
He smiled.
“You would have. You’re the strongest person I know. But I’m glad I got to be here for the ride.”
Emma ran over to us, soaking wet from the water fight.
“Mom! David! Jake got me!”
I laughed, wiping water from her face.
“Then you’d better get him back.”
She grinned and took off running.
Jake was waiting for her, water balloon in hand.
David and I watched them.
Two kids.
Happy.
Healthy.
Loved.
Safe.
Everything I’d ever wanted for them.
Everything I’d fought so hard to give them.
David squeezed my hand.
“Are you happy?”
I looked at him.
At the man who loved me for who I was.
At the life we’d built together.
At the children who were our whole world.
And I smiled.
A real smile.
From the bottom of my heart.
“I’m happier than I ever thought possible.”
And it was true.
I’d been betrayed.
I’d been broken.
I’d lost everything.
But I’d found myself.
I’d found love.
I’d found my purpose.
And in the end, that was more than enough.
Justice had been served.
May you like
The wounds had healed.
And I was finally, completely, truly home.
