It Ends with Us

‘At least he didn’t beat me this time. This wasn’t so bad.’
”
She brings the napkin up to her eyes and says, “Every incident chips
away at your limit. Every time you choose to stay, it makes the next time
that much harder to leave. Eventually, you lose sight of your limit
altogether, because you start to think, 
‘I’ve lasted five years now. What’s five
more?’
”
She grabs my hands and holds them while I cry. “Don’t be like me, Lily.
I know that you believe he loves you, and I’m sure he does. But he’s not
loving you the right way. He doesn’t love you the way you deserve to be
loved. If Ryle truly loves you, he wouldn’t allow you to take him back. He
would make the decision to leave you himself so that he knows for a fact
he can never hurt you again. That’s the kind of love a woman deserves,
Lily.”
I wish with all my heart that she didn’t learn these things from
experience. I pull her to me and hug her.
For whatever reason, I thought I would have to defend myself to her
when I came over here. Not once did I think I would come over here and
learn from her. I should know better. I thought my mother was weak in
the past, but she’s actually one of the strongest women I know.
“Mom?” I say, pulling back. “I want to be you when I grow up.”
She laughs and brushes the hair from my face. I can see in the way she
looks at me that she’d trade spots with me in a heartbeat. She’s feeling
more pain for me in this moment than she ever felt for herself. “I want to
tell you something,” she says.
She reaches for my hands again.
“The day you gave your father’s eulogy? I know you didn’t freeze up,
Lily. You stood at that podium and refused to say a single good thing

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about that man. It was the proudest I have ever been of you. You were the
only one in my life who ever stood up for me. You were strong when I was
scared.” A tear falls from her eye when she says, “Be 
that
girl, Lily. Brave
and bold.”

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