Page 45 of The Atonement
And then I’d met the monster.
Foolishly, I’d believed I could save the loving part of him, despite the monster’s powers, but now…now, I knew differently. The evil inside my husband was never just a part of him. It was all of him.
His love was meant to wield power over us all.
And I’d almost let him win.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
PETER
We drove hand in hand as if nothing bad had ever happened between us. As if the past few days and weeks had been merely a nightmare. Maybe one day, we’d look back and think that’s all it was.
A guy could dream, anyway.
“The kids will be so excited,” I said after a long while of riding in silence.
“Mhm,” she agreed halfheartedly.
“I know you’re worried. I get it, I really do. But I promise you, you’re going to be so impressed with how much I’ve changed. I told you once before that you fixed me, but maybe that didn’t stick. Now, though, this time it really worked. You scared me straight, Ains. I’ll never, never hurt you again.”
She nodded, then looked over at me and spoke with a soft voice, “How can you be sure?”
“Because I thought I’d lost you,” I said with an exasperated sigh. “I thought I’d lost the kids. There’s notmuch I’m afraid of in this world, Ainsley, but that tops the list.”
She was silent, but I was winning her over. I could see it in her eyes. I wanted to make her remember who we’d been. Why we were still worth fighting for.
I pulled over when I spied a gas station.
“What are you doing?”
“You’ll see. Wait here.” I stepped out of the SUV and shut the door, locking it behind me just in case. Inside, I found a bag of her favorite chocolate-covered peanuts, two burgers, and a bottle of red wine. At the counter, I paid for the items and made my way back outside, swinging the bag carelessly around my wrist. The pure joy I felt in that moment was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
Everything was going to work out.
She watched me approach apprehensively, and when I opened the door, she was fanning herself with her hand. “You could’ve left the keys.”
I didn’t respond. We both knew why I couldn’t do that.
“What was that about, anyway?” she asked.
I pulled the wine, food, and candy from the bag. “Remember our second date?”
She eyed the candy, then the wine, and pulled them both toward her slowly, lost in thought. “Our reservation was bumped at the last minute because of some big dinner party.”
“Right. And you’d been in class all day…”
“That’s right!” Her eyes lit up. “I was starving.”
“You werestarving,” I repeated, my breathing slowing as I recalled the memory. “So, we left and drove to the first place we could find, which was a gas station.”
She giggled. “All I wanted was a burger and you brought me out a salad.”
“I thought you were going to walk home after that,” I said with a laugh. “It wasn’t my fault, though. I’d never seen a girl order anything but a salad on a date.”
“Salads aren’t meals,” she said, pursing her lips and shaking her head.
“About that, we could agree. It was our firstactualdinner together, and we had gas station burgers and cheap wine, with chocolate-covered peanuts for dessert. And…it was the best date of my life.”
