Page 79 of The Monster I Loved
I had an important appointment.
Forgetting everything that happened in the past just wasn’t an option for Summer and me. Every time I stopped by her house, I remembered the night I’d ended Clive’s life. And, more than likely, she recalled the last time she saw my mother when she entered mine. That was why I accepted her invitation to do a therapy session with her. While I’d been the one to suggest Summer had therapy, I’d never wanted to sit and talk to anyone about my feelings. There was a therapist in prison who kept offering his services, but I was adamant. “I don’t lose sleep over killing Clive.”
“Not even the people you hurt as collateral damage?” the therapist had asked.
Back then, I pretended his words hadn’t affected me, but I remembered Summer screaming, her blood-covered face, and then I’d ordered Henry to manipulate Eden to connect her with a therapist.
All these years later, I found myself making my way to that same therapist’s office to meet Summer there. Life was stranger than fiction every day of the week.
Twenty minutes later, Marni Rosenblatt stood before me, smiling and ready to crack my thoughts wide open in the comfort of her floral-scented office.
“Come in, Thad, and let me congratulate you before we start,” she said, reaching for a pen and pad. I could just imagine how many pads Summer had filled over the years because of me killing her father.
“Thanks,” I said, looking around.
When I sat, Summer frowned. “What?”
“Normally, I lie back, but I can’t if you sit there.”
Marni giggled, but I didn’t get the joke. “Should I sit somewhere else?”
“Summer, can you share your couch and life with Thad, or would you like to be all alone?”
Rolling her eyes, Summer sighed. “Fine, you can sit here.”
I was about to question whether she meant it when Marni jumped right in. “Thaddeus, do you still believe in an eye for an eye?”
I thought carefully about my answer. Summer and I were making progress, and I didn’t want this to turn into another argument. “That’s the past.”
The woman didn’t let up. “You have to examine the past for you to both move forward.”
I swallowed. “My feelings on the subject haven’t changed.”
Marni nodded. Summer’s chest deflated beside me.
“I’m sorry, but I’m just not about to sit back and let the people I love get killed. If someone did something to my child or Summer, I’d react the same way.”
The silence in the room was deafening. “I know now how much I hurt Summer, and that wasn’t my intention. However, does anyone really understand how difficult forgiveness is?”
“Yes, I do, but I’ve forgiven you,” Summer blurted out.
This was news to me, and from the look on the therapist, she’d also never heard it before.
“Have you really?” Marni confirmed.
Summer nodded. “I have. My dad, even Gina, wanted us to be together, and we love each other. I’ve forgiven you, even though you’d never ask for it.”
Hearing the words from her mouth eased my tension, if only slightly.
Smiling, Marni looked at me. “Can you forgive Clive?”
I chewed my lip. “Maybe with more time.”
Summer took my hand and patted it affectionately. I wasn’t lying completely. Who knows what would happen down the line? After ten years, I forgave Summer. Maybe after another twenty, I could manage to forgive her dad. It was highly unlikely, but not impossible.
“Well, it’s a start,” Marni said.
For the rest of the session, we talked about our time apart, how we’d both loudly proclaimed hate or disgust over each other, but secretly loved the other, although we hadn’t realized it. Before I knew it, the session was over.
