So I did my best each and every day to be the woman I should have been and to erase that part of my life fromexistence.
Erik stayed where he was even though I could see the way his muscles tensed under his shirt. He gave me a few moments to calm down and, maybe, to give himself some space to calm down too. My emotions seemed to affect him quiteabit.
“I can’t tell you how to feel,” he said after a minute. “I know I can’t make you see what I see, but I really wish you could. You’re the smartest person I’ve ever met. You write books that move people so much they’re making a movie franchise out of them. We all make mistakes and if we’re lucky those mistakes teach us how to be better. I really hope one day you stop seeing something that made you who you are as somethingtohide.”
“You don’t get it,” I gritted out between my teeth, my jaw clamped so hard it hurt. Why couldn’thesee?
“Then make me understand. Ineedto understand why you say these things about yourself, Zo. It’s sowrong.”
It wasn’t wrong. It was the truth. A truth I needed to disappear. I would never acknowledge that something good came from Tony. I needed Erik to get this through his head and there was only one way to do that. I had to open my wounds and give him a look inside the mess. So I took a breath and dove into the darkness I spent so much timeavoiding.
“I fell for the good guy act. Hook, line, and sinker. And when I found out the truth, I held ontighter.”