“How did he take it?”
“He said he understood.”
Emma looked down at her arms.
“I think he really is trying to change.”
“He might be.”
“But I don’t have to be his girlfriend just because he’s changing, do I?”
“No, honey. You don’t.”
She let out a long breath.
“I think that’s the hardest part. I want him to be okay. I want him to stop feeling ashamed of himself. But I don’t want to go back to being afraid that he’ll say something like that again.”
I took her hand.
“You can wish somebody healing without making yourself responsible for providing it.”
She leaned against my shoulder.
For the first time, I felt that she was beginning to understand the difference between loving somebody and sacrificing her own sense of worth to keep them close.
That evening, Daniel found Emma sitting at the kitchen table, working on her art assignment.
