It Ends with Us

By now, Lily and Ryle are almost living together. She meets Ryle’s parents, who greet her warmly. That evening, Lily and Ryle decide to go with Allysa and Marshall to Las Vegas in order to get married, even though they’ve only been together for around six months.

Lily’s mother is annoyed that Lily got married in Las Vegas six weeks ago. So far, the marriage is going well. She and Ryle are going to meet Allysa and Marshall for dinner when Lily hears two crashes. Ryle has found the number that Atlas left for her in the inside of her phone and called it. Furious, Ryle leaves. When Lily goes after him, he pushes her down the stairs. She wakes up five minutes later, as he’s bandaging her. Lily remembers him pushing her, but he insists that she fell and leaves. A few minutes later, Ryle returns and begs Lily to tell him she’s not being unfaithful. Lily explains that Atlas was concerned about her, given how he saw her at the restaurant, and throws Ryle out. She goes to lie down, thinking that this is “the same bed [Ryle] lays me on when it’s time for him to clean up his messes” (234).

The next morning, Lily finds Ryle asleep on the floor by the front door. He follows her to her car, wanting to talk, but she ignores him. She then finds Ryle talking with Allysa at the shop. Because Allysa tells her “as [her] sister-in-law and [her] best friend give [her] brother a chance to talk” (237), Lily and Ryle head back to the apartment. Ryle tells her about his brother who had passed away when he and Allysa were children. The story he’d told her when they first met about the little boy who’d accidentally shot his older brother was actually about himself; Ryle shot his own older brother by accident. Since then, Ryle has suffered from rages where he blacks out and doesn’t realize what he’s doing. He’s been in therapy his entire life. Ryle means to inform Lily of his past; he states that he doesn’t mean to excuse his behavior.

Upon learning his background, Lily feels torn, recognizing his pain but also his similarity to her abusive father. She tells herself that Ryle is different because he knows he’s wrong and because he had a reason, saying, “I know deep in my heart that I’m doing the right thing. There is so much more good in him than bad, and I’ll do whatever I can to convince him of that until he can see it, too” (244). Lily tells him that she needs him to ask for help when he needs it.