Chapters (38)
- Cover
- Half Title Page
- Title Page
- Dedication
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Back Ads
- Back Cover
“Lane Kent, you listen to me. If all you see when you look in the mirror are your flaws, then you’ll believe that’s all anyone else will see. You are not broken. You are perfectly made. You have to stop punishing yourself for the way God made you—even for your depression. You need to forgive yourself and take captive those thoughts that you are anything but the woman our Creator designed you to be.” Ms. Byrdie’s soft words reached deep into her soul. “God used Mathias to save you that night for a purpose—his purpose—now fight for the life you deserve.”
“But I don’t deserve it.”
“If that’s true for you, then it’s true for all of us.” Ms. Byrdie brushed the tears from Lane’s cheeks. “He makes all things new. Every morning you wake up is a day you can live in the freedom of knowing God has plans for you.”
“And you believe those plans include Charlie?”
“Huggy and I aren’t the only ones who see the beautiful, courageous woman you are. Charlie sees it too. He cares a great deal for you, and I think he imagines a future with you and Noah in it.”
That light—the one Lane saw in the faces of the customers Ms. Byrdie spoke to—Lane thought she saw a glimmer of it in her own.
TWENTY-SEVEN
LANE’S KNUCKLES TURNED WHITE as she gripped the steering wheel. Ms. Byrdie’s words had breathed new life into her, and the idea that God hadn’t made a mistake . . . well, if that was true for Lane, then it had to be true for Miguel too.
Charlie’s warning to stay away from Miguel lingered in the back of her mind, but she couldn’t ignore the danger Miguel might be in if Sydney’s father, or someone else bent on vigilante justice, found him before the deputies did. Lane’s gut told her they were wrong about Miguel. He was hurting. Like her. And people like them didn’t hurt others—they hurt themselves.
Lane pressed the accelerator and her Jeep sped closer to her destination—the jumping bridge. The place where not too long ago Lane allowed dark thoughts to overtake her, causing her to see suicide as an escape. Ms. Byrdie was right—Lane needed to take captive those thoughts. Focus on reasons to live and choose life. Fight for it.
The Coastal Highway stretched before her and Lane wondered if Miguel was in the dense woodland lining the Ogeechee River. Or would he be on the bridge? Would the deputies know to look there for him—a man on the brink of giving up on life?
POP!