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Back When She Returned Save as PDF
Chapters (48)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT
  3. CONTENTS
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. THIRTY-ONE
  36. THIRTY-TWO
  37. THIRTY-THREE
  38. THIRTY-FOUR
  39. THIRTY-FIVE
  40. THIRTY-SIX
  41. THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. THIRTY-NINE
  44. FORTY
  45. FORTY-ONE
  46. FORTY-TWO
  47. FORTY-THREE
  48. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“I understand if you don’t have what it takes.” His face broke into a tender smile. “It’s okay, Kate. God loves you like he loves all his children. Nothing changes that.” He pointed to the stairway behind him. “There’s two doors at the top of those stairs, and they’re wide open. Do you know how many people turn back at this point?”

“Really?”

He wrinkled his eyebrows in surprise. “Are you kidding me? Of course.” He motioned to the brick walls surrounding us. “This is a pretty raw mirror of self.” He laughed, and the sound of his laughter removed some of the tension twisting my insides. “I really thought you were one of us, though.” He leaned forward and peeled the matted hair off my cheeks and tucked it behind my ears. I melted into his touch, like being enclosed in the womb. “I always saw you as having a warrior spirit. I’m usually not wrong about these things.”

“I am a warrior,” I said, instantly insulted. I pushed his hand away from my face. Didn’t he know what I’d just done? All I’d been through? I’d walked away from my husband and daughter. I’d never been away from either of them for more than a few days at a time, and I’d left both of them, because I was committed to go to any lengths. Anything. And I loved them like they were a part of my body. If that wasn’t being a warrior, then I didn’t know what was.

He raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“Then let me hear you say it,” he said. He took a step toward me until we were standing chest to chest.

“I am a warrior.”

“Louder.”

“I am a warrior!”

“I want to hear you. That’s not loud enough.”

“I AM A WARRIOR!” I screamed until it cut my throat.

He grabbed me and twirled me around. “That’s what I’m talking about—breakthrough.” Dizziness made the walls move when he stopped. “The chains that bind you are being released now. In this moment, this very moment. I know you feel it too. It saddens me for you to leave it.” He gazed into my eyes. “Once you leave, you will never have this moment again. It’s gone.”

I swallowed the terror in my throat and refused to break his stare. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to stay.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” He reached into his backpack and handed me a paper bag. He tossed two bottles of water on the floor. “This is where you meet God for real.”

SIXTEEN

SIXTEEN

ABBI

NOW