“I’m sorry for bringing you to Gray Wolf,” he says. “I’m sorry for all of it. But while I could pretend I didn’t have a choice, in the end, you and I both had a choice. And we made the same one.”
I’m about to deny it, to list all the ways he’s wrong, when he lifts a hand as if he begs to be heard. I bite back the words.
“Technically, we both could’ve walked away. But in the end, we chose a better life for a parent, and a different life for us.”
I close my eyes and breathe in the night. There’s no point in disputing a truth that’s so plain to see. I obviously chose the route that landed me here.
When I open my eyes again, he’s tucking the jasmine blossom behind my ear. “Leonardo is right,” he says. “About darkness and light. All the blooms in this garden instinctively turn toward brightness. It’s a lesson for all of us.” His gaze, like his words, cuts right through me. “It’s not all bad here, Tasha. In some ways—most ways, really—it’s spectacular. So much better than you can even imagine.”
“And the dark parts? The not-so-spectacular parts—like being trapped here, unable to leave?”
“You can leave,” he says. “You just can’t go home.”