Lemonade

no scandal is worse than a life spent with a violent man.

“I swear to God, Anna. Let me hug you and kiss you only for a few minutes . . . just a few minutes . . . You can’t imagine how much I need it.”

Could she? Could she accept to be touched by such a heinous man, willing to threaten her family—a family that loved him and welcomed him every night like a son? Could she please a man who routinely crushed the weak and innocent, as Daniel had revealed? Could she satisfy a man who on a July afternoon had thrown her in the grass, violating her dreams, raping her memories? With his mouth on her cheek and his burning heat against her, she wondered, Can I do it?