Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

R E D E E M I N G L O V E
I can’t do it.
Yes, you can.
I don’t want to.
Fool! You want to end up like your mother?
Michael studied her. She looked pale, small beads of perspiration breaking
out on her forehead. “What’s wrong? Are you feeling ill?”
Tell him and get it over with, Angel! It’s what you really want, to
make him let you go now while you can still bear it. If you wait, it’ll
only hurt worse. He’ll cut your heart out and carve it up for dinner.
“I’ve never told you the worst I’ve done.”
His shoulders stiffened. “It’s not necessary for you to confess everything.
Not to me.”
“You ought to know. You being my husband and all.”
“Your past is your own business.”
“Don’t you think you should know what sort of girl you’ve got living
with you?”
“Why the attack, Amanda?”
“I’m not attacking. I’m being honest.”
“You’re pushing again. Pushing hard.”
“You should know that—”
“I don’t want to hear it!”
“—I had sex with my own father.”
Michael let out a sharp breath as though she had punched him hard. He
stared at her for a long moment, a muscle jerking in his cheek. “I thought
you said he walked out of your life when you were about three.”
“He did. He came back into it later, when I was sixteen.”
Michael felt sick. God. God! Is there a sin this woman hasn’t committed?
No.
And you ask that I love her?
As I have loved you.
Why had she done it? Why couldn’t she keep some burdens on herself?
“Did it make you feel better to throw that in my face?”
“Not much,” she said dully. She turned and headed for the house, sickened
at herself. Well, it was done. Finished. She wanted to hide. Her strides
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