It Ends with Us

The next morning, Lily wakes up to Atlas making breakfast for her and they talk about how much Atlas likes cooking. Atlas asks Lily to stay and tells her that while he has to leave for work, he will check in on her. Lily writes an entry in the form of a letter to Ellen DeGeneres, as she had years before. This time, she vents her conflicted feelings towards Ryle and her mother. She feels not only anger at Ryle, but also grief at losing the image she had of him. “It’s a sense,” she writes, “that I’ve lost my best friend, my lover, my husband, my lifeline” (282). She confesses her worry over her future child, given her own childhood and having watched her mother live through her father’s abuse. Lily decides she can’t return to Ryle.

Messages from Allysa, who doesn’t know what’s happened, make Lily feel guilty for being at Atlas’s place. Lily spends time with Atlas, watching the Ellen DeGeneres show like they did when they were teenagers. She apologizes for her behavior in the restaurant when Atlas confronted Ryle. “Deep down,” she tells him, “I knew you were right, but I didn’t want to believe it” (287).