And Grace, in a single sentence, had freed her of that fear.

Forgiveness and reconciliation were two entirely different things, and the great mistake people made was to confuse them, to believe that if you forgave someone you had to take them back, and therefore, terrified of taking them back, to refuse to forgive at all, and carry the poison of the grudge forever rather than risk the door.

But they were separate.

Forgiveness was something Emily did for herself, a setting-down of the anger so that it stopped weighting her own heart; it required nothing of Andrew and obligated her to nothing.