It Ends With Us summary with spoilers
Lily Bloom, the protagonist, has moved to Boston after recently graduating from college.
She is contemplating her father’s death when she meets Ryle Kincaid, a handsome, sensitive but stubborn surgeon.
Their attraction is mutual but their opinions about their relationship are quite different.
While Lily wants a serious relationship with Ryle, he wants to keep it casual.
Because of this difference in opinion, they part ways only to meet 6 months later.
The reason for their meeting is Allysa, who happens to be Ryle’s sister and who Lily hires to be of assistance in her newly opened flower shop.
The more Lily and Ryle meet, the more they get attracted to each other.
Ryle thus gives up on his aversion to dating and decides to get into a serious relationship with Lily.
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Alongside this relationship, Lily thinks over her past which was characterized by domestic violence, in which her father abused her mother regularly.
She goes through the journal that she wrote when she was 15. That reminds her of Atlas Corrigan, a homeless 18-year-old teenager.
Atlas and Lily shared a deep relationship in which Lily helped Atlas who had no house to live in and no family to take care of him.
And Atlas gave her emotional support during the deeply disturbing period of her childhood when she had to watch domestic violence in her home frequently.
In the present, the relationship between Lily and Ryle is blossoming.
With every passing day, they are falling even more for each other.
Ryle has even met Lily’s mother and Lily & Allysa have also become best friends.
One night while having dinner with Ryle and her mother, Lily stumbles into Atlas.
Lily is happy to see Atlas after 9 years, he looks well but Lily is unhappy about something.
Maybe after meeting Atlas she feels how far are they from each other which hurts her.
Lily and Ryle’s relationship suffers a dent when Ryle assaults Lily in rage thus hurting her.
When Ryle cools down he apologizes to Lily, comforts her, and tells her that he is not like her abusive father.
Lily convinces herself that Ryle is not like her father and warns Ryle that she would leave him if he ever did it again.
The next day Atlas sees Lily’s wounded eye and deduces that Ryle has physically assaulted her.
He meets Lily in the restroom to talk about the incident where Lily defends Ryle.
Atlas sets a contrast between Lily and her mother who suffered domestic abuse at the hands of her husband.
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Atlas witnessed the domestic abuse suffered by Lily’s mother years ago when he and Lily were together.
While they were having this conversation, Ryle finds them and Atlas attacks him.
Later Ryle asks Lily if she is cheating on him with Atlas to which Lily replies that she only loves Ryle.
Atlas visits Lily’s shop to apologize for comparing her to her mother. He brings a gift to her and leaves his phone number too. Atlas’ visit reminds Lily of her affection toward him.
Lily goes down the memory lane when Atlas used to live in an abandoned house.
She used to provide him with food, and clothes, let her use her bathroom to shower and give him a place to sleep in her room during winter. Their relationship eventually grows from friendship into romance.
Atlas wanted to join the military school and finds a place to stay at his uncle’s in Boston.
When he leaves Lily is heartbroken but she is also happy that Atlas has finally got a place to stay.
On Lily’s sixteenth birthday, Atlas comes back to meet Lily, he promises to find her in the future. At this moment, Lily’s father finds them in Lily’s room and he assaults him so much that Atlas goes to the hospital.
That was the last time when she saw Atlas.
Lily feels disappointed that Atlas never came back to meet her after that incident. But now she knows that Ryle is her future.
Lily meets Ryle’s parents and they decide to get married. Things again go south when Ryle sees Atlas’ number in Lily’s phone.
Out of jealousy he gets disturbed and pushes Lily down the stairs in rage.
Ryle is unapologetic initially and accuses Lily of being disloyal to him but when Lily explains how Atlas came to her shop to apologize and left his number for an emergency, Ryle asks her to forgive him.
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Ryle even asks her sister Allysa to act as an intermediary between them.
Ryle had a brother who he accidentally shot when he was 6-year-old, he explains it to be the reason behind his rage.
Lily is sad when she draws a contrast between her situation with Ryle and the relationship between her father and mother characterized by domestic abuse.
Lily tells Ryle that she would help him but he should let her know when he needs help.
Things seem to fall in place for Lily with Ryle improving upon his sudden rage. But one night, things take a U-turn when Ryle again doubts Lily’s loyalty towards him and hurts her. He does try to rape her as well.
Lily leaves for the hospital later only to discover that she is pregnant with Ryle’s child.
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Dejected, Lily doesn’t choose to go back to Ryle rather she goes to Atlas’ place who keeps her for several days.
Ryle visits her shop sometime after and tells her that he is leaving for England for 3 months. Lily doesn’t want to go back to her apartment and chooses to stay at Atlas’ place only.
Atlas confesses to Lily that he did come back for her after his first tour but as he realized that Lily was already happy in her life, he thought that his life won’t suit Lily.
Atlas confesses his feelings for her as he takes Lily back to her apartment.
He also gives Lily time to sort out her rough situation and hopefully waits for the day when they could get together to start their relationship.
Lily now faces the challenge of telling about Ryle to Allysa and her mother.
She is scared that they both would convince her to take Ryle back.
However, Allysa discovers the friction between Ryle and Lily and confronts her. Lily then tells Allysa the sequence of events.
Allysa advises Lily to leave Ryle which is surprising as Allysa is Ryle’s sister.
Lily also opens up to her mother about the latest sequence of events and gets advice about leaving Ryle from her mother as well.
Lily’s mother draws a contrast between their situations and tells Lily how she grew more tolerant of her father’s abusive behavior. She never wants a similar thing to happen to Lily which is the biggest reason behind the advice of leaving Ryle.
When Ryle returns he comes to know about Lily’s pregnancy. He pleads for forgiveness to Lily but she refuses to take her back.
But she lets him participate as a father during her final months of pregnancy. Ryle is helping Lily now but she is yet to make any decision about their situation and she refuses to make one before giving birth to her child.
After Lily gives birth to a little girl she realizes that she doesn’t want her daughter to grow into an environment of domestic abuse.
Thus, she finally decides to divorce Ryle.
Eleven months later she encounters Atlas when she gives an indication about beginning a relationship with him.
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