It starts with us

Once Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, settled into a consistent routine of caring for their daughter, Emerson,

Lily meets her former lover, Atlas, by chance, two years after their last meeting.

Atlas is filled with joy, thinking that the time has come for them to give themselves a real opportunity to exchange love.

He offers Lily a romantic date.

Lily’s enthusiasm soon gives way to her sense of dread and anxiety.

She remembers that her ex-husband, Ryle, still occupies an influential place in her life.

Maybe Ryle wouldn’t like Lily dating any other man but him.

But Atlas Corrigan remains precisely the man whose presence in the lives of his ex-wife and infant daughter will not be tolerated.

The chapters of the novel Beginning with Us are narrated from the viewpoints of Lily and Atlas alternately, giving the reader a deeper look into Atlas’s past life.

While he reconnects with Lily and rekindles the love story that brought them together in their teenage years,

Meanwhile, he tries to show her the ways of her ex-husband, who is ready to explode at any time

Which he sees in Atlas as an effective reason for his divorce from Laila.