This article contains discussions and descriptions of domestic violence and verbal abuse.

MAJOR SPOILERS for It Ends With Us (2024) and the book It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover!

Summary

• Lily breaks the cycle of abuse by leaving Ryle, showing hope for survivors of domestic violence in the movie adaptation of It Ends With Us.
• Lily co-parents Emerson with Ryle in the book, but the movie changes this to her raising her daughter alone due to Ryle's violence.
• Lily eventually begins a relationship with Atlas, despite Ryle's threats and violent outbursts, leading to a happy ending.

controversial 2016 book by Colleen Hoover, It Ends With Us is a movie that offers hope and comfort for domestic violence survivors. Lily watches her mother go through abuse, thinking she’ll never be in that kind of situation. Unfortunately, she is so primed for violence that she doesn’t recognize the red flags in Ryle before it’s too late.

However, Lily’s pregnancy changes everything, giving her the motivation to leave him so that her daughter never sees domestic violence as normal. Luckily, she has resources and from other characters in It Ends With Us, allowing her to get out of the situation safely – a system many abuse survivors don’t have. After two hours of watching Lily, it’s easy to grow attached to the character. For those who want to know what happens next, Colleen Hoover’s It Starts With Us provides answers. However, this story includes Ryle because the movie and book end differently.

Lily Co-Parents Emerson With Ryle

Lily Doesn't Fight For Full Custody In The Book

For people who only watched the movie, Lily and Ryle co-parenting Emerson might seem confusing. In Baldoni stated this about changing Ryle’s book ending:

“The truth is, from our research and from our partners, we know that the majority of men go back to being abs, and that’s the fact. And then it didn’t feel right to tell a story about a man who was a minority in that, because that wouldn’t be honoring the original intention of why we were trying to tell the story.”

However, the book and its sequel go in a different direction by having the couple raise Emerson as co-parents. In It Starts With Us, Ryle has her one to two days a week without overnights. Lily refuses to let Ryle have overnights until Emerson is old enough to speak so that she can tell Lily if Ryle abuses her. Sadly, Lily never reports the instances of abuse or pushes to have full custody of her daughter. She also doesn’t press charges against Ryle because she wants her daughter to have a relationship with her dad.

If you or someone you love is experiencing domestic violence, please reach out to the domestic violence hotline at 1-800-799-7255 or visit TheHotline.org.

Lily Officially Begins A Relationship With Atlas

Lily And Atlas Go On Secret Dates Before Developing A Relationship

The ending of It Ends With Us – both the movie and book – implies that Lily and Atlas are going to start a romantic relationship. In the movie, she asks if he’s seeing anyone, which is much more subtle. In the book, she directly tells him that she’s ready. However, their path to a relationship isn’t as clear-cut as it seems from It Ends With Us. At the beginning of It Starts With Us, Lily questions whether getting together with Atlas is right. She realizes that her life is messy, so she doesn’t want to burden him with that.

Lily also recognizes that dating Atlas will cause Ryle to freak out. When Lily and Atlas do start to date, Lily tries to hide their relationship from Ryle, afraid of what he’ll do when he finds out. This is an entirely reasonable fear considering he is her ab, and he frequently uses Atlas as an excuse for his actions. Unfortunately, Ryle does become physically and verbally abusive towards Lily after learning about her romance with Atlas. However, by the end of the book, Ryle is awkward and angry but seemingly puts up with Atlas for Emerson’s sake.

Lily Requires Supervised Visits When Ryle Has Emerson After More Violent Outbursts

Ryle Shows That He Hasn't Changed Despite His Claims

Unfortunately, Justin Baldoni’s statement about abs proves correct in the cast of Ryle Kincaid. Towards the end of It Starts With Us, Lily changes the parenting agreement so that Ryle can only see Emerson when he’s supervised. The shift from unsupervised to supervised also comes with the mandate that he attend anger management classes. These decisions were made because, despite claiming he will never hurt Lily again in the first book, he becomes physically violent on multiple different occasions in It Starts With Us.

The first incident of violence from the book is often disregarded because Ryle backed down before hurting Lily. However, when the two go up on the roof to discuss Emerson’s middle name, he intentionally tries to block her only exit, posturing like he is going to hurt her. This incident is still a form of domestic violence, even if it isn’t him hitting her.

The second one happens when Ryle finds two wine glasses at Lily’s house after showing up uninvited and unannounced. He throws Lily against the door, puts his hand around her neck, and slams his hand next to her. The third incident occurs when he goes to Atlas’ restaurant and hurts him.

On top of this, he becomes verbally violent towards Lily on two occasions. The first time, he sends her a barrage of degrading and harassing texts. The second time, he threatens her for reaching out to a lawyer. All of these factors, except for the rooftop incident (which Lily seems to write off), play into Lily’s decision about Ryle seeing Emerson in It Starts With Us. This part of Lily and Emerson’s story is a prime example of why the ending of the movie adaptation of It Ends With Us was right to have Lily raise her daughter alone.

Lily & Atlas Eventually Get Married

Lily And Atlas Get Married Two Years After Getting Together

Though most of the book focuses on the first month or two together, It Starts With Us makes two big-time jumps in the last few chapters, offering insight into how Lily and Atlas’ romance progresses. In Chapter Thirty-Four, it’s six months from the start of the book. Lily and Atlas are looking at spending their lives together, so he asks her and Emerson to move in with him. This makes Ryle deeply uncomfortable, but the two at least pretend to be civil for Emerson’s sake. The book makes another time jump in chapter 37 to the day of their wedding.

Approximately two years after Atlas and Lily start a relationship in adulthood, they are getting married. Josh, Darin, Brad, Theo, and Marshall are his groomsmen. It Starts With Us ends right before the wedding, so nothing is known about their married life. Additionally, the only chapter during this time period is from Atlas’ perspective, so it’s unknown what Lily’s side of the wedding looks like. However, Lily and Atlas staying together is a nice ending for fans of the book and movie adaptation of It Ends With Us, who wanted to see the pair happy together.