“Katherine stared intently at the cold, hard steel. She knew it would be loaded and that, if need be, there was extra ammunition in the back of the drawer. She would not be one of those girls, the o...”

“Do not be so ridiculous, I can more easily find you someone else. Gripping the bars of his prison so strongly that the bones of his knuckles showed prominently through his pale skin, the monster gr...”

“Kevin looks at me and I know he isnt seeing the little girl I use to be, all pigtails and gangly limbs. He isnt seeing my mothers daughter or even my mother anymore. As his eyes linger over me, sto...”

“He speaks in that strange sports talk, telling me about the start of the new season and asks if I follow baseball. No. I really dont. He assures me if I stay in town long enough I will become a bas...”

“They had pulled me from the hemorrhaging, dying body of my mother and turned me over to the care of the man who was not my father. He had taken me home to their tiny apartment above the old hardwar...”

“Are you all right, he whispered, his lips brushing the tips of my spiky hair. Granted, I knew he was only being discreet so as to save poor Hillary from being reamed again, but my knees didnt know ...”

“Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that youve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you sa...”

“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there i...”

“If we could survive without a wife, citizens of Rome, all of us would do without that nuisance; but since nature has so decreed that we cannot manage comfortably with them, nor live in any way with...”

“When we are at peace within our marriage, the effects can be astounding! We will raise happier children, become better employees, and overall find the joy in life.”

“Some people claim that marriage interferes with romance. There's no doubt about it. Anytime you have a romance, your wife is bound to interfere.”

“Your dad and I have been talking.You need to stop that. The marriage will last longer.”

“Yes, I was scared, vulnerable, and fragile and lived in books more than real life. Yet there was nothing Mom could do to make things easier for me, just worse by grounding me for life at the slight...”

“Your dad and I have been talking.”“You need to stop that. The marriage will last longer.”