“Rain didn’t make things messy. People did that all on their own.”

Choices are easy when you have nothing to lose.

I can’t spend the rest of my life competing for your attention and coming in last.

I had nothing to fear from my father. Except his disappointment. Which was no small thing.

Wolves go after a wounded deer, it is the nature of the beast.

If you want to disappear, Emily, you can do it most anywhere.

You kids were all in college, and I suddenly saw that I was stuck alone with a man who, all those years later, was still wanting me to be someone I wasn’t.

What she did have, after raising two children, was the equivalent of a PhD in mothering and my undying respect.