Fate was a reality, but it wasn’t a beautiful or angelic thing. It was a heart-wrenching nightmare. And we’d fallen blindly into it. We had no escape. It was happening, and it was up to me to guarantee our survival of it. (Eric)

I can hear my mom.I can hear her take a deep breath. I hear her pushing words out, and I can almost see her, for a second, the look on her face, her hand pressed to her own heart, the other in a fist."You can go if you have to go," my mom says, and her voice shakes, but she's solid. She says it again, so I'll know. "You can go if you have to go, okay, baby? Don't wait for me. I love you, you're mine, you'll always be mine, and this is going to be okay, you're safe, baby, you're safe-"...And after that? There's nothing.

...when someone is honest and vulnerable, they wring my heart - I want to hug them for being real...

Reunion will come.

Damn it! Are you so stupid you don't know what I'm going to do to you?"Her eyes bore into his without flinching. "Are you so stupid you haven't figured out yet that it doesn't matter?

She reached into the pocket of her dress and threw the small stack of bills at him. They fluttered to the ground like broken dreams. "I hope you choke onevery penny.""Pick that up."She drew back her arm and slapped him as hard as she could.