“The ocean. For miles and miles it stretches, seeming endless. Calm at times, and a ravage monster at other times, swallowing anything it can grasp, clawing at the sides of the lands with its cold, salty claws.But for now it rested peacefully, awaiting the boy who should come sit upon its banks and stare at it with a peaceful mind...”

“That's how I spent the next day and night - dividing my time between my girls. I felt like the go between until the three of us could be together. It was as if I were carrying a piece of one to the other, making them whole, as if we were part of the same soul.”

“I stood to take a few minutes to clear my head when a strangled sob grounded me to the floor. My head jerked up, my eyes desperate to find what I so longed to see. My knees went weak, and I grasped the table for support when my eyes met with the emerald that owned my soul.”

“Maybe now I really understood why Elizabeth had run from me all of these months, why she would never allow herself to believe. A love as intense as the one we shared, one that had not dimmed through years of betrayal but had only grown, was terrifying. We had the power to destroy, to devastate and ruin, to lay the other to waste. But I wasn’t running.”

“I turned to him, wishing for nothing more than to tell him who I was.That I was supposed to be Melanie's husband, not him.That I adored her more than any other creature that had ever lived and always would.That I had every intention of taking her away from him.”

“My body trembled as all the regrets of my life washed through me, my heart feeling as if it were on the verge of failing. My sould cried out for her. It had never stopped its search for her in nine years, and I could still feel her calling for me.”

“It slammed into me so hard it nearly knocked me from my feet. At the same time, it felt completely natural. Inevitable. Simple. I loved her. My eyes dropped closed, savoring the truth soaking my body, my nerves thrilling in excitement while my heat beat with a steady content. I loved her.”