“The day she was born,her grandfather made her a ring of silver and a polished stone, because he loved her already.”
“She glances back before stepping into the alley, and she catches her grandfather looking at her the way he does sometimes--as if she's already gone, as if he's practicing sorrow.”
“She was a fool and he knew it and because he loved her it had made no difference.”
“You can't make someone love you." She held out her right hand to flash a ring with a gaudy stone set in it. "But you can imprison him in a ring for not loving you. See?”
“That he would love her no matter what she told him, and that he was the kind of man who loved her already and would love her forever.”
“His hatred for her was now as solid as the boards he lay on, as the stones ringing the firepit.”