“…and Emma felt another small portion of her soul fall away.”

“She watched the stream of hot black liquid fall, and felt suddenly, painfully alive to what she had risked in overthrowing her life for the man walking away into the night with another woman.”

“Laughter was good medicine for the soul, and looking for things to be joyful about had helped Emma through the worst of her grief.”

“I worried constantly. I felt that my son was chipping away at me. This small thing and then that small thing.”

“Before, there had been this small, shiny thing inside her that kept her immune from what was happening, and now she knew it had only been her ignorance, and she felt herself falling into a deep, dark place.”

“A moment passed, perhaps half a second when their faces said what they felt, and then Emma was smiling, laughing, her arms around his neck.”