“Had I forgotten how to cry? Was that possible? In order to survive, I had long since buried my emotions.”

“He didn’t know if his capacity to love had been stunted, buried beneath the need for survival for so long it had forgotten how to breathe....”

“It had been a little over a year since the last murder; moreover it had been a year since I had run as quickly as legally possible from whom I had been. It had taken almost that long to become a legal adult, get the money straightened out and get my name changed. Who was Abigail? Who was Vera? I felt as though I was neither person. I felt like I wasn’t a person at all anymore.”

“Afterwards, as he held me and stroked my hair, my body was singing with pleasure, I couldn’t believe I had waited so long. I thought of how we had wasted a whole year we could have had together and I felt so sad I wanted to cry.”

“I had been walking in silence for so long,I had almost forgotten what my own voice sounded like.My knees were tired;my toes were beginning to ache.”

“I longed to be forgotten in order to be able to complain to myself.”