Finally Mine Quotes
"This was necessary, she reminded herself, running her hands down the front of her white t-shirt, wincing when she brushed bruises. Life and death. Hers."
"It was spring. Early enough that she could still feel a few curling tendrils of winter in the air. Spring meant new beginnings."
"You can do this," she whispered. With a shaking hand, she pulled the thick wood door open, ignoring the purple welts around her wrist."
"Gloria swallowed hard. 'You can do this,' she whispered."
"She stepped through the doorway and into her future."
"She put an empty table between them, the hair prickling on the back of her neck."
"I'm leaving," she said quietly. "I'm leaving, and I'm not coming back, and if you ever touch me again, I'm going to the police."
"She fought against his hold. It always started the same, that hand wrapping its way around her upper arm and choking the blood out of it."
"You belong to me, Gloria Parker. You don't get to leave. Ever."
"I don't have to love you. I own you," he hissed.
"Her air was cut off. She felt the pressure build in her head, watched the black creep in on the edges of her vision."
"Today you're not a victim. Today you're a survivor."
"He wanted every last one of those things with Gloria Parker."
"She's good. Real good. Stopped in to see her yesterday."
"There was a special place in hell for people who abused the innocents of the world."
"It’s nice to see her smile," he said quietly.
"He was always tagging after me, shadowing me, worshiping me."
"Rumor has it, she moved out and is pressing charges."
"Since I heard her sing in the high school musical."
"Backbone runs in our family. It did not skip a generation."
"He’s manning the grill. Claims Luke only makes charcoal burgers and blackened chicken."
"You must get used to making your own decisions again."
"Everything is going to be just fine, Gloria Parker. You wait and see."
"She needs her fucking parents, but they’re dead. She’s got no family. Just scars from all those years in foster care."
"I can’t even remember those dreams. What does someone do without dreams?"
"You’re not some dainty blossom waiting to be crushed, honey. And eventually people will see that. Be patient with them…and yourself."
"You can learn them, can’t you? And I can be patient until you get your feet wet."
"I don’t want to disappoint anyone. I’m still half convinced I’ll fail."
"Be beautiful. Be fun. Be busy. Be excited. Be you. Everyone else will eventually catch up."
"Talk to yourself like you’re your own best friend and those other voices will leave you alone."
"I think ‘poor little Gloria Parker’ bothers me because that’s how I see me. And I don’t know how to see me without someone else in the picture…"
"It took backbone to leave. It took backbone and more than a bit of recklessness to want to confront him."
"Things didn’t have to be perfect to be attractive or interesting."
"I can change that voice. When I remember. When I can take a step back and remember that it’s not the truth whispering around my brain."
"She had been an organizer in school. She’d once loved the neat and tidy coordination of tiny details into one big, cohesive picture."
"I sure as hell don’t have time," Combover announced.
"Gloria rose as if pulled by puppet strings. "I’ll do it," she announced loudly."
"Afghanistan. Seven thousand miles from Benevolence."
"But over the years, he’d learned to embrace the discomfort. It made going home all the sweeter."
"Deployment could be boiled down to this: mind-numbing tedium punctuated with a fear for your life that you could taste."
"These soldiers had each others’ backs by the nature of their deployment."
"A good soldier loved the unit, thrived on the discomfort, and pushed all the harder because of it."
"He was fucking alive and strong. And a winner."
"She was giving them something else to think about."
""You’re doing a fine job," Sheriff Bodett said."
"Then he’ll have something to read when he wakes up."
"Let’s start with comfortable clothing. You don’t want to be sitting in a hospital room in stilettos and leather pants."
"How about marriage? You’re not one of those broads who thinks she’s too good to wear a ring, are you?"
"Are you sleeping? What movie should I watch?"
"Don't be nervous. You're just a friend stopping by to see another friend and his super scary mother."
"You get the damn door! I’m on crutches, woman!"
"I want to make a damn carnation horse blanket."
"That’s a fine way to talk to the woman who dropped everything to nurse you back to health."
"It's the happiest sound, champagne being uncorked."
"You're going to be in amazing shape just from bringing groceries home."
"Quit stalling. Run. I'll watch and judge mercilessly."
"Please don’t throw up. Please don’t throw up."
"Sometimes it’s like my mind can’t tell the difference between what’s happening and what’s happened."
"No one is going to think you’re anything other than Aldo Moretta."
"I think I can handle running to the tree and back with two regular legs."
"I’m not nothing. You’d be damn lucky to have me."
"I just want to be left alone," he said quietly.
"There’s never anything wrong with loving someone."
"The thing about a scar? It means we’re healing. It means we’re survivors."
"I’m not going to let you make me feel guilty for not wanting to be beaten for the rest of my life."
"Silence keeps it too powerful... Keeping it a secret that no one else knows gives it this unholy strength. But talking about it? It’s ugly and hard, but it takes the power away."
"Safety doesn’t come from being physically secure, Aldo. I’ll feel safe with a man that I can count on to respect me."
"I stayed in hope and fear, in repeating cycles of both."
"Brain scans show similarities between victims of abuse and soldiers on the battlefield."
"The physical brutality, that was one thing. I could mostly heal from that. It was the emotional side of things. Whittling away at my self-esteem, one snide comment, one accusation, at a time."
"Not everyone has to stay with a man who beats them. Not everyone decides that scraps are good enough for them."
"It was the home of a woman who had depended on her men for everything before being abandoned."
"You’re killing me here. I feel like I’m talking to one of my kids when they were teenagers!"
"I wanted to take something ugly and make it beautiful."
"I can’t help asking: Am I ever going to get away from this?"
"He held me while I slept. Made me feel safe."
"Aren’t we a little early in this relationship to be talking about ‘sharing resources?’"
"We’re dating. You don’t want to be driving around town in a vandalized car. Let me fix this."
"I’m pretty sure you know that’s bullshit, Glo."
"For tonight, I’ll pretend he’s someone else’s brother," Sophie said airily.
"Muscly Italian stud. Aldo would love that description," Gloria thought.
"Aldo is a muscly Italian stud who’s had the hots for Gloria since high school," Harper supplied.
"You must be pretty great," Hannah said. "She really is," Harper agreed.
"I’m trying to take things slow, but boy, is he intense."
"I can’t believe our little Aldo is finally all grown up," Sophie sighed.
"You could have come in through the window," Harper wheezed.
"The only one getting hurt is him if he tries to get anywhere near you," Aldo promised.
"It’s probably nothing. We’re probably overreacting," Gloria told him.
"We were just waiting on pizza, which has no bearing on the situation at all. I’m just nervous, and I’m going to shut up now."
"He never got past Harper. He never got near me."
"My sweet girl," Harper whispered, stroking the dog's fur.
"I want things to be good for you. As good as they can be."
"I want it to be right," he said, wetting his lips again.
"I want you to have the most amazing sexual experience of your life, and I want to be responsible for it."
"You might not know this, but I’m a vain, shallow excuse of a man."
"Please don’t regret this. I don’t think my heart could take it."
"I want to make everything perfect for you. Everything. Every day. Forever."
"You’re so fucking beautiful, Gloria. So fucking everything to me."
"Everywhere that you touch me, you erase something dark."
"She was safe. She was treasured. She was craved."