The Other Daughter Quotes
"You shouldn’t have given up. You were right about Russell Lee Holmes. He did have a wife and child. Do you want to know more?"
"Because you get what you deserve, Larry. You always get what you deserve."
"I won’t say a word, baby. I’ll keep it to my grave. ’Cause once there was someone who at least pretended to love Trash."
"I’m looking forward to meetin’ Mr. Satan. I figure I can teach him a thing or two about how to make babies scream."
"You’re gonna die alone, Russell Lee. Maybe that seems okay to you now, but the minute they strap you into Old Sparky, it won’t be the same."
"How do you like Russell Lee? Baked, crisped, or fried?"
"Oh, it’s all taken care of, Digger. It is, it is. Matter of fact, I got me more of a future than you do. That’s what they call irony, ain’t it. Irony. Good word, goddammit. Good word."
"It’s okay. Everything is okay. Everything is fine. Now try it again."
"Trust nothing, that was Larry Digger’s favorite motto. People are stupid was his second favorite."
"I want to go home now. Please, let me go home..."
"You know what the difference between a cardiac surgeon and God is? God doesn’t think he’s a cardiac surgeon."
"I should’ve known my godfather would fly all the way from Europe just to hole up with a beautiful woman."
"They take your blood, Uncle Jamie? Somehow I figured with the life you’ve led . . ." "Ah, I’m a saint, lass. A pure, angelic sort, I swear it."
"It’s not world politics, Jamie. It’s family."
"I wouldn’t do that if I were you." "Well, you aren’t me," she said firmly.
"I’m just so darn flattered," Melanie spat out, and Digger laughed.
"Everyone assured her she would be all right. Everyone told her that her parents would show up at any time and set everything straight. She was well fed, well taken care of. Someone out there most certainly loved her."
"Tell me everything is all right now. Tell me I have a home."
"It’s all right now," she whispered solemnly. "I’ll be your little girl and everything will be all right."
"It’s okay, Mom. I’ll take care of you. I will always take care of you."
"No parents in their right mind would give the child of their daughter’s murderer a home. That’s outrageous."
"What about hypnosis or regression therapy or things like that? Surely my father, as a doctor, had thought about it."
"Little secrets, little moments of privacy. That was all."
"Evil never dies. It just becomes part of the family. Welcome to the real Stokes family, Mel. Welcome home."
"There are nights I find her downstairs, touching that oil painting as if she can feel her daughter’s cheek."
"My father is a fixer, David. He fixes people, he fixes problems."
"If you’ve been abandoned once, having someone say they want to spend the rest of their life with you is irresistible."
"I don’t know what to think yet. But I got a lot of questions about what happened to Meagan Stokes."
"We are in a game now, Chenney. The anonymous tipster, he dragged us in for some purpose only he knows about."
"Because even at the age of twenty-nine, abandonment issues were a bitch."
"We all have our patterns, and this one’s mine. When I’m frightened, I head for the booze."
"Melanie, do you even know how much I love you? How you are such a godsend to me? The last six months, you have held me together. I don’t think I could’ve made it without you."
"It was like exchanging compliments on hairdos while wearing hats."
"Thank you," Patricia whispered softly, and smiled back, looking happy.
"Why else would she spend so much time trying to convince herself she had the perfect life?"
"Once, when she’d been just a child, she’d thought marriage would be about roses and candlelight and never-ending romance."
"Their marriage may not be a honeymoon anymore. It may even be more about companionship... but it was also about having a history. Knowing each other so well. Growing together. Accepting each other."
"Weathering life together. Simply weathering it."
"She loved little Melanie for being little Melanie. She was strong. She was spirited. She was earnest."
"Did you honestly think you couldn’t be replaced? Just ask Meagan."
"Shh, it’s okay, love, it’s okay. I’m here for you. I will always be here for you. Even if you never remember."
"Now would be a good time for you to answer more questions, starting with the complete list of everyone who would want you dead!"
"Listen to you? Listen to you?" Her control began to unravel. "I don’t even know who you are!"
"Duck your head," David said calmly. "In you go."
"If she wasn’t so angry, she would be afraid."
"It’s not exactly Club Med," David muttered now, snatching up various items of clothing strewn across the floor. "I’m not home much."
"Stop it," she ordered immediately. "No playing nice."
"I’m not the enemy. Jesus Christ, I just dodged bullets for you!"
"I reserve the right to be as nasty as I want—"
"Love doesn’t have anything to do with it in the end. It can’t save a person’s life. Just ask Meagan. I’m sure she loved your parents too."
"My family is all I have, David. Please don’t take them away from me. Please."
"The truth did not always set you free. Sometimes it bound you to dark, bloody deeds and cost you the people you loved."
"Oh, yes, everyone seems quite fascinated by the ‘potential’ of my mind. Except me, of course."
"I said no thank you! For God’s sake, it all happened twenty-five years ago, and I do not want to remember dying children!"
"In short, in every act he performed, he revealed his hatred of youth, poverty, and weakness."
"Serial killers do not have a need to cocoon their corpses in soft blankets. Protecting a child, however, even when it is too late, even when it is out of guilt, is a trait that is distinctly maternal."
"You do not murder your own child for money! Not... not even for a million dollars!"
"I love them," she whispered. "They’re my family and I love them. Is that so bad?"
"I’m nine years old again, waking up in the hospital with all these lines and needles sticking out of my body, and this time there is no one to bail me out."
"She made a sound, the sound of surrender, then strong, capable Melanie Stokes buried herself in his arms."
"Because when I saw you I thought of Meagan, and then I had to have you. I just had to have you—"
"I got a family because I looked like a murdered little girl. The house, your love... All along you just wanted Meagan back."
"You healed me, honey. You are the best thing that ever happened to me, and I swear to you, Melanie, your life has not been a lie. I love you. I do."
"I remember... sitting us down. I remember they were holding hands and my dad was crying. I’d never seen him cry before."
"Because that’s what cancer does. It kills you even when you have perfect little boys and a perfect loving husband doing everything they know how to do to keep you alive."
"Because you looked like Meagan! All right? Are you happy? Because when I saw you I thought of Meagan, and then I had to have you. I just had to have you—"
"Somebody knows, Harper. After all these years, somebody knows about Meagan."
"The truth has a life of its own. Maybe the only real surprise is that it took it this long to find us again."
"Sometimes he hated Harper Stokes. He saw all the things Harper did that his family knew nothing about, and at those times he thought Harper Stokes could very well be the devil."
"No matter what he liked to say, his marriage had fallen a long way from being a love match over the years, and they both knew it."
"Patricia loves me. She’s always loved me. I do know how to make her happy, O’Donnell. I am just her kind."
"You got the goddamn perfect family and you’ve never, ever cared!"
"There is nothing you can do that I can’t handle. I love you, sweetheart. I do."
"Some people get a good life, and some people don’t."
"It’s all up to you now. Time to remember, sweetheart. Time to put the pieces together. Time to come home to me."
"You’re the only person I know who came out of the closet to hide a bigger secret."
"This family doesn’t just have skeletons, it has graveyards."
"You don’t need them as much as you think you do. You’re stronger than you know."
"This isn’t your choice, David. It’s mine, and I’m going home!"
"You are blind and stubborn and completely ignorant when it comes to your parents."
"I care, dammit! You matter to me, Melanie, more than you’re supposed to, and I don’t want to see you hurt."
"The bottom line is that families must forgive, Melanie, and families must forget."
"No one’s shot me yet. I must be doing better than Monday."
"It’s amazing what a couple of good chemists can do these days."
"So don’t you turn on me! This is my house. Paid for by me, maintained by me, because that’s what my life is all about—taking care of the rest of you whether I feel like it or not."
"Maybe what this family really needs is to fall apart."
"All she’d ever wanted was a family. People who would love her. People who would be there for her. A place that would finally be home."
"He loved us, I’d swear to it. He played with us, brought us presents, spoiled us, indulged us."
"I remember thinking that I was almost happy, and it was sort of curious and strange. I wasn’t sure I’d ever been happy before."
"You think Meagan was my fault," he said, and then smiled. "Of course. It’s nothing I haven’t thought myself."
"If you were a woman and you gave up your daughter twenty years ago to protect her, to give her a better life, you’d have to wish—"
"That she’d remember. Or someday come looking for you."
"I’m your father. Can’t you at least tell me what’s going on?"
"I don’t save lives, okay, or the world. I save dollars and cents. That’s it."
"Maybe that seems silly to you, but I’d rather be silly than completely shut out."
"I’m standing here tonight, figuring this ought to push you over the top."
"Don’t even try to crawl back, Pat. We are through!"
"I am free," she whispered to the city. "Melanie love, I am free!"
"The sky cracked, the first fat raindrop splashing on Melanie’s nose as an owl hooted and lightning danced across the sky."
"Lightning cracked again, so close they felt its charge zip through the air."