The Perfect Family Quotes
"One by one, the lights blinked out, like stars dying in an inky sky."
"But the people who lived there only looked perfect. They had done horrible things. They kept horrible secrets."
"Starting each morning with a grateful heart...being thankful was the key to health, happiness, and abundance."
"But it’s hard to be thankful for a man when he’s cheating on you."
"The family thought the surveillance would be a deterrent, but it wasn't."
"The world would be a better place without people like the Adlers."
"I wasn’t ready to deal with the truth. I wasn’t ready to blow apart my family. My entire life."
"It was harmless. I never took anything sentimental or valuable.… Still, I knew it was horrible, I knew it was wrong."
"I couldn’t afford to piss off my wife right now. I had enough to deal with."
"I wasn’t emotionally stable then. I’d needed some time to hide out and decompress, to try to process what had happened back at Worbey."
"My parents were snobs, and they had no right to be. They were fakes, posers."
"Kids never have to work for anything, so they have no concept of value."
"No grown-up would stoop to throwing eggs or smearing poop on our door handle."
"I was so immersed in my game that I barely heard the explosion on our front lawn."
"I knew it was wrong, but in the moment, I always told myself that I wasn’t hurting anyone."
"Our home was our sanctuary. Having it attacked by faceless hooligans was frightening and distressing."
"But I could scare the shit out of him without physical violence. I could make sure he and his wannabe hoodlums never walked down our street again."
"It was the most enthusiasm I’d had on the place since it went on the market six months ago."
"Finals were intense. I was pretty out of it when I got home. I guess I messed up my dates."
"Don't worry about it, Eli. You're too good for us now. We get it."
"How could I explain that I was a different person now, but not in the way they thought?"
"The sight of the girl I had loved made my stomach twist and churn."
"I thought my parents knew what was best for me. I trusted them."
"FOCUSING ON GRATITUDE had been challenging before we were targeted by vandals."
"Stopping had been easier than I'd anticipated. All it required was mindfulness."
"Sometimes it's hard for teens to be honest with their parents."
"I hadn’t stolen anything for more than two weeks."
"I would confront him. I’d tell him that I had seen the incriminating text."
"I watched him scurry around my vehicle, then run off into the night."
"I hoped he’d come out of his shell soon, get over whatever had upset him at college."
"I’ve tried to do this by the book, Viv. The cops can’t help us. The school can’t or won’t help us. It has to stop."
"We’re not going to be run out of our house by a bunch of brats."
"You can’t beat these kids up. We’re just going to scare them. Make them think we’ll hurt them if they don’t stop bothering us."
"Everything seemed completely normal, on the surface. But it wasn’t."
"I don’t know how long we sat there, but he had finished both beers when we heard the gang approaching."
"No more secrets," I said, my voice wobbling. "Does anyone know who's behind this? Why someone would want to kill us?"
"It wasn’t child abuse! It was a stern lecture that should have been delivered by his own mother and father!"
"I can't fight anymore, Thomas," Viv said. "I just can't."
"Don't antagonize him. He could be dangerous."
"His presence at the gastropub was just a warning."
"I would confront this boy and make him stop."
"Finn Dorsey stared at me with empty blue eyes."
"I was no match for five aggressive kids, high on shatter or worse."
"I was about to learn the truth about what my husband had been doing."
"We’re going to deal with this, and we’re going to be okay."
"He had a lot of faults... but he wouldn’t choke a woman."
"She was surrounded by the flowerpots her mom tended."
"My honor was in question, my reputation suspect."
"Someone had invaded my home, stalked through my sleeping house."
"I hadn’t heard a word from Chanel since I’d refused to pay."
"If her finger got in the way, it would be a goner."
"I carried the plate of steaks to the backyard. My dad was scraping the grill, a beer in his other hand."
"With my music blasting in my ears, I strolled to the back of our substantial yard."
"Society was meant to be shifting away from its acceptance of toxic masculinity, yet these kids harassed us with impunity."
"She’d been run out of their neighborhood by a drug lord, an actual gangster who had nearly beaten their son to death."
"We had quite a few followers, but I could count on the story being shared throughout the school community."
"I had lost Arianna, for real, over a year ago. All I had lost now was the possibility of her."
"The thought made me laugh out, like a total psycho."
"Finding fault is not going to change anything. All that matters now is that we’re honest with each other. And we’re there for each other."
"Secrets had almost destroyed my family. Secrets had almost gotten my brother killed."
"Only a monster could inflict further trauma on a woman who had accidentally shot her own child."
"I'm going to call the dean at Worbey and I'm going to tell him what happened."
"We're proud of you," Viv added. "You're strong and you're brave."
"Their lives are so boring, they wish one of their parents would shoot their brother."
"Men like me? Arrogant. Privileged. Entitled."
"It was a coping mechanism, she said, a response to stressful triggers in my life."
"Taking things that weren’t mine had made me feel powerful, in command, if only for a moment before the darkness descended."
"We had convinced ourselves that we only wanted the best for our kids, but we hadn’t taken the time to understand what that really meant for each of our children."
"There were no more secrets between us, there was no more suspicion."
"Gratitude, that sentiment I had struggled so hard to find, filled my chest and lifted the corners of my lips."