One Last Secret Quotes
"No little girl grows up dreaming of becoming an escort. A sex worker. A whore."
"Being rich doesn’t really matter to me. That might surprise you."
"Being valued does, and that might surprise you more, because people assume women who are prepared to accept money for sex have self-esteem issues."
"I think most sex workers would agree with me."
"Today is perfect. The sun is shining just enough. The job I’ve just finished was perfectly fine."
"Sometimes after a job, even an easy one like Daniel’s, both things seep away from me and I feel a need to be recharged."
"I think people can’t really understand me fully without knowing that about me – the fact that I’m a trust-fund kid so I have to let people know I’m wealthy."
"Money is brilliant, Dora, but only if you make good choices."
"Existential crises are a rich person’s indulgence, along with sourdough pumpkin-seed bread, and fresh-cut flowers being delivered weekly to your home."
"He might have been following a similar line of thought to mine, because he says now, ‘You know being a trust-fund baby is pretty much a core part of my identity, equal with my sexual orientation and gender?’"
"Sons of multimillionaires are prone to be proud of their fathers; that, or they are intimidated by them."
"I don’t need to keep a low profile; I need an absence of profile."
"People in my profession are not the only ones who trade sex. We’re just the most blatant."
"Everything to do with sex is a transaction in some way, shape or form."
"I’ve seen everything. I really think I have. I consider myself unshockable."
"The anxiety I’m feeling is most likely because of the hangover."
"I don’t care who sleeps with whom, I just feel somewhat blindsided."
"Their serious faces were most likely a result of drug-and drink-induced obsession and intensity."
"The windows are open; sunlight floods in and washes the shiny parquet floor."
"The gardener must have been up early to turn on the sprinklers, because the grass is wet, light catching the velvet lawns like glinting broken glass."
"The library is full of books with leather covers, navy blue, burgundy, bottle green."
"I find a shaggy biscuit-coloured dog... Her name is Marmalade."
"Ideally, I’d like to be left alone to read my book."
"It’s half past ten and yet the air is already swollen with heat."
"I realise that I’m half looking for the others but also half hoping I don’t find them."
"Relationships are all swings and roundabouts, everyone comes with their own particular circumstances."
"I always assess my environment, check for exits and even weapons."
"The truth is, there are similarities, but they are all different too."
"I’m an actor. It’s not even me. I’m playing a role."
"The thing I said in the maze, it was just supposed to be a joke."
"I don’t want to appear intimidated, so I choose to head further into the labyrinth."
"I thought I was going to die, and for a fraction of a moment, I think maybe that would be easier."
"The first contraction rips through my body, waking me from an unsettled, dream-fuelled sleep."
"I’ve stopped believing that life is one linear trajectory of brilliance."
"Your greatest dream can be realised, your most fervent wish can be granted, but then you can be blindsided by the unexpected."
"What am I going to do with a baby? How am I going to be a mother?"
"Impossible even for me, someone with enviable acting skills and a propensity to self-delusion."
"I’m gritting my teeth, trying to keep my mouth clamped shut so I can hold in the screams."
"No one has actually suggested I give up my baby; no one has tried to make me feel small, pathetic or wrong."
"The sounds that come from me are violent and crazy."
"I have scrupulously attended all the prenatal appointments I’ve been offered."
"I didn’t have the money to get a haircut, so I did it myself with a pair of IKEA scissors."
"I am neither. I am young, but old enough to know better."
"Being a mother is the greatest privilege life can offer, but at the same time also terrifying."
"I can’t take my eyes off her. I drink her in."
"I am as naked as the baby. I don’t care. Nudity never bothers me."
"I am trying. I buy things in cheap shops, things made by babies on the other side of the world."
"I don’t want to be that person, and if I am, I don’t want anyone to know."
"I am flattened with weariness and loneliness."
"It’s not just the fact that when I catch up on sleep during the day, my mother takes Dottie to the park."
"I force myself to seem bigger than I am, bigger than I feel."
"I don’t care in this moment what that means exactly, what he will ask of me."
"It’s impossible to fight the belief that something is wrong."
"In times of panic, people are advised to take deep breaths, but deep breaths might trigger the allergic reaction. Deep breaths can kill me."
"People talk about it, don’t they? The moment you know you’ve arrived."
"Who could blame him for indulging in a spot of recreational sex from time to time?"
"He married her because she came from a wealthy and respectable family, she lent him the propriety and credence that he was undoubtedly lacking."
"I am not going mad. There is power in knowing that."
"I have always longed for things. I am ambitious."
"My ambition is not for something as simple as just money."
"I realise that most likely she simply wanted to keep up with the other parents."
"Even in that particular detail, I was not unique."
"He offered plenty of thought fodder. His life was big and expansive, whereas mine was small."
"A knife against a gun isn’t a fair fight, but it’s my only chance."
"Shaun sighs, shakes his head. He seems weary suddenly."
"‘He did?’ Despite everything, I can’t help the swell of happiness that ambushes my body."
"I get it. I understand about the long game and revenge, a dish best served cold."
"‘The end of you.’ ‘For months? Wow.’ I have nothing left other than sarcasm."
"I understand better than anyone. I leap to my feet and charge at him."
"‘It was self-defence,’ he mutters into the blackness."
"‘You did what you had to do in self-defence.’ He repeats the phrase as though he is trying to convince himself."
"It’s OK that we lied to the police. Morally it’s justifiable."
"As long as we’re always honest with each other, we’ll be OK."
"‘I’ve got you,’ he murmurs. I’m not certain if he says this to reassure me or to comfort himself."