The Wives Quotes
"That’s how women are, right? Always wondering about each other—curiosity and spite curdling together in little emotional puddles."
"My heart beats faster. I’ve been waiting for this. I didn’t want to push it since he’s been so busy, but here it is—my year."
"I feel a spike of jealousy and push it aside immediately. This is the highlight of my week, hearing about the others. I don’t want to ruin it with petty feelings."
"Silly, I know. I chose this life and it’s not about competing, it’s about providing, but one can’t help but keep a tally when other women are involved."
"Secrets: I’m good at having them and keeping them."
"Sometimes I wish I could reach out to one of the wives, have a support group."
"I’ve imagined all the places we can go. I’ve narrowed it down to a beach. White sands and lapis lazuli water, long walks along the water’s edge holding hands in public. In public."
"I wear black scrubs so the mess doesn’t show."
"Sometimes I feel like a girl who wakes up alone in bed after a one-night stand, him sneaking out before she can ask his name."
"I forgot how good a brick of noodles could be. Oh my God, I'm so lonely."
"Men prefer the purrings of a confident, secure woman—that’s what the books say."
"Nothing more important than bringing life into the world."
"Fighting was the sandpaper that smoothed out the first years of a relationship."
"I’ve never known Seth to watch a documentary in the years we’ve been together."
"Because women don’t ever stop wanting what they want."
"It’s even better when you spy on them in person."
"I wouldn’t put anything past them. Or myself for that matter."
"You’ve been bent over that phone all night..."
"Not the obvious kind; it was the type she didn’t see coming."
"Most nights he’d not come to bed at all, and in the morning she’d get up and find him where she’d left him the night before: sitting in front of the TV with glassy eyes."
"It began to scare her and she encouraged him to get help."
"Seth told her he was struggling with depression and promised that things would get better soon."
"He refused to bathe and only ate once a day."
"The very last email he’d sent Seth was the day before he died, where he’d outlined his plan to kill his wife and then himself."
"Grabbing her by the neck, he’d pushed her up against a wall until Regina had screamed out that she was pregnant."
"Seth had dropped his hands immediately and smiled like the last ten minutes hadn’t happened."
"Frightened of experiencing the same thing, she got on birth control—the kind they insert into your arm—and focused on her career instead."
"Eventually, Seth suggested a plural marriage, because he wanted children."
"I can feel my heart beating; it feels like it’s lodged in my throat."
"A woman’s greatest foe is sometimes her hope that she’s imagined it all."
"Funny the emotional responsibility a woman is willing to take on just to maintain an illusion."
"I’m jittery through the drive, leaning forward in my seat and talking to the cars that get in my way."
"My life a twisted, frightening mess of deceit, my mind easily beguiled...that’s my lesson as of late."
"I wonder if she knows where he’s getting the money from, if it would have made a difference?"
"You ruined my life. I wanted you to pay for that."
"I knew you had issues with mental health, but I had no idea the stories you made up in your own head—about the polygamy."
"You think you’re not?" I shoot back. "You think it’s normal to do what you did?"
"I may be the one in here, but at least I can admit what I did."
"You’re the one who brought the gun. You shot Seth," she hisses.
"I wanted you punished for ruining my life—I didn’t want Seth to get hurt."