The nurses, I have already learned, are the ones who give us the answers we’re desperate for. Unlike the doctors, who fidget like they need to be somewhere else, the nurses patiently answer us as if we are the first set of parents to ever have this kind of meeting with them, instead of the thousandth.

Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.

In the end, though, I did not kill my sister. She did it all on her own. Or at least this is what I tell myself.

There is no cosmic scale on which you can weigh your actions; you learn too late what choices ruin the fragile balance.

you're not a bad person because you want to be yourself.

I didn't think i could possibly love another baby as much as I loved the one I'd already had," I continue. "But the strangest thing happened when I held you for the first time. It was like my heart suddenly unfolded. Like there was this secret space I didn't even know existed, and there was room for both of you." I stare at her. "Once my feelings were stretched like that, there was no going back. Without you, it just would have felt empty.

If his voice hasn't been the melody of my life, it's been the bass line, so subtle you don't notice it until it's missing.