Sara: "You are so brave," I tell her, and then I smile. "When I grow up, I want to be just like you." To my surprise, Kate shakes her head hard. Her voice is a feather, a thread. "No Mommy," she says. "You'd be sick.

I think there are crossroads in our lives when we make grand, sweeping decisions without even realizing it.

If there's something as good as [him] in my life, I'm going to pay for it.

I think her flaws make me love her even more. She's not perfect, but she's perfect to me

How far can a person go... and still live with himself.

I felt a splinter of guilt wedge into my heart. Charlotte had hurt me; in return, I'd hurt Rob. Maybe that's what we do to the people we love: take shots in the dark and realize too late we've wounded the people we're trying to protect.

It was one thing to sacrifice your own life for someone else's. It was another thing entirely to bring into the mix a third party - a third party who knew you, who trusted you implicitly.