So maybe it wasn't the fairy tale. But those stories weren't real anyway. Mine were.

It's a choice, Annabel. And if you make the wrong one, you have only yourself to blame when there are consequences.

Was it really this easy, once you escaped, to just not care?

Harder to get in than out, like so little else.

My point is, there are a lot of people in the world. No one ever sees everything the same way you do; it just doesn't happen. So when you find one person who gets a couple of things, especially if they're important ones... you might as well hold on to them. You know?

Because maybe, the best of times were yet to come. You never knew.

The past did affect the present and the future, in ways you could see and a million ones you couldn't. Time wasn't a thing you could divide easily; there was no defined middle or beginning or end. I could pretend to leave the past behind, but it would not leave me.