The Paris Secret

There are certain sacrifices that will never be repaid.

A few heartbeats. That was life. A heartbeat, followed by another heartbeat. A breath, followed by another breath. One moment followed another moment, until you reached the last one.

There is nothing quite the same as the love of a grandchild for a grandparent.

She wanted someone for whom she was the sea and the sky and the entire universe as well.

I would. Our childhoods, while parallel, were nothing alike.” “They were exactly the same,” Skye said, temper flaring. “I have to go. I have work to do.” That afternoon, as she flew through a sky the color of the Cornish sea—a deep, fathomless blue—one thought whirled through Skye’s head like a blizzard: she and Liberty told two such different versions of the same story. Whose was right? Perhaps Liberty was just trying to take away the one thing they shared beyond their surname—their history. But if they didn’t even have a past, then what would tether them together now and in the future? Don’t think about it, she told herself. Liberty’s childish kicking had simply been replaced by exasperating behavior designed to goad the other party into lashing out. And as usual, Skye had managed to do something she regretted: storm off. There was no point dwelling on it. The next time she saw her sister, Liberty was sure to have moved on to some other provocation.

Mothers worry too much these days. You love your children, and they know you love them. Simply being present doesn’t make them feel more loved.

Are we really who we say we are?

That's how the world works. You can't always do the good that's needed, Nicholas.

...the world has no limits other than the ones we create ourselves. And we are unbounded.

...what was the point of dying if you never loved?

But at that moment he had to remember that besides hate and pain and despair, there were other things in the world worth living for.

It was much easier to be what everyone wanted her to be: just a simple woman.

No one here is asking the relevant questions. Everyone is too busy avoiding the subject and any kind of emotion. It's a wonder you don't explode from that much pressure.

She was completely in love with Nicholas Crawford, and she felt so overwhelmed that there was no doubt about her feelings. Which was the worst thing that had ever happened to her.

You are the most self-possessed person I know, but that must be very exhausting day to day.

-I feel like I'm a thousand years old, Skye.

-You know, in a way, you haven't changed at all and that takes me from the present back to the past. But in other ways, you are another person, completely different.

She touched her chest but found no pain, yet the pain was more excruciating than anything she had felt before.

The future is not a promise to be kept, it is an act about to begin. Maybe it already did.

-But you don't want to escape from here? You don't have to want to. But I, for one, need to know that I can go anywhere I want when I'm old enough.

I’m not sure we have anything to say to one another about the past, except things that hurt,” she said. “And as war brings with it enough hurt, it might be better to call a truce and stay in the present.

It’s funny, isn’t it,” Joan added pensively, “you think if you’re being asked to do something by someone so senior, it must be all right. Even though you know it isn’t. But you convince yourself that you’re the one who’s wrong.