The Wife Upstairs

A man who overestimates his intelligence is a man who can be easily manipulated.

There's a trick to spinning lies. You have to embed the truth in there, just a glimmer of it. That's the part that will catch people, and it's what makes the rest of your lies sould like truth, too.

This is another trick I’ve learned over the years—make people think they have the upper hand, and they trust you so much faster.

I’ve learned the hard way that wanting more is what fucks you in the end.

watch people’s eyes more than you listened to what they said. Mouths were good at lying, but eyes usually told the truth.

Mouths were good at lying, but eyes usually told the truth.

Gossip is tricky, slippery. Pretend to be too interested, and suddenly you look suspicious

I’ve been dodging men’s hands since I was twelve, so wishing a man would touch me is a novel experience.

I'm not yours. I'm free as a fucking bird.

We keep so many things in our brains,” she’d said. “More than men do. They’re allowed to only worry about business, while we have to worry about business and our families. Our children. I bet if I were to ask a male CEO, ‘How much milk do you have in your fridge right this second?’ he’d have no idea. But all of you know.

Gossip is currency in this neighborhood, and she’s clearly about to make it rain.

One thing growing up in the foster system taught me was to watch people’s eyes more than you listened to what they said. Mouths were good at lying, but eyes usually told the truth.

Tripp is so many ugly things—a drunk, a lech, a Republican—but murderer still doesn’t fit on him.

I’ve gone so long trying not to be seen that there’s something intoxicating about letting him really see me.

even though the Methodists aren’t the Baptist’s, no one wants an open bar in front of Jesus.

That's what you do when people threaten you, Jane. When they try to fuck you over. You don't give in to them, you don't give them what they want, you remind them that you're the one in charge, you're making the rules.

I was looking for something new. I was. Because I was running from something old.

There’s a trick to spinning lies. You have to embed the truth in there, just a glimmer of it. That’s the part that will catch people, and it’s what makes the rest of your lies sound like truth, too.

I don’t tell him that it’s not even my real name, but the name of a dead girl I knew in a dead life. My real name is equally boring, but it’s one he might hear more often than Jane.

No one can be judged for the books they buy in airports.

Had I brought this here? This sordidness, this violence? Did it cling to me like some kind of virus, infecting anyone who got close to me?

If a man wants a woman to basically be a wife, he needs to make her a wife.

Bea had always believed that a man who overestimates his intelligence is a man who can be easily manipulated. Turns out, he’s also a man who can be really dangerous.

Eddie came in today. He kissed me, he took me to the bed, he fucked me, and after it was over, I thought about him going back downstairs, back to Jane, and I said the thing that has been sitting inside me for weeks now. “So is it hard, having a new girlfriend when you have a wife upstairs?

Being a Lydia would not have been as bad as a Bertha.

He is at his best when he has someone to reflect off of, someone to be someone for.

Because I think I still love him. In spite of it all.

There are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about. —Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

What I have is, after all, like winning the fucking lottery, and I’ve learned the hard way that wanting more is what fucks you in the end.

And lastly, thanks to every woman who ever got to the end of Jane Eyre and thought, “Honestly, Jane? You could do better.” You are my people, and I love you.