The Wrong Daughter

Sometimes, the only person worth satisfying is yourself. It’s your life, you’ve got to live it for you.

Don’t be afraid to play the main character in your own life. Don’t be a person that things just happen to because it’s easier than being a person who makes things happen.

Why is it, as a woman, when you gain a partner, you also gain a pile of admin too? Remembering important dates and organising the corresponding gifts and cards for his family. Somehow, women become their partner’s unofficial, unpaid PAs.

The only thing more valuable than being loved is being known by someone. Truly known. And he knows me so

Maybe real happiness is living the life you want, the way you want, without worrying about other people’s expectations.

No one will ever know you the way a sister does. There’s a special type of magic in being born to the same two people. Of growing up together. In knowing the blood that courses through my veins is the same as the blood that coursed through yours.

That’s the thing with breakups- you aren’t just mourning the person you loved but also the life you planned together. Lost on the wind.

If all it took to detect a dangerous individual was a few conversations, the world would be a much safer place.

Some people can’t love without destroying what they care for most,’ he says.

Being loved by you is like being slowly crushed to death,

You can love something so much that you hold onto it too tightly and crush it to death.

but I felt the razor blades that laced the space between us; one wrong move would illicit a thousand bloody cuts.

She was my whole world but I was only a part of hers.

Being told a secret is like being asked to take care of someone’s baby: it’s a burden, but there’s satisfaction in being trusted with something so treasured.

Pairs of women, safe in the knowledge that at the end of every bad date, or party or day, there is a soul out there born of their blood who will love them always.

Jealousy is a handful of hard, green pebbles in Elinor’s mouth that threaten to break her teeth.

friends are like flowers, I have watered and pruned and nurtured my relationship with Florence and let others wilt.

Her hair is in a low, tousled ponytail. If I wore my hair like that, I’d look like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.

Don't be afraid to play the main character in your own life. Don't be a person that things happen to because it's easier than being a person who makes things happen.

polka-dot dress and heels feel far too obvious. ‘You’re late,’ she says by way of greeting. ‘Only five minutes …’ ‘Seven,’ she corrects as I sit down opposite.

That’s great. Your mum must be thrilled.’ Florence glows. ‘Naturally.’ I feel a twinge of envy that she grew up with a parent who supported her dreams. Even when those dreams consisted of being a Broadway actress. Susan didn’t push her daughter into teaching or some soulless tech job because it paid well. Florence loves her mother, but I don’t think she can ever truly appreciate how lucky she is to have a parent who encourages her to pick whatever path she wants in life and happily holds her hand as she walks down it, no matter whether it leads to a dead end or a pot of gold.

I move through the crowd, searching for her. Two women brush past me. They are too similar to be anything other than sisters. Elbows hooked, laughing. This time of year, I see sisters everywhere. Pairs of women, safe in the knowledge that at the end of every bad date, or party or day, there is a soul out there born of their blood who will love them always.

a person is only ever in control of their own actions. That I did the best I could with the information I had. That there was no shame in trying to save everyone, but I need to come to terms with the fact that not everyone deserves to be saved. Or, like you, not everyone wants to be saved.

I do not love you sloppily or lazily, Olivia. I love you with a pounding, visceral certainty.