"There'll be a time, Tory," he murmured into the receiver, "that you and I will play by my rules. I still have a promise to keep."

"My knees were suddenly unsteady, and my stomach felt as if it were going to turn inside out... I tried to make my paralyzed lungs take in another breath before I died. Dazed, appalled..." (Roberts 7).

“Love's scary, and sometimes it's transient. But it's worth the risks and the nerves. It's even worth the pain.”

“I think you’re under no obligation whatsoever to forgive anything, to forget anything. You’re not required to push away the years of abuse because the abuser now chooses to be sober and in his sobriety regrets his actions.
And while it may be small and unforgiving of me, I think people who do so at the snap of a damn finger are either liars or are in need of serious therapy. I assume you heard him out, so in my personal opinion, any debt you might owe for your existence is now paid in full. It may be fashionable to hold the opinion that terrible actions are indeed terrible, but that the person inflicting them isn’t responsible due to alcohol, drugs, DNA, or goddamn PMS.
He damn well was responsible, and if you decide to loathe him for the rest of your life, I wouldn’t blame you for it. How’s that?”(..)
“I believe the strong have an obligation to protect the weak. It’s why they’re the strong. I believe a parent has an obligation to protect the child. It’s why they’re the parent.

All I wanted was peace in my life. I didn’t care where we lived or what job Mom could scrounge up or if Dad worked in a 7- Eleven for the rest of his life.
I just wanted to come home at the end of the day and find them there, laughing and talking like they used to. I wanted Dad to be strong again. I wanted Mom to stop crying, to stop worrying. To let go of the past.