The Wife Between Us Quotes

“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.’ Well, I’ve never feared bad weather, either.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“I was happy, I think, but I wonder now if my memory is playing tricks on me. If it is giving me the gift of an illusion. We all layer them over our remembrances; the filters through which we want to see our lives.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“Gaze detection, it’s called—our ability to sense when someone is observing us. An entire system of the human brain is devoted to this genetic inheritance from our ancestors, who relied on the trait to avoid becoming an animal’s prey.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“For years, I have allowed fear to dominate me. But as I sit in the cab, I realize another emotion is rising to the surface: anger. It felt cathartic to unleash my rage at Richard after absorbing his for so long.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“Know thy enemy, Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“She is oblivious to what I have done to her.
She is unaware of the damage I have wrought; the ruin I have set in motion.
To this beautiful young woman with the heart-shaped face and lush body-the woman my husband Richard, left me for-I'm as invisible as the pigeon scavenging on the sidewalk next to me.
She has no idea what will happen to her if she continues like this.
None at all.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“In my marriage, there were three truths, three alternate and sometimes competing realities. There was Richard’s truth. There was my truth. And there was the actual truth, which is always the most elusive to recognize. This could be the case in every relationship, that we think we’ve entered into a union with another person when, in fact, we’ve formed a triangle with one point anchored by a silent but all-seeing judge, the arbiter of reality.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“Tell colorful, drawn-out stories that deflect attention from the fact that you aren’t actually sharing anything. Avoid specifics that will separate you from the crowd. Be vague about the year you graduated. Lie, but only when completely necessary.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“This could be the case in every relationship, that we think we’ve entered into a union with another person when, in fact, we’ve formed a triangle with one point anchored by a silent but all-seeing judge, the arbiter of reality.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“Then my aunt does one of the bravest things I have ever seen. She smiles.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“I suffocated my feelings during our marriage. I doused them with alcohol; I buried them in denial. I tiptoed around my husband’s moods, hoping that if I created a pleasing enough environment—if I said and did the right things—I could control the climate of our household,”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“My pain was being overtaken by anger. He must have known something was wrong. He’d said he cared about me, but if you truly cared for someone, wouldn’t you at least answer her fucking call? I’d thought.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. It’s when you become aware of something—the name of an obscure band, say, or a new type of pasta—and it seems to suddenly appear everywhere. Frequency illusion, it’s also called.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. It’s when you become aware of something—the name of an obscure band, say, or a new type of pasta—and it seems to suddenly appear everywhere. Frequency illusion,”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“The truth is the only way to move forward.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“secrets and faults and loved you anyway?”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“I squeeze my eyes shut.

Then I immediately force them open. I’ve learned the danger of failing to
observe the things I don’t want to behold.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“He kept me off-balance for years; whenever I displeased him, I suffered consequences. But he also clearly relished being my savior and comforting me when I was upset. The dueling sides of my husband’s personality made him an enigma to me. I still don’t completely understand why he needed to control everything in his environment as precisely as he organized his socks and T-shirts.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“said, ‘I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“Emma frowns. “Vanessa.” Her voice is even and measured. It’s as if she is talking to a small child. It’s the tone I used when I told my Cubs it was time to put away their toys or finish up their snacks. “I realize the divorce was hard on you. It was hard on Richard, too. I saw him every day; he really tried to make it work. I know you’ve had your troubles, but he did everything he could.” I sense some accusation in her gaze; she believes I’m to blame”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“And I thought you could save me.” “Save you?” she echoed. His words were a whisper: “From myself.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“I passed Sam and Josie and Marnie, seated in chairs tied with white silk bows, then Hillary and George and a few of Richard’s other partners. And up front, by the rose-draped archway, Maureen stood next to Richard in her capacity as maid of honor. She wore the glass-bead necklace I’d given her”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“A self-help book had recommended that I visit painful places from my past, to release their power over me and reclaim the city as my own.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“It was a horrible idea; no wonder that book was languishing on the discount rack.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“My mom’s feelings were like intense colors—fiery reds and sparkling, soft pinks and the deepest slate grays. Her shell was fierce, yet on the inside, she was fragile.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“some pain is too fierce to battle. You can only duck for cover and hope the sandstorm passes.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“You need to remember that even when I’m not there, I’m always with you.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“Maybe being in love carries the requirement of filtered vision; perhaps it is so for everyone.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us

“I guess I thought marrying Richard would erase my concerns. But my old anxieties simply yielded to new ones.”
― Greer Hendricks, The Wife Between Us