Too Late

by Colleen Hoover

He brought me in when I had nowhere else to go. No one else to turn to. For that reason alone, I put up with him. I have no other choice.

But I nod. Dammit, I nod.

Normally, when someone gets attacked, it’s reported to the police. But inside this house, it’s handled internally. It’s used as a bargaining tool. And instead of going to the police, I go upstairs to a guy who is ten times more dangerous than the person who almost raped me.

A proposal should feel like a positive thing, but Asa’s proposal feels like a punishment for something horrible I must have done in a previous life.

Building trust in whoever has more power than you, but lying low enough that they don’t see it coming when you’ve suddenly got more power than them.

He grins and slips the ring on my finger. I look at it, holding it up to the light. I didn’t know Hell had so much sparkle.

It’s a little late to change your mind now.” I nod, pulling her to me. I wrap one hand around her back and keep the other wrapped in her hair. “Yep. Definitely too late.”

mise en abyme

You see nothing outside the realm of yourself when you’re a sadistic narcissist.

And to be someone’s main concern feels a hell of a lot like being loved.

I feel like he is who he is because he was never shown how to be anything different. For that, he’ll always have my sympathy. He’ll never have my heart, and he’ll likely never even have my forgiveness.

Rage really does blind you.

You know what they say dying feels like? No. You don’t know what they say, because no one says it. The people who die aren’t around to tell us what it felt like when it happened. The people who lived never died to begin with, so they’re unable to describe it.

And anytime you hear of a person beating the odds… that’s all they’re doing. Beating the odds. Because people never really think about how, in order to beat the odds, a lot of unfortunate deaths have to occur for that particular survival to be considered “out of the norm.”

I would be ashamed of this country if I didn’t love it so much for its lack of repercussions.

The world doesn’t owe us a thing. We take what we’re given and we make the most of it.