A Good Marriage

by Kimberly McCreight

Everyone was entitled to a defense, yes. That didn’t mean I needed to be the one to supply it.

Amanda was good at making you feel like you knew her really well, even when she was keeping you at arm’s length.

Who could possibly survive marriage, period?

We were working hard and we were tired, but we were doing things that mattered. Sam somehow made me feel challenged and yet accepted; liberated, but also taken care of. And so very undamaged.

truthful was so much better than perfect.

“Sometimes it can be easier to pretend something isn’t happening if you keep it to yourself.”

“When you’re married, you’re each other’s first line of defense. You’re supposed to take care of each other.”

What kind of justice was this, and for whom? Zach was rich and white and had the resources of a huge Manhattan law firm at his disposal, and even his best-case scenario at the moment was to live long enough to make it to trial.

It was reckless to live with secrets.

I’d been so foolish to think love could change the essential nature of anything.

What an asshole her husband was. There really wasn’t anything more to it than that.

Not only wouldn’t their marriage keep her afloat, she was pretty sure it was the thing that would eventually drag her under.