The Last Train to Key West (The Perez Family, #3)

by Chanel Cleeton

in a cramped marriage, you learn to use the physical space around you as a buffer of sorts, to make yourself fluid and flexible, to bend to the will of another.

People are a mystery, and the second you think you have them figured out, they surprise you.

Pregnancy has a way of exposing your most private intimacies to the world whether you’d like them to be exposed or not.

“It’s hard to know what you’d like when so many doors are closed to you.”

I don’t have time for spoiled girls with more time on their hands than sense.”

You can tell a lot about a person by watching them eat.

“Why is it that when men approach women as conquests to be won they are lauded, but when women decide to go on a hunt of their own, they’re branded as too aggressive, too eager, too greedy? Your sex didn’t corner the market on ambition. Or a love of the chase.”

A woman’s place is with her husband.” At least, that’s the pretty excuse that’s used to cover up all manner of sins.

“Maybe a man loses his right to be called a husband when he raises his fists to someone he should be protecting.”

People want power because they think it makes them untouchable. They’ll do anything they can to make sure that power is never taken away from them.”

That’s the thing about power—you never have enough. It always keeps you wanting more.”

The bad ones will make you believe you’re nothing. They’ll make you small because that’s the only way they’ll ever see themselves as amounting to anything. It’s a lie. The second you stop believing the lie is the second you take their power away from them.”

We are defined by what we do for others, by our relationships, by what we have to offer. A married woman has a measure of security a single one does not; a pretty girl a better chance than a plain one.

“I can’t tell if you flirt because you’re too smart for the world you’re stuck in and you’re bored as hell, or if you have a mischievous streak you can’t resist indulging.”

They certainly have female detectives and private investigators. Why shouldn’t I join their ranks?

If I have learned anything in this life, it is that you cannot prepare for the unexpected that sneaks up on you and turns your world upside down.