Roman (Underworld, #3)

by Sophie Lark

Do not humiliate people, shame is a lifetime lasting effect that can be nursed but can never be cured.

Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants.

Lots of people lose a parent. It doesn’t give them an excuse to be a raging asshole forevermore.

All I wanted was to be loved for myself.

I’ve never seen a man look at a woman like that. As if she’s the whole center of the universe, with all the planets and stars whirling around her. Like she’s the seat of life itself.

Fucking Mila in this church is the closest I’ve ever come to a religious experience.

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.

I didn’t want to fight about it, so I just left.

Now that is what not to do

The bottom line is that we never fall for the person we’re supposed to.

Watching them now, I can finally articulate that nagging, restless feeling that washes over me whenever I see the two of them together. It’s envy. Not of my own sister or my brother-in-law, but of what they have together.

He’s a person, multi-faceted and flawed. Some of his strengths and weaknesses overlap very closely with my own. Roman said I was perfect, but I know he doesn’t mean that literally—I know he’s seen the worst as well as the best parts of me. I think what he meant is that I’m perfect for him.

Losing a parent is something that doesn’t hit you all at once. The loss happens again and again, every time you reach a milestone they should have witnessed, or you think of a question you wish you could ask them.

“So that’s what La Belle Verite actually means? ‘The beautiful truth’ is the convenient truth. The one that doesn’t offend anybody important.”

We all carry inside us people who came before us.