What We Broke Quotes

“You’re mine,” he says with such finality. “You’re my worry, my heartache, my burden. Whatever you think you are, whatever season it is for us, you’re fucking mine, Leo.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“Why do you say things like that?” “Like what?” She’s back down crouching in front of me. “You say his family like you’re not a part of that.” I can see the heartbreak in her eyes as she continues. “Like you’re not my best friend just as much as he is. As if you’re not Raine’s father just as much as he is. Like being Jesse’s husband isn’t enough to make you part of this family.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“If the great loss that he and I have survived has taught us anything, it’s that we’re not invincible. Neither is our marriage and neither is our love. Bad things absolutely happen to good people, but so do good things. And the former should never be given the power to eliminate the latter.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“And no love is invincible.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“I want to believe our love is a great love, a true love, but unfortunately, the hard lesson to learn is that it doesn’t actually matter which one of those it is. Because with great love comes great loss, and with true love comes true pain.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“We can’t reach the pleasure without pushing through the pain.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“I’m over here trying to be a Goddamn martyr, but tonight I want nothing more than to succumb to my rage and take him with me.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“Zara,” I cut her off. “I can handle it. Just spit it out.” Her hands stop touching my head. “But can you? Handle it, I mean. Because I’m watching my best friend drown trying to keep you afloat.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“You say the sweetest things, but you’ve always been the dirtier fighter of the two of us.” “I’m not fighting dirty when it’s the truth.” In the spirit of honesty and generally pushing my luck, I add, “If the roles were reversed right now, would you fight for us? Would you let me go?” A sigh of resignation fills the car, followed by his very telling silence. “Well?” I press. “No,” he says. “You know damn well I wouldn’t let you go.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“Leo. Baby,” I say with an exasperated breath. “We can’t be on the same page when we’re both reading a different fucking book.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“And if I truly believed that leaving me would guarantee him a pain-free and fulfilled life, I would’ve been the one to leave him a year ago. I would’ve handed him my bloodied heart on a silver platter—veins, arteries, and all—and begged him to go.  But this is not how life works, this is not how our life works.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“With his lips on mine, we just exist.  One man confessing his truth, the other one absolving him of the burden.  I know, in this moment, with this kiss, there will never be another man in my life like Jesse. Whether we extend our twenty-four hours or not, the damage is already done.  I am irreparably changed.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“He looks at me with the fire of a thousand suns in his gaze, and when both of his hands simply rest atop my thighs, I want nothing more than to burn for him.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“The loss of what we had left a crater-sized hole in our hearts, lives, and my marriage, but the loss of what we could’ve been feels insurmountable.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“I am the seven stages of grief personified, but sometimes I don’t know what I’m grieving the most: my past or my future.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“couldn’t detach itself from his no matter how hard I tried.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“We aren’t just bound together by marriage vows, we are tethered. Like magnets, my soul”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“Trying to ignore him, I bury myself deeper beneath the heavy blanket. It’s what I’m good at, because while he’s trying so hard to save us, I’m trying even harder to ruin us.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“My brain remembers Jesse’s best friend, Zara. The mother of Jesse’s first daughter, Zara. Our egg donor, Zara. Our surrogate, Zara.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“I hold my arms out, ready to cradle our bittersweet baby. She weighs no more than two and a half pounds, but the weight of our loss will crush me always.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“I can’t take my eyes off her stretched skin. Can’t stop thinking about how many times I had casually touched Zara’s stomach. Remembering all the times I knelt down on the ground to speak to our baby girl, and how hard she kicked when she heard my voice. I can’t breathe.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“Highs and lows,” I say to him. I watch his chest rise and fall as he repeats, “Highs and lows.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“When our salty lips meet, we bask in the connection. It’s not the type of kiss that leads anywhere, rather it’s a kiss that keeps you grounded. In this moment, sharing the heartache and searching for strength.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke

“It is life’s greatest privilege to be in the presence of this man, to love this man and be loved by him.”
― Marley Valentine, What We Broke