Maggie James > Quotes

“Sometimes the people who touch our lives the most are only passing through.”
― Maggie James, His Kidnapper's Shoes

“Nil carborundum illegitimi, as they say. Don’t let the bastards grind you down.”
― Maggie James, Sister, Psychopath

“To lose my son for a second time would be unbearable.”
― Maggie James, His Kidnapper's Shoes

“So Beth Sutton has big shoes to fill. It’ll take time for her to grow into them, adapt to what I’m asking of her, but she will. I’ve been waiting twenty-one years for her to keep me company. Tonight her new life will begin.”
― Maggie James, The Second Captive

“They’re so stupid. I did it to get my son back. What other reason could there be? Except they say Daniel’s not my son. They say he has another mother. There’s that ugly word they keep throwing at me. Kidnap. They say I kidnapped Daniel.”
― Maggie James, His Kidnapper's Shoes

“Daniel. She’d been waiting twenty-two years to touch him again and she didn’t intend to stop any time soon. ‘Indeed you are. Welcome home, my darling.’ 21 BREAKING POINT A couple of weeks after my visit to the flat, I went to clear the table after the nanny and Daniel had left, and there, on the red plastic”
― Maggie James, His Kidnapper's Shoes

“Beth’s not been to see Marcus Wilding for a week now. That’s good, but I’m beside myself with worry. He’ll shut me back in the basement if I do. For good. D”
― Maggie James, The Second Captive

“her”
― Maggie James, She'll Never Tell

“die”
― Maggie James, His Kidnapper's Shoes

“watching”
― Maggie James, After She's Gone

“Only one option remains: repeat the story I told Daniel all those years ago, keep telling him I am his mother. You see, I’m hoping if I carry on the same old lie, it will make it true. Ridiculous, of course, but I need Daniel to believe me so desperately. I’m clinging frantically to the perfect world of motherhood I’ve created, and I can’t bring myself to let go. What else do I have in my life that means anything, besides him? I”
― Maggie James, His Kidnapper's Shoes

“Violence mixed with pseudo-loving behaviour is a potent and dangerous combination. Like a drug. Keeps the woman hooked, in the hope the loving part will win out.”
― Maggie James, The Second Captive

“had no idea that later that day my emotions towards my half-sister would coalesce into hatred, after years of dislike and mistrust.”
― Maggie James, Sister, Psychopath

“However sick I’d been at the thought of being pregnant, I’d never once thought of abortion. Never. I stood up and walked away from him, leaving him where he belonged, on that old bench covered with pigeon shit. I didn’t look back.”
― Maggie James, His Kidnapper's Shoes

“You have a bed to sleep in,’ I tell her. ‘Clothes to wear, a toilet, the use of a shower. Compared to many people in the world, you enjoy privileges they only dream of.’ I step closer to the bed, noting how Beth flinches. ‘So don’t you dare whine about how I punish you, how I deny you food. Had you behaved yourself, I wouldn’t have needed to hit you.”
― Maggie James, The Second Captive

“Well, it’s not bullshit. I honestly haven’t a clue who I am. I have a mother who has never felt like a mother. Now even my father may not be who I’ve always been told he was. Who exactly are you dating, Katie?”
― Maggie James, His Kidnapper's Shoes

“It may not have been a lifestyle she chose, remember. Choice and compulsion don’t always go together.”
― Maggie James, Blackwater Lake

“I’m not.’ How can I tell my mother I miss the man who held me captive?”
― Maggie James, The Second Captive

“Things were still difficult the first week; Daniel never behaved badly but he was still far too withdrawn for my liking. When he did speak, he fretted about the whereabouts of his mother and the nanny; I countered his evident distress by reassuring him I was his mummy now.”
― Maggie James, His Kidnapper's Shoes

“What had he once heard, though? How the hard way always got easier and the easy way always got harder.”
― Maggie James, His Kidnapper's Shoes