Alex Walters

“And I don’t want you to be in my house any longer than you need to be.’ She knew she was already losing the battle with him. She’d done what she always did. She’d offered small concessions – the food, the wine, not telling him to piss off as soon as she opened the door – in the hope he’d accept them and expect nothing more. But that wasn’t how he thought or worked. He just banked whatever you gave him and moved on to the next thing.”
― Alex Walters, A Parting Gift

“She'd stuck around with Iain partly because the alternatives were always going to be challenging. But something else had kept her there. She hadn't wanted to give up on what she and Iain had once had. She hadn't wanted to admit she'd got it wrong, that he wasn't the man she'd thought. So she'd hung on, hoping to rekindle a magic that had never existed in the first place.”
― Alex Walters, The Inspector McKay Series Books One to Three: Candles and Roses, Death Parts Us, and Their Final Act