Chelly

“Queen of Madagascar.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

“My father’s unpredictable and arbitrary rages made any situation, no matter how benign, into a potential minefield. An innocuous remark or a dissenting voice would trigger his anger and set off a series of explosions from which there was no refuge. The house shook as he shouted, chasing me upstairs into my room. I’d dive and slide under the bed, against the wall. I’d breathe in the feathery air, praying the bricks would swallow me up and I would disappear. But his hand would grab hold of me, drag me out to meet my fate. The belt would be pulled off and whistle in the air before it struck, each successive blow knocking me sideways, burning my flesh. Then the whipping would be over, as abruptly as it had begun. I’d be tossed to the floor, landing in a crumpled heap. A rag doll discarded by an angry toddler.”
― Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient

“I’m not weak like your mother. You don’t fool me with your manipulations. I know you just did this for attention, to make your mother and my lives miserable, and I’m not going to let you get away with it.” I glared right back at him and let the sarcasm drip thickly. “Because everything I do in my life is about you.” I didn’t need them. I didn’t need any of them. All I needed was my dad back with me again. He would have punched Roger for talking this way, even if he called me stupid afterwards for believing his words. “Shut up!” He shouted and then let go of me, looking back and forth, paranoid that someone had heard our exchange.”
― E.B. Black, The Day I Died

“That’s what they’re all like,” she said without surprise, “crazy from birth.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude