Cristal

“The only authority my mother recognized was God's. God is love and the Bible is truth--everything else was up for debate. She taught me to challenge authority and question the system. The only way it backfired on her was that I constantly challenged and questioned her.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

“Gratitude is the quality of being thankful and the readiness to show appreciation in return.”
― Renée Carlino, Nowhere but Here

“Prejudice and private interest will be antagonists too powerful for public spirit and public good.”
― Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton

“I… What are you saying, Zsadist?" she stammered, even though she'd heard every word.

He glanced back down at the pencil in his hand and then turned to the table. Flipping the spiral notebook to a new page, he bent way over and labored on top of the paper for quite a while. Then he ripped the sheet free.

His hand was shaking as he held it out. "It's messy."

Bella took the paper. In a child's uneven block letters there were three words: I LOVE YOU

Her lips flattened tight as her eyes stung. The handwriting got wavy and then disappeared.
 
"Maybe you can't read it," he said in a small voice. "I can do it over."
 
She shook her head. "I can read it just fine. It's… beautiful."

"I don't expect anything back. I mean… I know that you don't… feel that for me anymore. But I wanted you to know. It's important that you knew.”
― J.R. Ward, Lover Awakened