Sarah

“During Zachary's short lifetime, the science of addiction was well-documented, but it's different when it's your own child. You assume they know better, or are somehow different, when the fact is that as special as they are, they are just like everyone else." Dr. Jerry confided,
"I'm ashamed when I think back on my behavior. Had I the ability to redo those last few months, I would spend those precious hours telling Zachary that I loved him, not screaming at the top of my lungs that he must've had some kind of moral failure, an absence of character, a hatred for his family, that made him choose not to stop.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“Women got that feeling about him, that funny one we all get when we know something isn't right, but we don't know how to politely extricate ourselves from the situation without escalating the threat of violence or harassment. That is not a skill women are taught, the same way men are not taught that it is okay to leave a woman alone if what she wants is to be left alone.”
― Jessica Knoll, Bright Young Women

“He was a pedophile." Callie spoke quietly, still testing the weight of her words. "We were kids. We were pliable. That's what he wanted— a child he could exploit. It didn't matter which one of us he got to first. What mattered to him was which one of us he could make come back for more."
Leigh swallowed so hard again that her throat hurt. Her logical mind told her that Callie was right. Her heart still told her that she had failed to protect her baby sister.
"I wonder who else he did it to?" Callie asked. "You know we weren't the only ones." Leigh was aghast. She had never considered there were other victims, but of course there were other victims. "I don't—I don't know."
"Maybe Minnie what's-her-name?" Callie said. "She babysat for Andrew when you were in juvie. Do you remember that?"
Leigh didn't, but she could clearly recall Linda's exasperation over the number of previous sitters who had abandoned her son for seemingly no reason.
"He convinced you that you were special."
Callie wiped her nose on her sleeve. "That's what Buddy did. He made it seem like you were the only one. That he was a normal guy until you came along, and now he was in love with you because you were special.”
― Karin Slaughter, False Witness

“As all his lives play out before his eyes in the pitiful moments before he dies, only one thought really rises above the other’s. So that, the last thing that James Potter thinks about, with his beating heart and fluttering pulse, is Sirius Black.

A moment in a train carriage, their eyes crashing into one another for the first time, like two suns colliding. He was bright without Sirius, but he was brighter with him. His universe set fundamentally to rights the moment they shook hands.

If Sirius dies James dies. And if James dies—

Sirius.

He barely feels it when the green bolt slides between his ribs. It’s just a shiver really. A chill. Not so bad at all. Maybe it didn’t work. Maybe something went wrong. Maybe he’s still breathing.

Except that he’s falling.

Crashing to the floor as the world becomes a mash of indistinguishable sounds and colours.

Oh Sirius, I’m so sor—”
― MesserMoon, Choices - Volume 3