Before She Knew Him: A Novel

The problem was that she didn’t want to work on the marriage. Ever since she’d discovered what he’d done, a part of her knew, down deep, that they were over.

it was what his office represented now, with its books and talismans. It was a separate world.

He wasn’t sure, of course, that he was cheating, but it was a definite possibility. He was a man, after all, and that’s what men did.

I take a living, breathing person, and I subtract him from the earth. When I’m done with him, he is entirely changed—the most changed a person can be—and that’s a monumental thing.

Just because you don’t fuck these women you become friends with doesn’t mean you’re faithful.

“People are defined by their actions. What they do is who they are.”

Matthew remembered looking across the table at Lloyd and imagining how he’d look with plastic wrap across his face.

She had a morbid curiosity. He was offering her so much. He was offering himself to her.

She’s more of a challenge, a girl like that, someone who doesn’t put herself out there. Someone who doesn’t think anyone is looking.

He tried to separate the two events, to acknowledge that it was possible to do something both divine and reckless at the same time.