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93e4d55
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I remember everything about her. The way she looked. The way she smelled. The way she'd come home from her job so tired she could barely put her feet up. I don't think I've talked about her five times in the past twenty years. But I think about her every day. I think about why she gave me up. And I think about why I still miss her.
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Harlan Coben |
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c17211b
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I can only be as happy as my saddest child. Do
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Harlan Coben |
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047b350
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Life, he suspected, hinges too often on chance. We all want to convince ourselves that it is about hard work and education and perseverance, but the truth is, life is much more about the fickle and the random. We don't want to admit it, but we are controlled by luck, by timing, by fate. In her case, the luck, the
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Harlan Coben |
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692c73f
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There is no place more hollow, more soulless, than a school at night. The building had been created for life, for constant motion, for students rushing back and forth, some confident, most scared, all trying to figure out their place in the world. Take that away and you might as well have a body drained of all its blood.
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Harlan Coben |
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75ad198
|
We get mad at someone for cutting us off in traffic or for taking too long to order at Starbucks or for not responding exactly as we see fit, and we have no idea that behind their facade, they may be dealing with some industrial-strength shit. Their lives may be in pieces. They may be in the midst of incalculable tragedy and turmoil, and they may be hanging on to their sanity by
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Harlan Coben |
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452dc01
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Death is so close, always, a breath away, so perhaps it was wise to introduce children to that concept at an early age. Maya
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Harlan Coben |
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4f2d4ac
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Family and money is never a good mix. Someone is always going to feel resentful.
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Harlan Coben |
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25698a3
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But see, feminism isn't about helping a fellow sister. It's about an equal playing field. It's about giving women choices, not guarantees." Tia"
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Harlan Coben |
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ec832ae
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Relationships and marriages are hard enough, but you add war into the mix and small fissures become gaping wounds. No one sees what you're seeing--again that clear-eyed, unbiased thing--except your fellow soldiers. It's like one of those movies where only the hero can see the ghosts and everyone else thinks the hero is crazy. In
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Harlan Coben |
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826957f
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Thomas had gotten his learner's permit a week ago--the parental equivalent of a stress test without using an actual EKG machine.
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Harlan Coben |
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fdd737d
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What we so admire and call "single minded dedication" was really "obsessive self-involvement". What in that exactly is admirable?" --
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myron-bolitar
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Harlan Coben |
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c4f4ea9
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In sum," Midlife said, giving the room his best you-the-jury baritone, "Our defense will be...?" He looked to Matt for the answer/ "Blame the other guy," Matt said. "Which other guy?" "Yes." "Huh?" "We blame whoever we can," Matt said. "The CFO, the COO, the C Choose-Your-Favorite-Two-Letter-Combination, the accounting firm, the banks, the board, the lower-level employees. We claim some of them are crooks. We claim some of them made honest ..
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funny
law
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Harlan Coben |
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80401aa
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Most people assumed that it would be the opposite--that the victim of such horrific violence would naturally be repulsed by any future bloodshed. But the truth was, the world does not work that way. Violence breeds violence--but not just in the obvious, retaliatory way. The molested child grows up to become the adult molester. The son traumatized by his father abusing his mother is far more likely to one day beat his own wife. Why? Why do w..
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Harlan Coben |
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7089829
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Someone is always worse off than you. That never seemed like much comfort.
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Harlan Coben |
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e0e496a
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I ran down the hill. I went to your place, afraid, I don't know. I just didn't know. But you were gone. I came here, to Lucy. I thought maybe you'd be hiding inside or something. I waited. But you never showed, of course. I searched for you.For years. I didn't know if you were dead or alive. I saw your face on every street, in every bar.
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love
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Harlan Coben |
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c7a3fd1
|
There was a Dana Phelps with a son named Brandon, but they didn't live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The Phelpses resided in a rather tony section of Greenwich, Connecticut. Brandon's father had been a big-time hedge fund manager. Beaucoup bucks. He died when he was forty-one. The obituary gave no cause of death. Kat looked for a charity--people often requested donations made to a heart disease or cancer or whatever cause--but there ..
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Harlan Coben |
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07bd92d
|
Today he was being reminded yet again of the obvious: The world doesn't give even the slightest damn about us or our petty problems. We never quite get that, do we? Our lives have been shattered--shouldn't the rest of us take notice? But no. To the outside world, Adam looked the same, acted the same, felt the same. We get mad at someone for cutting us off in traffic or for taking too long to order at Starbucks or for not responding exactly ..
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Harlan Coben |
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230994e
|
Big Cyndi is six-six and on the planetoid side of three hundred pounds, the former intercontinental tag-team wrestling champion with Esperanza, aka Big Chief Mama to Esperanza's Little Pocahontas. Her head was cube shaped and topped with hair spiked to look like the Statue of Liberty on a bad acid trip. She wore more makeup than the cast of Cats, her clothing form-fitted like sausage casing, her scowl the stuff of sumos.
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Harlan Coben |
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6158fee
|
Or maybe it's a ploy to get more sex." She gave him a look that curled his chopsticks. "Maybe it's working," she said. "Maybe I'll slip into something more comfortable," he said. "Not that Batman mask again." "Aw, c'mon, you can wear the utility belt." She thought about it. "Okay, but no stopping in the middle and shouting, 'Same Bat Time, same Bat Channel.' "
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Harlan Coben |
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34db4e7
|
You think I should tell Jeremy?" "I think first and foremost you should put aside your Batman complex," she said. "What the hell does that mean?" "It means you always try a little too hard to be heroic." "And that's bad?" "Sometimes it clouds your thinking," she said. "The heroic thing is not always the right thing." "Jeremy already has a family. He has a mother and a father--" "He has," Esperanza interrupted, "a lie." They"
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Harlan Coben |
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dd6a607
|
Cat fish? " " A cat fish is a person who pretends to be someone thay're not online, especially in romantic relationships." Her voice was flat, matter-of-fact. She needed that now. She needed to spout facts and figures and definitions and not feel a damn thing. "Someone took your pictures and created an online profile for you and put it on a singles site. Two women who fell for the catfish-you are missing."
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Harlan Coben |
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f0e4e19
|
Mental illnesses are so strange. A physical problem we can understand. But when the mind works irrationally, well, by its very definition, the rational mind cannot truly relate.
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Harlan Coben |
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ee9b3dd
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Being this handsome. It is not easy, you realize.' 'And yet you suffer without complaint.
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Harlan Coben |
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944ddc0
|
From the right, Ted--it simply had to be a guy named Ted--finally made his entrance. He wore only Zoom shorts, and his abdomen was rippled like a relief map in marble. He was probably in his early twenties, model handsome, and he squinted like a prison guard. As he sashayed toward the shoot, Ted kept running both hands through his Superman blue-black hair, the movement expanding his chest and shrinking his waist and demonstrating shaved und..
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Harlan Coben |
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f933bad
|
Guys who always shined their shoes were usually self-involved asswipes who figure superficiality trumps substance.
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Harlan Coben |
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015d47a
|
When a father gives to his son, they both laugh. When a son gives to his father, they both cry. --Yiddish proverb
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Harlan Coben |
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96c7fd4
|
A door behind the desk opened, and a short, wiry man entered. His short-sleeved dress shirt was shiny and unbuttoned down to the navel, revealing a host of gold chains and, uh, bling. His arms were knotted, ropy muscle. Have you ever seen someone who gave you the chills just by entering a room? This guy had that. Even the big bouncer, who had to be a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than the short guy, took half a step back. A hush ..
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Harlan Coben |
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f299f83
|
A door behind the desk opened, and a short, wiry man entered. His short-sleeved dress shirt was shiny and unbuttoned down to the navel, revealing a host of gold chains and, uh, bling. His arms were knotted, ropy muscle. Have you ever seen someone who gave you the chills just by entering a room? This guy had that. Even the big bouncer, who had to be a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than the short guy, took half a step back. A hush ..
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Harlan Coben |
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880e846
|
Hello there," he said to me. "My name is Buddy Ray. What's yours?" He had a faint lisp. I swallowed. "Robert Johnson." Buddy Ray's smile would make small children flee to their mamas. "Nice to meet you, Robert." Buddy Ray--I didn't know if that was a double first name or a first and last name--looked me over as though I were a bite-size snack. Something was off with this guy--you could just see it. He kept licking his lips. I risked a glanc..
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Harlan Coben |
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4e271ca
|
The other: "Oh my God, we were like so wasted." "From beer?" "Beer and shots, yeah." "How did you get home?" "Randy drove." At the top of the stairs, Myron stiffened." --
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Harlan Coben |
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4102d2f
|
Some people are drawn to trouble. Some people, no matter how easy the path they are given on the walk of life, will find a way to mess it all up.
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trouble
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Harlan Coben |
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43e9071
|
I'd always hated running. Born-again joggers described how they got addicted to the rapture of running, how they achieved a nirvana known as a runner's high. Right. I'd always firmly believed that--much like the high of auto-asphyxiation--the bliss came more from a lack of oxygen to the brain than any sort of endorphin rush.
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Harlan Coben |
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59200bd
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The secret in any interview was the ability to not fill the silence. A few seconds passed.
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Harlan Coben |
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5101788
|
They watched a repeat of Frasier on Channel 11. The show was starting to grow on them both.
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Harlan Coben |
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e5639c2
|
He sounded genuine, but Myron knew that meant nothing. People were amazing liars.
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Harlan Coben |
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d36df82
|
He traveled back again, to when she was that adorable teenager dominating center court, and his favorite Yiddish expression came back to him in a rush: Man plans, God laughs. This was not a kind laugh. "Kitty?"
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Harlan Coben |
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2f48395
|
This was life though, wasn't it? Death made you crave life. The world is nothing but a bunch of thin lines separating what we think are extremes.
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Harlan Coben |
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1521fad
|
Thomas had hated the whole idea of Santa Claus anyway. What was the point? Why do you tell kids that some weird fat guy who lives at the North Pole watches them all the time? Sorry, that's just creepy. Even as a child, Thomas remembered sitting on a mall Santa's lap and he smelled a little like piss and Thomas thought, "This guy is the one who brings me toys?" And why tell kids that anyway? Wouldn't it be nicer to think your parents, who wo..
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Harlan Coben |
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bbe0756
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The world is nothing but a bunch of thin lines separating what we think are extremes.
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Harlan Coben |
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332d4ee
|
looked me straight in the eye and spoke an indisputable truth: "You don't know my life."
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Harlan Coben |
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2c9a501
|
His voice not only dripped sarcasm but seemed to have spent days marinated in it: "How noble." "Objection!"
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Harlan Coben |
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7db29f6
|
Few things, I assure you, will devastate like the might-have-beens.
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Harlan Coben |
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aa29709
|
We humans can't see straight. We are always biased. We always protect our own interests.
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Harlan Coben |
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b19faa2
|
Each writer had a bedroom in the main house and a shack or "work cottage" in which to write. We all met up for dinner at night. That was it. There was no Internet, no TV, no phones, yes lights, but no motorcar, not a single luxury."
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Harlan Coben |