Love is not an equation, as your father once wanted me to believe. It’s not a contract, and it’s not a happy ending. It is the slate under the chalk and the ground buildings rise from and the oxygen in the air. It is the place I come back to, no matter where I’ve been headed. I loved you, Bethany, because you were the one relationship I never had to earn. You arrived in this world loving me more, even when I did not deserve it.
- Vanishing Acts; Jodi Picoult
