" She had built up a lot of control over all these months, but suddenly it just hurt so bad that she bawled right there at the table, two seconds after she saw the broken ring. It was the first real big cry she’d had about Gary in a long time, a month or so. She was not sure there was any such thing anymore as Gary. She didn’t know if that was where her belief rested. He was a lot out of her mind. He might really be dead. "

― Norman Mailer , The Executioner's Song