" I deeply, painfully wanted to know her, and it appeared that perhaps that would never happen. It was the price I would have to pay for leaving her. Abandoning her. Scarring her. I closed my eyes and let the pain and shame fill me for the space of three breaths. Yearning. Sorrow. Pain. Whatever she doled out now, I had certainly earned. "

― Barbara O'Neal , The Lost Girls of Devon