The Wife Upstairs Freida Quotes

In life, things never go quite the way you want them to. But when you’re creating your own fictional world, you can make everything happen exactly how you want it to.

I can’t say to him what I’m really thinking, which is that this house gives me the creeps. Maybe Victoria loved it here, but I don’t. And for that matter, his wife gives me the creeps too. There’s something about her and that blank expression that terrifies me. It’s an awful thing to say about a woman who has been through something horrible, but I can’t help it.

And neither did she

I saw her throw a freaking toaster in his head and it made a dent in the kitchen wall.

In life, things never go quite the way you want them to. But when you’re creating your own fictional world, you can make everything happen exactly how you want it to. That’s what I love about writing.

condition of her hair. I find a bottle of Moroccan

Nobody could blame you,” Adam spoke up. “All she does is sit around and eat, so this is the result.

I get the sense Maggie is reluctant to talk about Victoria Barnett. Which is frustrating, because I get the feeling she’s the only one in this house who might be capable of telling me the truth.

That probably wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t wear such a short skirt,” Adam said.

And that seems to be the essence of our marriage sometimes. He lies to me because he thinks I won’t ever know the difference.

absolutely magical evening. Hamilton. Deciding to

I watched him in the dark room. I wanted him to disagree with me. I wanted him to tell me that he loved me too much and that he couldn’t possibly leave. But instead, he got out of bed at two in the morning and started getting dressed.

I could see the red in Adam’s cheeks, and I knew he was never going to admit what he did was wrong. Because he didn’t believe it was wrong. The only way this fight was ever going to end would be if I apologized for yelling at him and admitted I was a jealous, nagging wife.

39 SYLVIA Victoria is dressed in a billowy flower-printed dress that I found in her closet. Something tight is out of the question because of her feeding tube and it would not have been flattering with the way she often slumps in the chair. I have a feeling the dress used to be more snug on her, but now it hangs loose on her bony frame. I also spent some time on her hair. I combed it out and put in the oil treatment again, and it looks lush and shiny. I thought about trying to tie it back, but I think it’s most flattering when it’s loose. Now I’m working on her makeup. I put a layer of pink lipstick on her crooked lips, and now I’m doing my best to cover the scar on her left cheek. I don’t think there’s anything I could do to conceal it entirely, but it looks a lot better than when I started. Victoria is allowing me to put on the makeup, but she looks utterly unenthusiastic. I can’t entirely blame her. As much as I chatter about how much fun this will be, I’m not looking forward to it either. Part of me wants to duck out and leave Victoria and Adam to have Thanksgiving alone as a married couple. But the more I read of her diary, I feel like that is not what Victoria wants. She doesn’t want to be alone with him. And I don’t want her to be alone with him either. “There.” I dab on the last of the concealer—I’ve used half the container and the scar is still very visible. “All done.” Victoria just stares at me. “You look beautiful.” I grab the mirror I found in the bathroom and hold it up to her face. “Take a look.” Victoria glances briefly at the mirror, then turns away. She never seems very happy when I show her a mirror. She either looks away or frowns at herself. Sometimes she touches the scar. I wish Adam had shelled out for her to get plastic surgery. I know he thinks she doesn’t notice, but he’s wrong. “I just…” I chew on my lip. “I want you to know that I’m not going to… I mean, Adam is your husband, not mine. I’m going to tell him tonight that I’m not going to…” For the first time since I came in here, Victoria’s eyes show a spark of interest. “It’s not right,” I say. “It was a mistake and I’m sorry. I’ll tell him tonight.” “Be…” She’s focusing so hard on what she wants to say that some drool comes out of the right side of her mouth, smearing her lipstick. “Be… care…” For once, I know exactly what she’s trying to say. Be careful. I leave Victoria to find some nail polish in the bathroom. That’s the last thing I need to complete her look for the evening. I want Victoria to look really beautiful tonight. Like her old self, as much as possible. It’s important to me. Maggie must have moved the nail polish when she was cleaning. I look in the usual place in the closet within the bathroom, but it’s not there anymore. I search through the other shelves, trying to find the bag of multicolor nail polish tubes. I find more makeup, but not polish. But one thing I do find surprises me. It’s a black bag of medications. I never was sure where Adam kept Victoria’s medications. He always just seems to have them ready to administer. I pick up a bottle from the black plastic bag and see the date of the most recent refill. It was less than a month ago.

It’s unfortunate that in this day and age, a woman can’t walk down the street wearing even a modestly short skirt without getting whistled at or grabbed! I hope things are better for women at the time you’re reading this.

That probably wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t wear such a short skirt,

To my girls, of course

I don’t want to miss even a nanosecond of my children’s lives, because really, you don’t know how long you’re going to have.

In

She fell down the stairs about nine months ago.” He winces. “In our house. We have this crazy winding staircase and… I was in the city all day with my publisher, so I didn’t find her till later. If I had been there…

I once read that when people have near-fatal heart attacks, they get a sense of doom. They describe a sinking sensation before the chest pain even begins, like the world is about to end. It’s a commonly described phenomenon that nobody can explain. But when something terrible is about to happen, people know.

Well, writing books, I guess.” And then something clicked in my brain.

The hero subsequently plots the death of his parents and his brother, which is ultimately successful. And he gets away with everything.

But for some reason, I can’t shake this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach.

When you’re in a mature, adult relationship, you realize that the most important thing isn’t always proving you’re right. I knew proving him wrong wasn’t going to make the situation better, so there was no point.

And when I look at Adam Barnett, for a moment, I get that sensation. Doom.

It’s funny—you don’t realize how much people like you until you’re leaving.

It sounds like they were miserable people who rooted for him to fail every step of the way.