Every Vow You Break: A Novel

“Before I was with Bruce I was with this guy for a long time. He was a writer, a poet. […] He had this notion of a creative life together, that we’d be broke, and happy, and constantly drunk, and misunderstood. And I got sick of it. Bruce is simple, but in a really good way.”

In this dialogue with a stranger, Abigail justifies her choice to marry Bruce by contrasting him with her former partner. Her characterization of an artistic life as something she “got sick of” and Bruce’s nature as “simple, but in a really good way” reveals a conscious decision to prioritize stability over tumultuous passion. The statement establishes Abigail’s primary motivation for the marriage, while also containing subtle dramatic irony, as readers later learn that Bruce’s supposed simplicity is a facade for a far more complex and sinister nature.

“I don’t believe in love at first sight, but something very close to that happened when I saw you in the coffee shop. I wanted—no, I needed—to get to know you, so I took a shot. And now here we are three dates later and I know, with certainty, that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. […] I feel, in a way, that you are now my purpose for living.”

During their third date, Bruce delivers this speech, framing his intense feelings as total honesty. The language of need, certainty, and purpose, delivered so early in a relationship, functions as foreshadowing for his later possessiveness and obsession. This declaration, coupled with his offer to pay her student loans, exemplifies The Corrupting Influence of Wealth and Male Entitlement, as he uses both emotional intensity and financial power to secure Abigail’s dependence.

“‘Um, I’ll call you Madeleine.’ Abigail thought about it for a moment. ‘I can live with that, I guess. Why Madeleine?’ ‘I don’t know. It just popped into my head, like it’s the name that you should have. I’ll call you Maddy for short. What’s my name?’ ‘Scottie,’ Abigail said. ‘It’s a movie reference,’ Abigail said. ‘If I’m Madeleine, then you’re Scottie.’”

This exchange explicitly introduces the cinematic and theatrical allusions motif that runs through the novel. The characters’ adoption of aliases from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo frames their encounter as a deliberate performance.