Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [559]

I mean, we were always Cory and Lauren. She never asked me to call her “mother,” and I never thought to do it. I always knew she was my stepmother. But still… I always loved her. It mystified me that Keith was her favorite, but it didn’t make me love her any less. I was her kid, but not her kid. Not quite. Not really. But I always thought she loved me. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 559

Note

The passage works by paired symmetrical clauses with one word altered: ‘I was her kid, but not her kid,’ then the retreating qualifiers ‘Not quite. Not really.’ Each fragment is shorter than the last, so the certainty shrinks in real time on the page, and ‘But I always thought she loved me’ ends on the past tense and the word ‘thought’ doing all the damage.