Anyway, his sins are my sins. What do old couples say? What's yours is mine. But my sins...well, they're my own.
-- Emma (chapter 1)

Importance: Emma has just read a newspaper article about a baby's skeleton being unearthed at a construction site in another part of town. She is terrified and deeply upset by the news and hints to the reader that she has a hidden past. There are many things about her past that she has not shared with her husband, Paul, a situation with which he is comfortable. Emma chooses to hold onto the past and its secrets and not share the burden of her sins with the one person who should be closest to her.

The problem is that a secret takes on a life of its own over time. I used to believe if I didn't think about what happened, it would shrivel and die. But it didn't. It...
-- Emma (chapter 4)