How, Belle? After everything…how could you do it?
-- Hemi (chapter 1)

Importance: This quotation (the inscription of Regretting Belle) is repeated throughout the novel, taking on multiple meanings throughout the story. Hemi writes this to Belle as the inscription of his novel, questioning how she could leave him standing at the train station platform alone, after everything that they had experienced. Hemi believes that Belle chose Teddy and abandoned him when he wrote this book and that their relationship had been nothing but a distraction to her. At first, Belle believes the inscription to mean that Hemi found out that she kept their child hidden from him for years but later believes he is just covering up lies regarding the newspaper story she thinks he published. Neither Hemi nor Belle is correct about the truth behind the actual events, lending even more weight to the inscription. The inscription also sets Belle’s version...