"He has other lovers. I mean nothing to him.

She's badly shaken by her behavior. Nothing in her life has prepared her for it. Standing on the redwood deck overlooking the beach, the ocean, staring into the distance where she'd first seen Jean-Claude emerge limping out of the mist. At her feet there's something moving; she gives a little cry and moves away. A small sand crab? A large hard-shelled beetle? Ceci runs to investigate. 'Oh, Mommy. He's hurt.'"

Hunger by Joyce Carol Oates in Female of the Species (2005)