I had already stopped being that woman, somewhere in the previous weeks, without announcing it even to myself.

If he was going to begin locking doors on me, then I wanted him confident, I wanted him careless, I wanted him certain that the locks were landing where he aimed them.

A man who believes his cage is holding does not think to check the hinges.

So I let him believe it.

It is a strange and lonely strategy, to let someone frighten you on purpose so that you can watch how they do it, and I do not recommend the circumstances that teach it.

But it is the strategy that saved me, and it began that night, with a lock I pretended not to have heard.