He had built his entire sense of safety on that belief.

And so the most powerful thing I could do was not to defy him, which he was watching for and prepared to crush, but to counterfeit the correction he wanted so perfectly that he would stop watching at all.

It cost me something to do it.

Every bowed head and every soft agreement was a small withdrawal from a part of me I was not sure I would get back.

But I had decided that I would rather spend that part of myself buying his inattention than keep my pride intact inside his cage.