She was in the business of manufacturing surrenders from women who could be made afraid enough, and I had walked into her office as a nearly perfect specimen of her raw material.

What she did not weigh, sitting there so sure of me, was that a frightened woman and a weak woman are not the same thing, and that fear, in the right person, does not produce a signature.

It produces a spine.

Chapter 7 — I Took My File and Walked Out

“Here is what she did not count on,” I said.

“I took my medical file off her desk, and I stood up, and I walked out of her office, and instead of signing anything, I sued the clinic for ethical violations.”