My therapists would not let me choose it.

Lift your chin, they said, over and over, until it stopped being an instruction and became a habit and then became, somewhere along the way, the truth of how I carried myself.

By the time I chose that navy dress, I was no longer a woman deciding whether to hide.

I was a woman deciding when to speak, and dressing accordingly.

Chapter 15 — The Corridor

On the morning of the evidentiary hearing, Lars arrived laughing with his mother.