Toward the bedroom that no longer opened with my key.

“All the way down.”

That afternoon, I returned home.

Sabrina was pacing through my kitchen discussing investors for a second salon location.

She looked at me once.

Then continued talking as if I were old furniture.

She still believed I was simply a tired butcher who had become too weak to defend himself.

What she did not understand was that staying quiet and giving up were not the same thing.