The words no longer wounded me the way they once had.

I had gone too far away, for too long, to still be the person they were designed to break.

Chapter 19 — The One Part I Kept

People have asked me, since, whether I regret hiding my marriage from my family for three years — whether it was not, in its own way, a sad thing, to keep something so happy secret from the people closest to you.

And I understand the question, but my answer is no, and understanding why has taught me something about survival that I did not know before.