But sitting across that table with a binder full of facts, I understood, for the first time, a different and far greater kind: the power of a person who cannot be threatened because she wants nothing the other side can take away.

Arthur’s whole strength had always rested on having something to hold over people — their security, their comfort, their fear of losing what he controlled.

And he had nothing to hold over me, because I did not want his money, or his approval, or his family’s name, or anything at all that he possessed.

I had come for one thing only, a thing that was not his to grant or withhold, but simply his to stop stealing: another woman’s freedom.

You cannot threaten a person who wants nothing from you.