The truth is that I was not special.

I was lucky.

I happened to have been trained in ways that let me physically stop a second blow, and professionally trained in ways that let me dismantle Arthur’s finances, and those two accidents of my particular life gave me tools that most women in Patricia’s situation, or in mine, simply do not have — not because they are lesser, but because the world did not happen to hand them those specific weapons.

The lesson of my story is not be strong enough to break his fingers. Most people cannot, and should not have to, and there is no shame whatsoever in that.