It was the cruelest thing anyone has ever said to me.

It was also, strangely, a gift, because it freed me completely from the hope that had kept me signing nothing but staying anyway.

After those two words, I stopped trying to be seen as a person by people who were constitutionally unable to see me as one.

And I started, instead, to protect the person they could not see — because someone had to, and my father had taught me how.

Chapter 4 — Never Show a Thief Which Lock Still Works