He did not consider that the wife he had spent months treating as furniture might have a mind, and a plan, and a dead father’s foresight behind her.

Why would he?

She had never fought back.

She was an obstacle, and obstacles do not strategize.

His contempt for me was so complete that it never occurred to him to be careful around me, and his impunity was so total that it never occurred to him that anyone was watching.

The very arrogance that let him burn me was the arrogance that let him be recorded burning me, and then let him confess, on tape, over my body, and then let him spend six months putting the rest in writing, all without a flicker of caution, because caution is for people who believe they can lose, and Derek had never once, in his whole life, believed he could lose.

That is the hidden gift the truly arrogant give to the people they underestimate: they stop watching.

They get sloppy.

They say the quiet part aloud.

An enemy who respects you is dangerous, because he is careful.

An enemy who holds you in total contempt has handed you the one thing you need, which is his own carelessness — and a careful, patient person on the receiving end of that contempt can build, out of an arrogant man’s own certainty, the very rope he will hang himself with.

Derek was certain.

It felt, to him, like strength.

It was the softest spot he had.