And he was right that Marisol could take it.

That was never the question.

The question, which no one in that house had ever thought to ask, was whether she should have had to — whether being able to bear something alone is the same as deserving to be left alone to bear it.

It is not.

And Marisol had needed a broken marriage to learn the difference: that her strength had never been a reason to give her less, but that she had let it be treated as one, for five long years, because she, too, had believed the compliment that was actually a cage.

“Have you officially filed?” Dorian finally asked, dreading it.