And I want to dwell on that phrase of his — I just wanted you to bow your head for once — because it is the most honest sentence anyone in that family ever spoke to me, and because it reveals the thing that so many people, looking in from outside, cannot grasp about a marriage like mine.

There were no black eyes.

There was no shouting, most of the time; Logan rarely even raised his voice.

To an outsider, ours would have looked like a perfectly civilized union, two accomplished people from good families, and this is why it took me so long to name what was happening, and why I was so ashamed once I did.

Because what Logan wanted was not to hurt me.

Hurting me was never the point.