What steadied me was a thought that arrived, clear and cold, in the middle of that terrible sound: that every woman who had ever been struck in private and then disbelieved in public was, in some small way, standing in that room with me — and that I, who had the rare and unfair luck of a room that could not look away, owed it to all of them not to flinch.

So I did not flinch.

I let it play.

And when it stopped, I was still standing, and Gavin was finished.

Chapter 18 — The Family Tears Itself Apart

Gavin lunged at me.

Two security men caught him before he had taken a full step and held him hard by both arms.

“Sabrina, listen to me!” he sobbed, thrashing against them.