The true lock is the conviction that you are helpless, and the moment that conviction breaks — the moment some deeper part of you says no, I will not stay here and be broken, I will crawl out on my elbows if that is what it takes — the cage is already, in the only way that finally matters, undone.

My leg was shattered and I had a rusty bottle opener and an hour of screws ahead of me in the dark.

But I had decided.

And a woman who has truly decided to leave is the one thing a cage like that cannot hold, because they built it to contain a person who believed she was helpless, and I had just stopped being her.

Chapter 5 — Out