And so she had swallowed them, one after another, and each one she swallowed made the next easier to serve, until a woman who had once carried herself through a hard childhood with her head high found herself, five years later, being told to stand near the restrooms so as not to embarrass the man who had promised to cherish her.

It had not happened all at once.

That was the trick of it.

Nobody hands you a life of standing in corners.

They only ask you to stand in one corner, this once, for a very good reason — and then another, and another, until the corner is simply where you live.

And tonight, under the glowing chandeliers, he said the cruelest thing yet.