“We make a good team,” I said, and smiled.

People love to tell women to stay quiet and soft, to swallow their families’ cruelty for the sake of keeping the peace — as if a woman who holds her tongue must be too weak to fight.

What my father and mother and brother never understood is what happens when a woman finally decides to fight for herself. Corner a new mother, insult her child, try to rob her while she’s flat on her back in a hospital, and you don’t win.

You only teach her how strong she can be — how to think, how to find the right allies, and how to leave you behind with nothing.

“You look dangerous tonight, Mrs. Sanders,” Alistair whispered against my ear.

“I’m always dangerous, Mr. Sanders,” I whispered back, and kissed his cheek.

Then I turned away from the last of the old memories for good, and walked forward into the bright, whole life I had made — because nothing on earth is harder to stop than a woman who has finally taken hold of her own world.

THE END.