That is the quiet horror of a marriage to a man like Rupert.

He does not break you in a single blow.

He accepts, gratefully, every reduction you offer him, until you have offered him all of you, and then he complains that there is nothing left.

The cruelest part is that I did most of the filing myself, believing I was building something.

You cannot rob a woman who is handing you her own power a piece at a time and calling it love.

He never had to take anything from me.

For eight years, I gave.

Chapter 3 — The Name I Chose

There was one thing about me Rupert never questioned, and it was the thing that should have frightened him most: my name.

I went by Cecilia Marchetti.