He and his mother had rehearsed for tears.

They had rehearsed for pleading, for a fight, for a bride who would rage or collapse and then, either way, stay — because rage and collapse are both forms of engagement, both ways of saying this matters to me, you matter to me, I am not leaving. What they had no script for was a woman who simply agreed, pleasantly, and meant something entirely different by it than they did.

My smile was not surrender.

It was the sound of a door closing very quietly somewhere they couldn’t see.

When you have already decided to leave, a cruel man loses all his power over you in an instant, because his power was only ever the fear that you might go.

Casper thought he was breaking me in.