It is a particular theft, that use of the word.

They wanted my dignity in the sense of my silence, and they called the theft a kindness.

I had watched Anneliese do this for years at her own dinner table, dressing control as grace, and I had always, before, gone along with it, because going along with it was the price of my seat.

I did not go along with it that morning.

I let the word sit in the air, and I did not offer her the quiet she had come to collect.