Because I spent so much time away, Grantham gradually took over most of our daily finances. At first it felt like teamwork. I had no reason to imagine that such a practical arrangement would become the opening through which his family reached into almost everything I had created.

I kept smoothing over every conflict they caused, because I believed marriage was something a person protected, even after that marriage had clearly stopped protecting her.

Our home was a two-story Colonial with pale shutters and a wraparound porch. Dad had provided the down payment as a wedding gift, and I financed every renovation afterward with money I earned.

I redesigned the kitchen. I restored the hardwood flooring. I turned the unused sunroom into a studio where I worked after the children fell asleep. Legally, the property belonged equally to Grantham and me.

In practice, Finanella and Willamina treated it as Thorn family property that I was merely permitted to occupy — as long as I behaved and remembered whose name held the greatest authority at the table.

I did not yet realize how literally they believed that.