For three years these people had treated my fear as a resource — something to be manufactured and pointed and used.

Nathan built my supposed instability out of nothing so he could cite it.

Eleanor sharpened it.

The whole scheme ran on the assumption that a frightened woman is a controllable woman, that if they could just keep me anxious and small and off balance, they could move me wherever they needed me to go.

So I took the thing they meant to use against me and I made it the hinge the entire trap turned on.

I decided that my fear would no longer be their tool.