He was building a case that you were unfit.”

For the first time that evening, Isadora’s composure nearly failed her.

Because this was worse than an affair, worse than theft.

Lucius had not merely planned to leave her and take what he could.

He had planned to declare her incompetent — to use her own quietness, the very reserve she had cultivated to protect her privacy, as evidence that she could not be trusted with her own life.

He had looked at a woman who chose not to shout and decided that silence could be made to look like weakness in a courtroom.