They’d tricked her. She’d sat there, pulling strings and trading favors and thinking that she was doing something real. For months—maybe years—she hadn’t noticed that she was being closed out. They’d made a fool of her. She should have been humiliated. Instead, she felt alive. This was her game, and if she was behind at halftime, it only meant they expected her to lose. There was nothing better than being underestimated.
