“I wanted the truth from you then, and I want it now.” He didn’t blink. “Are you happy with the way things were?” Confronted, panicked, with nowhere to run, she stilled—and the answer flashed in her head. She saw fully, for the first time, the price she’d paid for security. For eight years, the limits and routines of her marriage had kept her safe, but those walls she’d hidden behind had also been a cage. “I want more.” In her admission, she heard the click of a key, felt the tremble of something shifting, opening within herself. “I always have.”
