Right after our honeymoon ended, my husband said it was time for me to learn “the rules of being a wife.” I calmly changed into my boxing clothes and gloves.

bright and clean above us.

Outside, evening sunlight spilled across the windows. My life was quiet again, but it was not the quiet of fear. It was the quiet that comes after locking the door on people who believed love meant ownership—and discovering they had never possessed the key.