PART 2 — THE SECRET BEHIND THE MONEY

At 7:04 that morning, I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and stared at the woman I had become.

My head was completely shaved.

My scalp was still tender.

There was a faint red line above my left ear where the clippers had caught my skin.

I looked exhausted.

But strangely, I didn’t feel broken anymore.

I felt clear.

That was new.

For three years, I had spent so much energy trying to keep everyone happy that I had stopped asking myself whether I was happy at all.

I had become an expert at compromise.

If Margaret complained about dinner, I cooked something else.

If Nathan said money was tight, I worked overtime.

If Margaret criticized my clothes, I changed them.

If Nathan complained that I came home too late, I apologized.

If his mother said I wasn’t spending enough time with the family, I canceled plans with my coworkers.

Every time they demanded something, I gave a little more.

And every time I gave, they asked for something else.

But that morning, standing in front of the mirror with no hair left to hide behind, I finally understood something.

They hadn’t shaved my head because they wanted to teach me how to be a wife.

They had shaved my head because they were afraid of the woman I was becoming.

I got dressed in a simple black suit.

Then I picked up my purse.

When I walked downstairs, Margaret was already sitting at the kitchen table.

She had made herself coffee.

She looked at my head.

Then she smiled.

“Well,” she said.