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.

See more on the next page