Dominated By Him
"You're already part of our family. You need to comfort her as her godmother."
"I won't do that." With that, she hung up.
I stared at my phone for a long moment, feeling like I'd just stepped off a cliff without realizing it.
My pride. That's what had destroyed the conversation. When she'd pushed back against my questions, when she'd refused to simply submit to my authority, my automatic response had been to assert dominance rather than try to understand her perspective. It was the same reflexive behavior that had made me a successful don, but it was poison in a marriage.