It was Laurie’s first night back with the other women and after eating an enormous meal she bathed in the communal shower at the end of the hall rather than the private one next to John’s office. Her top bunk had been claimed by someone else, so she put sheets on a vacant bottom bunk and slept for a few hours before finding herself in bed staring blankly ahead, absorbing her so-called “freedom.”

When she’d been released from her solitary prison cell, she’d had no choice but ...