““She didn't have to knock; she had her own key. How thoroughly she had replaced me. She shut the door behind her and I gulped. It was no more than I'd done to him, I had to accept. Substantially less, in fact. So this was how he felt in January when I walked out. Watching me go, believing I'd soon be in another man's arms, my mind no longer dwelling on him because Daniel was there, the way his mind was no longer dwelling on me because Valentina was there. That I had been so sickeningly cruel without even knowing it; that was a cold, hard shock. Such an ugly bite to it, the taste of my own medicine.””
![“Next came the Patent laws. These began in England in 1624; and, in this country, with the adoption of our constitution. Before then [these?], any man might instantly use what another had invented; so that the inventor had no special advantage from his own invention. The patent system changed this…” quote by Abraham Lincoln](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/449/abraham-lincoln-88_adoption_next-came-the-patent-laws-these-began-in_1828.jpg)
