My wife gave me the silent treatment over something small, and at first I thought it would pass, but it didn’t. I’d come home, try to talk, and get nothing, not even eye contact. I apologized just to end it, but that wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted me to chase it, to break. That’s when I realized it wasn’t about being upset, it was about control. So I stopped playing along. I handled my own things, stopped asking, stopped reacting. And the quieter I got, the more it bothered her. She’d hover,