He did not understand that I had already found the key.

There is a point in a campaign of control at which the controller’s confidence becomes his greatest vulnerability, and Jonathan had reached it without noticing.

For months his method had worked, and the working of it had taught him that it always would, that I was contained, that every door he closed stayed closed.

And so when the end came, he was moving quickly and carelessly, snapping cards and reassigning accounts and emptying the carriage house, broadcasting his whole strategy in the open because he no longer believed there was anyone watching who could use it.

A frightened opponent is dangerous precisely because he is still paying attention.