“Think very carefully about your next move,” he went on, and the gentleness in his voice was the same gentleness that had convinced me for five years that I was only safe when I let him decide things for me.

“I can make the entire world believe you’re unwell and bitter and confused.

I’ve already made them half-believe it.

No one will listen to a word you say.” “You spent a year and a great deal of money trying to convince the world I’m falling apart,” I said.

“And here I am, on the phone, clear-headed, telling you no.

I’d think about your next move, Christian.” And I hung up, and shook for twenty minutes, and did not call him back.

That phone call taught me the exact anatomy of his power, and once I saw it, I was never as afraid of him again.