A woman who believes she is guilty does none of that, because to her the imprisonment is not injustice but consequence — is, in some terrible way, deserved.

Radley had understood the difference precisely.

He had not merely hidden Sidonie; he had convinced her that hiding was her only escape from a worse fate, that the shed was mercy compared to the prison cell she believed awaited her, that his cruelty was in fact her protection.

He had made himself, in her mind, not her captor but her rescuer — the one person keeping her out of the reach of the law.

For six years she had been grateful to him, on some level, even as he starved and isolated her, because she believed he was shielding her from the consequences of a killing.

There is no more complete domination than that: to make your victim believe her captivity is a kindness and her captor her only friend.