You have nothing.”

Eighteen years.

I want to be accurate about what those four sentences are, because for three days I thought they were cruelty and they are not cruelty, or not principally.

They are a negotiating position.

Julian is a man who has spent his entire adult life opening negotiations from a position of overwhelming stated strength, whether or not it is true, because he learned early that most people accept the first frame they are given and never test it.

I watched him do it to vendors for a decade.