Victoria’s work took the first one back.

It would be my job, in a way I did not yet fully anticipate, to help take back the second.

I remember Victoria looking at us both across her desk when the filings were prepared, and saying, carefully, that we should brace ourselves.

“A man like this,” she said, “does not respond to losing control by becoming reasonable.

He tends to respond by escalating, at least at first.

So from here on, I want the two of you to be careful, to document everything, and to keep me informed of any contact he makes.” I told her we would, and I meant it, and I felt something settle when she said it, because she had just described, without knowing it, the exact discipline I had spent a decade living inside.