August 18
“Why didn’t you tell Alex to back off?” Phillip asked. “You obviously saw that he wasn’t helping. He’s your husband. Couldn’t you talk to him?”
“I think perhaps Alex was working from a woefully inaccurate definition of ‘marriage’,” Daniel said, “as demonstrated by his behavior. To defy him was to defy the Almighty.”
“Alex…” Mirielle began, but trailed off. “He’s not the kind of person you say no to, for one reason or another.”
“One reason being that he can be quite persuasive and charming, when he is not angered,” Daniel said, “and the other being that when he is angered, saying no to him would be something you would quickly wish you had not done, and would therefore not soon do again.”
“He was hurting you?” Chloe asked.
“Only once in a while,” Mirielle said. “It wasn’t like those people on TV, where they come home and get beat up every night. Alex didn’t hit us unless he thought it was really bad.”
“But he did hit you,” Phillip said. “That bastard just hit the top of my scumbag list.”
“Mirielle,” Chloe said, “that’s still wrong. He was abusing you, controlling you.”
“One could even use the word ‘dominating’, with little chance of being accused of hyperbole,” Daniel said. “Bit by bit, Alex made every effort to metamorphose the sense of self-worth Mirielle possessed into a sense of dependence upon Alex. He reduced her self-confidence, made her feel incapable and incompetent. To his eyes, the marriage license was little but the title to her body and soul.”
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