You don’t know why he does this. You give him everything, every piece of yourself, and he still finds pleasure in messing with you—in watching the way your eyes glisten with tears as he scolds you for the tiniest mistake, or the way he shoves you around when he’s angry.

He has common tactics—his favourite ways to mess with your head. What else can you expect from him? He’s a psychopath. He does love you, but to him, love and suffering are not mutually exclusive. His most used manipulation is to treat you like a princess, spoil you, give you attention and affection, drop his work for you at the drop of a hat—and then nothing.

He’ll completely ignore you, glare at you as you cry and beg for him to talk to you. He’ll put you down and leave for days at a time, only to return and let the cycle repeat. You’re currently in the second part of the cycle. He’s sitting in his office working, and you’re sitting right next to him. But he hasn’t said a single word to you in the past two hours, not even a whisper. He can see you staring at him, and his response is to glare at you and go back to work.