I saw now that Gretchen thought I was victimising her by telling a truth she didn’t want to hear. It made sense of the way she behaved during the rape case and why she felt OK about trying to shut me up. Even now, even after the other girl and her attempts on my life, Gretchen still felt that I was attacking her. Self-pity makes tyrants, it’s the defining characteristic of brutal regimes, but it was more than that with Gretchen. It was laziness too. Violetta suited her, flattered her, coddled her, and Gretchen would harbour Violetta until it no longer served her to do so.
