When they were angry, they’d say the cruelest things to him and then, later, deny it had happened. If he argued, he was disrespectful; if he felt hurt, he was too sensitive; if he stayed quiet, he had an attitude, and if he avoided them then he was probably up to no good. They were emotional, volatile, controlling. They’d treated love as an obligation. It came with conditions, and God help him if he stepped out of line. If they could’ve cut him up into pieces and kept only the parts they found acceptable, they would’ve done it in a heartbeat.
