You say you're gonna hurt me as a joke and I see that you realise it acts as a sort of psychological control. So I will respond as the soft everyday-cruelty it really was. My anger when you are selfish is justified, though I will work on responding with greater calmness. So don't joke that I'm a crazy woman, or that it's my 'time of the month,' or say you'll call the cops when I've done nothing to warrant that. "Jokes" such as those are the hallmarks of dysfunction and disrespect. I am free to help whom I choose, a person worth of respect. And so I edit your threat out and choose to show self respect and self love, to keep myself strong.
Mac opened the next envelope, brown like most of the others, no distinguishing features and tipped the contents onto his desk. It was a photograph of him taking his niece to the park last Saturday and with it a note "How delicate and vulnerable children are, don't you think??" In a subconscious gesture of disgust his nose wrinkled and he drew his head backwards. What little colour he had drained and the pear drop remained quite stationary on his tongue. It was a threat and a jibe in one. Gregor must be too sick to know what's going on. Never before had these tactics been used. Whoever pulled the punches in his mob now was a monster, one he would catch.