HarperCollins e-books

As the only surviving offspring of the Peyton family, Annabelle and her younger brother had always been unusually close despite the ten-year difference in their ages

This is Mr. Simon Hunt

He’s an entrepreneur.”

“You mean a financial speculator?” Annabelle

In time, he’d learned how the world truly measured the worth of a man. His rebelliousness was replaced by a very sincere desire just to stay alive. He’d learned to live in a world where a man’s word was his bond—breaking it could be a death warrant.

There are a million rationalizations that men employ to deny the exploitation that they’re a part of.

If they are not good victims, in other words, they are not real victims.

It is clear that race and class make a difference in how much of a victim we believe you are.

As William Jelani Cobb, a professor at Spelman College, points out, “As long as black women could be understood to be sexually lascivious, it was impossible to view them as victims of sexual exploitation.”

their best chance for survival was to comply and bond with the person who had the power to keep them alive.

There are no studies that suggest that it takes a “weak” personality to succumb to Stockholm syndrome or trauma bonding, but clearly children are more vulnerable and more easily convinced that their abuser has the power to carry out all and any threats. It is not surprising that they would bond more quickly than adults to their abusers.