>>34350741I'm the only one she's ever known, the only one who's ever been kind to her? The only one who gave her a chance? And she loves me? That's not love, OP, that's Stockholm Syndrome. She doesn't want me, she wants my familiarity, she wants to ride in that rut she's become comfortable with. She was in duress when she met me, became attached to me. Was taken in by me. But a judgement made in duress isn't a judgement at all. That warm and fuzzy feeling we have isn't from love, it's from us mutually gaslighting each other. I know from experience. You try to pass off that as love? Well I did too. It's not. I want her to be truly happy, not gaslit to an emulation of happiness, a facsimile of affection, a -
a-
I'd give in. Because if we'd gone that far, maybe, just maybe, we could make it. Or at least pretend to make it. Maybe, just maybe
that would be enough.
"And then they gaslight each other into co-dependence, mutual parasitism, and convinced themselves it was love. And lived adequately together, contented, and convinced themselves it was happinesses to the ends of their days.
The End."
I could do that.
