Quote · Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Stalking III
Where this was said
Chloe's Story: The Charismatic Controller
At 43:17 · chapter starts 40:50
Chloe opens her story from the Okanagan — 'the Napa of the North' — but the story itself takes place in Windsor, Ontario, in 1997. She was 16, and he was everything: funny enough to 'make a rock cry laughing,' charismatic enough that everyone in the room orbited him. He chose her. She went in hard. The control arrived quickly but insidiously — clocking the mileage on her car, calling every location she said she'd be to verify, a slow and deliberate isolation from friends and family. Chloe notes she didn't have the vocabulary for gaslighting in the '90s; she just kept trying to prove she was trustworthy. By 1998 they'd moved to Windsor to live with his relatives — adults she describes as 'actual '90s rock-smoking crackheads' — and the physical abuse began in earnest. She was isolated, ashamed, and explaining away the injuries as car accidents.
Chloe's boyfriend was charismatic and magnetic — but quickly began clocking her mileage, calling every location to verify she was there, and isolating her from friends and family. By the time they moved to Windsor, the physical abuse had begun, and shame kept her hidden from the people who could help.
