Perhaps I’m not making myself clear here. This is a threat.

You’re the one who taught me that a man can’t be defined by anyone but himself.

This community that you’ve built, you have their respect, their love. I can rule them, but I cannot win them. Not without you. So rule with me, side by side, as equals, friends, brothers.

When you love someone and that person loves you in return you’re uniquely vulnerable. They have a power to hurt you that’s like nothing else.