It would take four and a half hours to return to the sands of the Hamptons that I genuinely believed were under Cliff’s influence as well. No matter the trade or innocuous eyes that looked back to me, I could tell that everyone from the fellow police officers to the driver of the Uber I was forced to take back had been under his thrall. Even as I pleaded, bartered, and even at one point seduced them, they would do nothing but look to me as if they were terrified of an invisible presence behind me; one that I knew without a doubt was the influence of my stepfather. But as my steps approached the incline leading to the main entrance, my eyes would catch on the sight of reporters lining the curb within the reflection of the window. As if divine intervention struck my mind, I quickly carried m
