His wife, of whom he loves dearly. The dotted honeymoon periods of their date-nights, the gifts, the little loving compliments; these are what cover the reassuring manipulation regarding their child, the 'it'll be alright', the gaslighting. He does love her, that's no lie; but he can't help the web of lies that even he may now believe.

Malcolm always wanted a child of his own; he looked at the children in his sessions, he knew which parents should not have been parents, and knew he could do it better. So when Amelia fell pregnant unexpectedly, he thought he would be a sure fit...

He truly loved James, but he didn't love James' imperfections. Like a mathmatician seeing a problem with an obviously wrong answer, he would always attempt to correct James' 'wrong' behaviours. He would never be optionally harsh- at least not in the beginning- instead choosing methods he knew would work. Unfortunately for James, these methods were conditioning to an incessent degree. Convincing Amelia that this was best- and it was his job, he knew best- it left James feeling constantly unsettled, confused, and with no parent figure to run to. And that manipulative controlling caused James to develop Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Malcolm didn't notice at first; the signs didn't often present overtly. But the man had grown habit of watching his now 8 year old like a lab rat, and eventually the changes of mood, speech, the dissociation, all began to click. 'Multiple Personality Disorder' wasn't well-versed, but it had come up in his sphere. He pretended he didn't know, but with his awful actions normalised, his curiosity got the better of him...