does "he broke you down"here = he freak you out? make you crazy? really angry?
“I snapped one day when he strolled into the place where I was hav-ing lunch with a coworker. I marched over, told him to leave me the hell alone, called him names, created a terrible scene until the woman I worked with got me out.”
“He broke you down,” Eli stated.
“Completely. He stayed absolutely calm through it, or I thought he did. And that night he broke into my apartment. He was waiting for me when I came home. He was out of control, completely out of con-trol. I fought back, but he was stronger. He had a knife—one of mine from my kitchen—and I thought he’d kill me. I tried to get out, but he caught me, and we struggled. He cut me.”
Eli stopped walking, turned to take both of her hands.