So far, former John Edwards aide Andrew Young has sounded a bit like a spurned lover in his testimony in Edwards' campaign finance trial, but on Friday he sounded more like a scared lackey, saying he covered for Edwards out of fear for his own life.

Young said on Wednesday he loved Edwards, "we all did," but after his bromance with the former presidential candidate went south, he operated out of fear rather than love. He said he helped Edwards cover his affair, and wrote in his book, The Politician, that donations for which Edwards is now on trial "were gifts, entirely proper, and not subject to campaign finance laws." CBS reported Friday from the trial:

Young claims he pretended to be the child's father and took Hunter into hiding to help Edwards.

Young said Friday he met Edwards on a rural road in 2008 to demand that Edwards tell the truth about the affair. He says Edwards drove them through a remote rural area and at one point he worried he was going to be killed.

He said of the lines from The Politician: "I was scared to death ... I did this to cover my butt." 

On Thursday, The Atlantic Wire's Jen Doll compared Young's apparent obsession with Edwards to the movie Single White Female, in which a hip New Yorker (Allie) acquires an obsessive and adoring new roommate (Hedy) whose affection turns homicidal. Friday's revelation from Young shifts the script a little bit. In young's latest version of his relationship with Edwards, it's not Young who might have resorted to violence, but Edwards, and not out of affection but to maintain power. It's less Single White Female and more Bronx Tale, in which mob underling, C, asks mob boss Sonny if it's better to be loved or feared. Sonny's answer, straight from Machiaveli's The Prince: "It's nice to be both, but it's difficult. But if I had my choice, I would rather be feared. Fear lasts longer than love." 

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Adam Martin