Some people lie because they like the power it gives them over others. If not you, he'd have found another and done exactly the same- no comfort to you, perhaps, but a truth all the same.

[Which is about as simple as he can make it. He knows all the reasons to lie, and all the ways people do it, but that kind of lying he knows mostly from experience. And for him, it had so often been about proving his superiority, of making people dance because he could.]

Then you've learnt from the experience. In the grand scheme of things, that actually puts you ahead of some, trust me.