‘Please, just try to listen. He didn’t even know. He was just in love, and as soon as he realized what they were doing, he tried to get away from them. The problem was they wouldn’t let him leave but rather forced him to help them that last time. And now you want to make him turn himself over to the police.’

‘Yes, of course. It’s the right thing to do.’

‘Is it? How can you be so sure?’

‘The truth. No matter what we do, it’s going to come out one way or another. Either he reports to the police and gives a statement, gets it out of his system and faces the consequences. Or he continues down the path he’s on now and lets it eat him up from inside until he completely falls apart.’

‘My God, you’re so dramatic.’

‘Am I? Or are you having trouble seeing things clearly because you behave exactly the same way as our son?’

‘And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?’

‘Sonja, as long as you choose not to tell me what happened between you and that art dealer, we’re never going to be able to move on and you will just feel worse and worse.’

‘We’re not talking about me, we’re talking about Theodor. Can we please stick to the subject at hand.’

‘Fine.’ Fabian spread his hands. ‘I’ll say it again: Justice must be allowed to be done, no matter how badly we want Theodor to—’

‘So what’s more important? Justice or your own son?’

‘That’s a false dilemma.’

‘No it’s not. So what’s it going to be? Justice or Theodor? Go ahead, choose.’

‘And what makes you think this is up to—’

‘If you insist on this,’ Sonja broke in, fighting back her tears, ‘Theodor is going to fall apart. Just so you know. He’s not going to be able to handle it.’

‘Sonja.’ Fabian moved closer to her on the sofa. ‘It’s not that I don’t understand that this is hard.’

‘Hard?’ Sonja looked at him with revulsion. ‘Is that what this is for you? “Hard”? Can’t you see it’s going to be completely devastating? Can you even picture Theodor in prison, serving, I don’t know, a number of years for something he might not even be guilty of?’