“Why?” My voice broke with emotion. “Why do you keep my sister prisoner and punish her for running, when she’s doing exactly what you would do if you were in her situation? Why do you keep these girls against their will for forced labor when you’ve never forced me to do anything? Why do you not give the woman you love the one thing she wants more than anything? Why…?” The tears kept falling. “You have no idea what it’s like to love a man with everything that you have…and he stands for everything that you’re against. You have no idea what it’s like to love a man who’s literally keeping your sister a prisoner in a labor camp. And the only way I can justify it is…by believing that it’s not who you are. I truly believe that, that you’re better than this.” Everything broke through the dam and came rushing out, giving me a needed catharsis that I’d bottled inside for so long.

His enormous chest continued to rise and fall with labored breaths. An invisible button had been hit, because for the first time, he didn’t have a distinct reaction. He continued to think about every single word I spoke.

“Tell me…” I was on the precipice of truth, so close to understanding this man.

He inhaled one final deep breath then went still. “You’re wrong to believe I’m anything more than what you see. I feel nothing for anyone besides Magnus—and you. I do these terrible things because I’m a terrible man. My love for you is independent of my crimes and tragedies, and it’s not enough to release my hate. Your sister will never be free. She had her chance—and she blew it.”

Fender didn’t speak to me for a couple days.

He didn’t order me out of his sight. When I came to the office, he didn’t tell me to leave. He just didn’t talk to me or look at me. He took his dinner alone in his room and never came to mine.

I let him boil until the water was completely evaporated. No point in trying to be with him when he wanted nothing to do with me. But when another day passed, the isolation became overwhelming. It wasn’t just that I had no company, but I missed the company I enjoyed the most.

I made a gentle knock against his bedroom door before I opened it.

He wasn’t on the bed.

I let myself inside and heard the sound of the fire in his living room. I moved farther into his quarters and found him sitting on his couch, elbow on the armrest, fingertips against his lips. A bottle of scotch was on the table in front of him, along with a glass with a few drops of liquid at the bottom.