I shook my head in anger. “What do you think I’m going to do to you? Stick your hand in a cup of warm water and make you pee yourself?” I turned sarcastic when I was really angry, and I knew I got that from Raven.

His eyes darkened at my words, but he didn’t say anything.

My voice trailed off, the hurt rushing in. “You really think I’d ever hurt you?” I could have snuck into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and hid it behind my back. I could have gone into his office, and when he came to me, I could have stabbed him right in the throat. There were countless ways I could have retaliated, but the thought never crossed my mind. I wasn’t a murderer by nature. But I also had no desire to cause him pain. Even if his death would result in Raven’s freedom, I still wouldn’t do it.

He dropped his gaze and rubbed his palms together. “I’m the reason you were in the camp in the first place. I’m the reason your sister is there now. I’m the reason she’ll be there for the rest of her miserable life.” He lifted his chin and looked at me again. “Yes. I think you’d hurt me—and I wouldn’t blame you.”

I held his gaze as the pain engulfed my heart. My eyes even watered a bit, hurt by the mere idea of ever causing him any kind of harm. “I would never…ever…hurt you.” My voice broke, so I stopped talking and shifted my gaze away.

He stared at my face for a long time. “The only way your sister gets out of there is if I’m dead. Surely you’ve come to this conclusion.”

I shook my head. “That’s not the way she gets out of there. There’s another option.” I turned back to look at him.

His gaze was as hard as ever. “No, there’s not.”

“I know you’ll let her go.”

He shook his head. “Never.”

“You’ll change your mind.”

His voice was quiet, as if he regretted having to say the words. “I won’t.”

I stared at him for a long time, seeing a distant softness in his eyes, a glimpse of who he really was. “I don’t know what made you this way, but I’m so sorry that you had to go through it.”

He immediately shifted his gaze to the window, his demeanor turning rigid like the door of an impenetrable vault.

“I wish I had been there for you…”

His eyes didn’t shift. He didn’t breathe. He was stone.

That was his reaction to trauma—to turn everything off and feel nothing.

He wasn’t a monster. He was just…heartbroken.