“No acknowledgment,” I said, throwing up my hands in annoyance. “You’re too heartless to care about anyone but yourself, aren’t you? Most people raise their children because they love them. I’m not even yours, so what were you getting out of it?”

He lifted his leg to knock me off, and I backed away out of his grasp as he held on to the wall to stand up.

“And maybe you could love,” I went on bitterly, “before the Evil Eye sucked the soul out of you. Maybe you loved Saba. But that’s all over, because now you don’t know how. You’re just an empty shell of bitterness and anger.”

Jember grimaced from his own pain, merely scowling at mine as he pushed himself away from the wall. “Andromeda—”

“I should be the angry one!” I snatched out my knife, pressing the tip to his stomach before he could step any closer, freezing him in place. “You’re a miserable old man and you took a five-year-old in to drag her down with you.”

There was a tense silence. He moved. I didn’t have to. A small stain of red began to spread on his shirt from the tip of the knife.

“Were you miserable growing up?” he asked finally.

The short answer?… No. And it didn’t shock me to say it. We had good moments. And when it wasn’t good, I made the best of what I could.

But what slipped out of my mouth was, “You were cruel to me.”

“I’m not cruel by nature … if that eases the pain of it.”

“It doesn’t.”

The silence that followed felt like a needle point creeping slowly beneath my skin.

“You were a sweet little girl. Always wanted hugs and kisses, even when we were still strangers. Do you know how painful it was to break you of that habit?”

My hand trembled. The stain of blood spread further, running out and downward, like a disturbing magnifying glass. “Then why did you do it?”

“Well, first of all, hugging strangers is a poor survival habit.”

He had a point, but I wasn’t going to acknowledge that now. Not when I needed him to admit that he was wrong. “If that’s your explanation, it’s not good enough.”

“You know why, Andi.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

Jember laced his fingers behind his head, taking a deep breath as he looked at the ceiling for a moment. He swore and then looked at me again. “Because it hurt, that’s why. Every little kiss and nose rub was like a new tear beneath my skin. Loving like you do hurts, Andi. So I broke you of the habit, along with any other habit that would make you seem weak to our environment. So that you could survive in the outside world … and so that I could survive living with you.”