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She just stared at him, unable to find words Her lover, her Master, thein love with, was a murderer

“I don’t knohat I was thinking I don’t think I intended to kill hih I wouldn’t have been terribly upset if he’d died, betrayed by an unreliable boat the wayimmediate family And no one would believe me when I tried to tell them”

“Temporary insanity”

He nodded “Yes But Jeffrey was the only one I blamed, not his wife, not his son They were innocent I was on the dock that eance for Nico I tried to stop the away froht I was mad I probably was I threw the boy into the water but she struggled”

“You saved their lives at the cost of your own”

“That is why I was given a second chance, not because I saved thely died in the attempt” He closed his eyes and shuddered “Do not ask me to describe my penance but be assured, I suffered fully for my crime”

She remembered his flat stateht he’d uratively

“How long?” she whispered

“Tiht, only an endless sliver of eternity But the first new man to arrive after my penance ended died on January 17th, 1989”

Twenty years He’d been tortured nonstop for over twenty years She couldn’t iine how he had endured with any shred of sanity intact

“Why are you telling me all this?”

He gazed directly into her eyes “I need you to understand I eance intothat because I knew best, I had the right to act on e”

He reached out and clasped her frigid hands in his The warers slowly thawed her frozen skin

“Iof a solution and having the ht to make it so The decision rests with you and your ift that I treasure, but that is not the sa over control of your entire life Perdonilo Forgive me”

“You’re saying…you’re sorry?”