“She’s too good for us,” I finally said. “I don’t want her. She’ll only wind up ruined if she’s near us too long. Everyone does. And then we’ll be destroyed. It’s an ugly, vicious cycle I don’t care to repeat. Stitches tried to end his life tonight because the thought of not being with her was tearing him apart. The worry that she’d slipped away forever was eating him alive. I don’t want that for any of us, and I don’t want that for her. So maybe I am sinful, but it’s only because I give a damn.”
