He looked at Alice Astley and laughed at himself. "Auntie, it's not that she can't do things without me, but I can't do things without her. I never learned how to love her. That's why I hurt her all the time, over the years. I don't just love her. I don't have the ability to love after meeting her. I want to keep her. No matter what happens in this life, I want to protect her as much as possible. The past is past, and the future is important, isn't it?"

I stood still and looked at him, with unspeakable pain in my heart, and my eyes fell on the...