His voice was calm as he said he killed her with nothing but his hands. After lightly rubbing her neck, his hand fell, and he pulled her into an embrace, her tousled hair catching in his fingers.
"The affection I feel for you, Eileen, is like this," Cesare said softly, his voice carrying a quiet certainty.
"It's not something as trivial as usefulness."
For a moment, Eileen was speechless, but in the end, her answer was inevitable. She nodded and murmured, "Yes." Cesare, as though praising her small response, gently stroked her hair.
"If you don't want to become my nightmare, you mustn't die for me. Do you understand?"
He had said this to her more than once, his voice always gentle but firm. Still, Eileen struggled to find an answer.
All her life, she had been taught that she existed only to die for him. The kindness Cesare had shown her felt like something she could never repay, not even with her own life.
