VINCE

She'd always said she didn't wanna hurt Vanessa. She didn't hurt her family; her loved ones. She practically asked me to stay the fuck away because she was trying to preserve her good relationships with the people she cared the most about.

And I just ruined that. I just plunged her into the shit she was most scared of. In other to have her, I had to put her in that difficult spot. That was the plan, right? I shouldn't feel any fucking guilt. I shouldn't feel any strand of empathy.

But ...