But those words—he had said them himself.

Caroline truly couldn’t understand him. It seemed like, for years now, every conversation between them played out as if on separate wavelengths.

He watched impassively, as though her pain were a distant spectacle. And she—she had long since grown used to struggling in the muck, knowing no rescue would come.

“Stop, stop it! Let go of me, let go!”

Her protests were futile. Her entire body ...