"Have you tried to leave him? Has he let you go?" Patience replied. "I am here because I don't want another girl to die because of him. I don't want you to end up in jail or hospital or in a grave because of him. I'm not pretending to be anything. I made an oath not to let that happen again if I could help it, and I won't let you go back to him without doing my best to stop you from getting hurt. I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened and I didn't do everything in my power."
He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Normally, he was very good at keeping his temper, but there was something about the Sins that got to him more than anything else. "What ideals am I forcing on you, Zoe? I am not trying to convert you to Christianity. I am trying to warn you about what you are involved in before it destroys you. You don't know that I preach anywhere. I have a job, and it is not in a pulpit. I'm not a saint or an angel. I am the embodiment of a virtue. Do you even know what that means? I have been around for hundreds of years. I have met people and seen things that you can't imagine, and you try to tell me that I am a hypocrite based on what you think is right? You have known me and Greed for a fraction of a second of our existence, Zoe, so don't presume to know better."
Patience, to his credit, kept his tone civil. Yes he could be condescending, but he wasn't being snarky or snippy.