"I was supposed to do more," Marian told him, the guilt pressing down on her even in this beautiful new room she'd been gifted. "All he wanted was me, and I knew that and if I hadn't been so selfish, fighting his every gesture and- every time I chose that, he took it out on all of you." She pushed off the wall suddenly, too much energy and angry to stay still like that.
"And I kept doing it anyway! I could have kept him busy and happy all that fucking time and he would have left you alone, but my own bloody pride was too much!" On the last words she had turned back to face the nearest wall and punched it, at the level of her stomach and hard. The pain of the strike went shuddering up her arm.