Again she listened, still pressing close and letting her fingers move along his face and hair, trying to give a bit of comfort. "I read once that sometimes when faced with rejection, people try to reject things or someone before it can happen to themselves. It's the idea of taking control of something that you really can't control at all."
It was incredibly hard to think of the dictator as a loving father, but for Kristoff's ease of mind, she forced herself to. "Maybe Doom is worried that you'll reject him in favor for the Richards. I know you wouldn't, and you know you wouldn't, of course. But maybe," she held his face in her hands gently, "he's trying to keep you away so that you can't hurt him. Even though I know you never would."
"When you think of family, who do you think of first? Doom or Richards?"