He closed his eyes and slumped down, wishing he could disolve away.
"I'm sorry, Belle, and I swear to you, no harm and no foul was intended to you or yours, I swear it on the family and on the blood. I was looking for a place to hide and to just be... to somehow come to grips with what had happened to me, and when you were so nice... everything just happened from there. Jeanne got more real by the day, and now... I almost wish she had not stopped being at all."
Tears filled his eyes.
"I am a failure, sister, and not a good man, but I had a taste of being happy these last weeks, no matter how false the pretenses were."