My family may not have been worth any extra effort on my part… but Paul’s was.
Perhaps I should have felt that Paul had already gotten his punishment, but that was Haydn’s rescue, not my vengeance. And my need for revenge had suddenly become something irrepressible, due, I’m sure, in no small part to my new ability to exact it with ease.
And perhaps I should have felt that Paul’s family had no culpability for the actions he committed, but I still blamed them. I blamed them for letting him pretend that he was safe, that he was righteous. I knew them all well and not one of them warned me against his dark side. Not one said, “He’s not what he seems. Don’t trust him.â€
The argument could have been made that they weren’t aware of the dark side any more than I was, but it didn’t matter. The justification for their torment was enough for me, because I was now someone who didn’t need one at all.