"And if she wanted to leave?" Lina asked.
"She wouldn't," he answered. "And what is love if not knowing someone better than they know themselves?"
He stepped closer now, a slow gravity between them.
"You see it as obsession," he said, voice like dark silk. "But I see it as devotion. I gave her the safest place I knew—my home. My world. Where no one could break her. Not even herself."
Lina's breath hitched. "And what about what she wants?"
Fredrich's jaw clenched, just briefly. "She didn't know what she wanted. She thought she wanted freedom. But that was before she understood what it really meant—before the betrayals, before the lies. I gave her certainty instead. I removed the burden of choice."
"And that's love to you?" she asked, breathless.
"Yes," he said simply. "Unconditional. Ruthless. Complete."
