“I figured you would show some concern for him, at the very least. Act like a goddamn human being.”
“Because that’s what you would do?”
She nods. “I would, yes. That’s what you do for family.”
“We have very different ideas of what makes a family,” I drawl.
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“But there’s another difference, too,” I say. “I don’t use my family as an excuse. I don’t apologize for living the life I want. I don’t let their opinions interfere with mine. I don’t live for their approval. So why should you?”
“Because I love them,” she says. “I love them, Aleks. But of course you can’t understand that. You don’t love anyone or anything.”
I don’t say a word back to that. I don’t feel any need to defend myself to her. Which is one of the ways we are different. But I can feel her
