“I want my Ala to look at her father and see a man, not a coward.”

“It's like she looks at me and only sees what she wants to see. My father looks at me and sees only what he wants me to be.”

“I perceived now that there is a love deeper than theirs who seek only the happiness of their beloved. Would a father see his daughter happy as a whore? Would a woman see her lover happy as a coward?”

“I just wanted one person who would look at me and not want to see someone else.”“Who looks at you like that?” I lift my head up and lower my hands so I can see her face, and I can’t imagine anyone looking at this girl and wanting to see anything but her.“Everyone who loves me.”“Who is it they want to see?“A dead girl.”

“Alas! For shame," said Sir Launcelot, "that ever one knight should betray another! But it is an old saw, a good man is never in danger, but when he is in danger of a coward.”

“What do you want, Christian?”What did I want? To make her smile, to wipe away her tears, to hold her. To be a father, a real father, not one in title, but on who’d earned that right. I wanted to stay. “I want my family,” I forced through the lump in my throat.”