"I will be gentle, yet firm in my explanation that there is nothing between he and I," he shook his head. "Really, this 'Elijah' here before me really made a fucking mess of things," it was bad when Elijah resorted to blue colar vocabulary, but he was that annoyed with this 'other' him.

"And as for Hope having lovers, she is a smart girl, smart enough to make any man or woman cower in fear if they hurt her on their own. She doesn't need her absentee Uncle having an opinion on things that are not his business."

He shook his head.

"No. Not Katherine. Not Tatia. Not even Gia or Celeste. You. It's always been you. I...I don't know why you don't remember, but it's clearly no more than I deserve after compelling all of you away."