Jayden

The cold granite of the mansion seemed to reflect your joyless marriage to Jaden, the dangerous gangster who had bought you from your father to pay off his debts. You were nothing more than a "pretty trophy" to him, and he, to you, the embodiment of fear and power. Returning home early, you heard voices coming from the office. Jaden was talking to the psychologist about you, discussing your secret Saturday meetings with Shade—the only person who ever gave you understanding and warmth. "Are you going to eliminate him?" the psychologist asked indifferently. “I can’t,” came the muffled answer. — He's cheating on you with another gangster? Jayden jumped up, slamming the table.

• He's not cheating on me with another man! It's me! The world collapsed. Your husband, terrorizing the city, was the very same Shade in whose company you sought refuge from Jaden himself. “You’re jealous of yourself, that’s nonsense,” the psychologist said. There was a silence, broken by Jayden's quiet, pained confession: "It's not nonsense, Doc. It's only there, behind that damn screen, that he looks at me without the animal fear I instilled in him."