I bit down harder on my hand, and tasted my own salty blood on my tongue.
“The Fathers know that you have been hiding something, Jonathan. And, quite frankly, we have suspected that Mina might be involved for some time now.”
There was a pause. “We are hiding nothing, sir,” Jonathan said, his voice small and weak, like a child, still just barely grasping onto the hope of avoiding punishment.
“Quite frankly, Jonathan, if you are hiding what we think you are hiding, then you would not be the first. You would not even be the only one hiding it, as we speak! It is natural for a young man to have a certain level of interest in women, just as it is natural for a young man to dream of escaping the confines of marriage. But, unfortunately, we cannot—how does the proverb go? Have our cake and eat
