What Serena said was true.
His past kindness to Irene indeed carried elements of repaying a life-saving debt.
His persistence with Serena also indeed contained an obsession with making amends for past mistakes.
But he was absolutely certain that his feelings for Serena were not an obsession; they were genuine love.
He remembered the overwhelming panic when he couldn't find her; remembered countless late nights spent scrolling through her messages, feeling heartache when he read her words, "I want to raise a cat and a dog with you"; remembered the urgency when he learned half a year ago that Serena might be in Nordvik, a feeling like his heart was about to burst out of his chest; remembered the bitterness of his heart being clenched when he saw her kiss Ethan.
And during this riot, whe
