Damien tackled these questions one at a time and offered Salvatore no hesitation that could be adversely scrutinized either. "[People have been trying to change or control me since I was born. Your daughter has never tried to do either. She both accepts who I am and actively doesn't want me to change.]" Clearly this was part of a larger answer, because Damien wasn't finished and simply provided the words with some space to sink in and not be carried off by the petulant breeze.
"[You'll find it strange. But when Fiorella first told me about how you view the birth of a child here, it wounded me. I think it made me feel a little jealous too. Where I'm from a child like me can be bought and altered to the needs expected of them. And if a child like me were to fall short of those expectations? Abort and try again. Compare that to the absolute joy you have for a child being born at all. You view them all as miracles. So of course I wanted to be part of a family like that. I've always wanted to.]" Damien was unsure how much Salvatore knew about Liberty, its culture and oddities. But if this statement was taken at face value then it painted quite a bleak picture regarding the sanctity of life in the cradle of the Sector.
But these statements needed closure, which was something Damien had in mind before he'd even started speaking. "[Even more significant than any of this is our daughter. Quite possibly the greatest gift I could have asked for and know I don't deserve. But all the same, she has the chance to live a life I was robbed of. And there's nothing I won't do to keep it that way.]" There was a momentary silence again, but somehow this one came across as more grim given his emphasis on the last word.
"[Nothing.]" This final word punctuated the exact moment Salvatore could see the real measure of who he was talking to. It was a glimpse into a mind that blurred the line between love and madness, although perhaps the two had more in common than expected. Damien truly would do anything it took to preserve this family, in all its ways, and by any means necessary. The scale of which that conviction could apply to would certainly disturb a lesser man.
But not someone like Salvatore. To him, this was likely all too familiar.
