Now that Cecilia had pieced together what kind of person Roarke originally was… and how much, Cecilia assumed, of a corruption Sienna's manipulation had caused… she understood why Arkai just couldn't bring himself to kill him.
It wasn't blind loyalty from Arkai. And Roarke wasn't a simple abuser, someone who would jump at any opportunity to harm.
Her husband was protecting someone he genuinely believed was a good man. A man who had made a lapse in judgment, who had committed a terrible, terrible mistake under circumstances that were far from simple.
In this world, nothing like that had happened yet.
Roarke was still a good person. Eighteen or nineteen years old, still working as Arkai's right-hand man, still loyal and trustworthy and decent. Sienna hadn't yet decided to involve him in her schemes, hadn't yet weaponized his love against him.
