... “I am Michael Scott. Another man lies in my grave.”
Stunned silence.
“Then it’s true! You are in love with her.”
“Yes, and I have been for most of my life. But it’s not something sordid, Stephen, whatever you’ve been told, or your fears may imagine. I’ve watched her grow from a child. I’ve dried her fatherless tears. I’ve loved her in silence, as a brother and a friend. And never, until a few days ago, did I tell her all that was in my heart.
“She loves me too, Stephen. If ever two people were meant to be together, it is she and I..... I have asked her to marry me, and she’s consented.”
Stephen walked away to control himself, as bitter jealousy burned through him. The thought of her with anyone was more than he could bear. He whirled, his face flushed and distorted.
But anger was soon drowned in despair. Because the truth had finally come to him: he was in love with his sister, whom he could never have. He clenched his fists to his eyes as if to banish all sight, all memory. Then slowly he mastered himself, became perfectly still.
“Well,” he said darkly. “There it is.”
“What do you mean, Stephen?” The Englishman looked full into his face, then turned away.
“My trial. My test. In order to free the one person I truly love, I must lose her forever. To do what is right for others, I must do injury to myself. It is a bitter choice.”