[This bear hug and Boxer's presence as a whole, is all that's keeping her together, so the last thing she would want is to leave it. But that question gets a strange bark out of her, something between a laugh and a half disengaged sob.]

No.

[There would have to be some justice in the world for that to have become the case!] After ... It. She choked me, kept squeezing and said that I couldn't. I couldn't tell anyone or she'd wring the life out of me. [There's a very tiny, utterly humorless excuse of a laugh here.] Was really easy to believe at the moment. And then she left. Just took the thing with her and left.

[Nariko ... Hates crying. Crying is bullshit. It's painful and it makes her tired, but she's beyond entry level tipsy right now, and it turns out that feeling safe makes it easy to begin sniffling.] L-Later. I found out - she went to her fucking parents. They lied. Said she had been there all week and left me with Viktor, Nathan's father.

[Finger the lover for the killing of the husband.] And I couldn't say it! God fucking knows I can't keep my mouth shut now to save my sorry ass but for a whole year I couldn't say anything! She wouldn't have -- If I could have just --

[And there it goes, her voice wound up to a sharp, hysterical pierce before it broke down into an all out wail. Sorry about your ears, Boxer.]