[He lifts his tea to disguise the faint tremor in his hand, letting the cup rest against his lower lip for a couple of seconds as he focuses very intensely on a single blade of grass somewhere out in front of him.]

I knew what I was doing. [Alexei tells her quietly.] I could have done everything differently, but I didn't.

[He shakes his head.]

Abel got the worst version of me I could have been. It wasn't just the Alliance that hurt him. I did.