“I can give you money if that is what you want, and the villa has never treated you shabbily if all you want is a place to live. But you still insist on going outside and claim that you’re not trying to run away?”

Brendan spoke in a stern voice. He got up from the chair, moved closer to Deirdre, and clutched her shoulders. “Deirdre, I spoiled you by letting you go outside in the past few days and you’ve become wildly ambitious. Now you think you’re strong enough to leave?”

Deirdre was pinned against the door and felt deeply powerless when she heard Brendan’s furious remark. “Brendan, I’m a living human being. Don’t I even have the right to go and get a job?”

“You have to be capable of taking care of yourself if you want to go out and get a job. Could you live through the winter out there without me? I’m afraid no one would know even if you froze to death out there!”

Brendan had initially intended to tell Deirdre that the outside world would never tolerate a blind person, yet his re