" Think about it,” I said softly. “You’ve been blaming yourself. Who do you think Aleks has been blaming this whole time?” Dante was quiet for a moment before he began shaking his head. “No, it wasn’t his fault. He…he’d know it wasn’t his fault.” “How, baby?” I asked gently. “All he knows is that he didn’t do what you told him. And chances are, the people who took him somehow convinced him to go with them. They probably had some story about you being hurt or whatever…Aleks would have believed them, but when he realized later it had all been a lie-” “He would have blamed himself for falling for it,” Dante interjected. He’d settled enough that I released my hold on him and eased some of my weight off his body. We "

― Sloane Kennedy , Atonement (The Protectors, #6)