[He knows it’s bullshit. And maybe that’s not how she actually meant it. But if Henry chooses to dwell on the idea for too long—though, pointedly, he does not—the reason why it bothers him would crystallize. The way it makes him feel more like One again, just a parameter defined by performance, rather than Henry.]

I said it didn’t change anything. And that she did aid me in her own way, if that mattered so much.

[Though it felt like handing out consolation prizes, for how much good it did.]

It didn't help.