Wallie looked away. It would be a lie to claim that he's never thought of that.

"She might not have been as attracted to me as she was to Shonsu, but... I believe she loves me, not merely Shonsu's face." He remembered losing ground to Shonsu's temper, and the horrifying way she'd... submitted to him, closing herself off. He remembers, too, the joy in her face when he'd promised not to separate her and her son, something she'd never expected. "Shonsu was a cruel, corrupt, selfish man. Though I admit he is handsome."

He fully expected to be mocked for that. He couldn't bring himself to care; he felt sure that Jja loved him precisely because he wasn't Shonsu.