"I couldn't have cared for Carolina and continued with my studies otherwise." Simple but truthful.

He'd held himself together well enough right after the news came, he had to be strong for Clair... and then the first anniversary came and he fell apart. That night he'd opened the bottle and drained it, soon after he switched to whiskey and it didn't take long for things to start to spiral out of hand.

It had taken an incident where if he hadn't been sober Clair would have gotten herself seriously hurt to scare him sober. He threw everything out and hadn't had a drop since. Instead he started pouring his energy into his work.

"It was a thoughtful gift."