As if not having dead plants has done anything like keep it undisturbed so far.

[He crushes, mercilessly, the part of him that raises a vague protest based on familiar, familial feelings newly stirred. He took such pains to wipe them out of himself before and had been mostly successful; he reminds himself it's only a matter of time and completely ignores the fondly exasperated thought that she's been strong-willed since she was a child.

They didn't know each other as children.]

You're a very precise person, apparently, that uses many different words. Tell me this, then: do you understand compulsion?