It's David who has been wronged. It doesn't make any sense for the author to chastise him for having feelings about it. And it is not up to the author to prescribe what feelings are "correct" or which ones mean he "defected". Perhaps if David's forgiveness is so important to the author he should have thought of that before doing the wrong or at least make some effort to repair the damage he did.
If I pay 25% marginal income tax and I make a profit of 200 million dollars, I get to keep 150 million. If instead I decide to buy the Mona Lisa for 200 million dollars, and burn it I walk away with nothing but the satisfaction of not have given one cent to the government. Please tell me how my evil mastermind plan to burn the Mona Lisa works anyway?
Taxing people on income they didn't make but the government imagined they could have made in some situation that didn't happen sounds like a slippery slope to be standing on.