"Sebby, she—" Ana began, her voice shaking now, trying to salvage her position.
"Shut up!" Alexander snapped, his voice louder than ever before. It wasn't just anger, it was hurt. Deep and decades-old. "When you had to speak, you didn't! Where was your voice when that old lady shamed me and Rose? When I was locked in a room for hours? When I was called weak, useless, spineless?" His voice trembled now, cracking under everything he had buried. "Where was your voice then, Mom?" He said the word like it burned. "And now, after all this time, you show up just to question the only person who ever stayed?"
His breath was uneven, pain radiating from his chest, not his head.
Lilith leaned closer to him, her hand brushing lightly against his arm, and whispered in his ear, just low enough for only him to hear. "Calm down," she murmured, her voice soft. And strangely, it worked. His fists loosened just slightly.
Then Lilith stepped forward.
