"Do you have someone you like?"
Silence stretched, unbearable. Then, with her heart hammering against her ribs, Suzy whispered, "Y–Yes."
The sound was fragile, trembling, but it shattered across the table like a crack in glass across marble.
Her mother's head snapped toward her. "What?" The word cut, sharp with disbelief. "Who?"
It was as though the whole table turned as one. Every eye pinned her down. Her parents. The Matriarch and Patriarch. Hades and Alice. Dawin, inscrutable as ever. Van, his usual smug grin faltering into genuine curiosity.
But Suzy didn't meet any of their gazes. She couldn't. Her lungs burned with the effort of holding air, of holding herself together.
Beneath the table, Gavin moved again. His hand twitched in hers, firm, insistent. He tried to pry his fingers free, his restraint almost painful to feel.
He was a man who wasn't used to resistance. Who expected obedience. But she clung tighter.
Desperate. Anchorless.
