---
"Maybe she was a selfish person," he said quietly. "Maybe she was justified. Maybe they both were broken in different ways. Maybe none of it will make me feel better no matter what the answer is."
Lily waited until he looked at her again before replying.
"Then you do not decide the reason, yet. First find out the truth. Then you should reach a conclusion."
Sekhmet frowned faintly.
"You do not force yourself to choose hate or forgiveness before you even know what happened," she said. "You are allowed to be confused."
The sentence settled into him more deeply than it had any right to.
Allowed to be confused. It sounded simple. But it was not.
For the past two days, confusion had felt like failure. Like weakness. Like lack. But perhaps confusion was simply what happened when old foundations shifted faster than the heart could rebuild.
