The word landed with surgical precision—clean, deliberate, impossible to ignore.
Lara felt it strike somewhere deep in her chest, a dull, spreading ache.
So that's how it feels… hearing the truth said out loud.
But she didn't flinch.
"A biological mother who was absent when the child needed her the most…" Lara paused, letting the silence stretch just long enough to bite. Her eyes locked onto Moira's. "Is no mother at all."
A breath passed.
"And those aren't even my words."
A faint tilt of her chin.
"They're Ares'."
There. Show me what you really are.
For a fraction of a second, Moira's smile held. Then it cracked.
Not all at once—but in pieces. The corners stiffened, her eyes sharpened, and something ugly twisted beneath the surface.
"You…" Her voice trembled—not with weakness, but with barely restrained fury. "How dare you!"
She dares… she actually dares to throw his name at me?
Her finger shot out, accusatory, trembling.
