The living room felt smaller than usual, the air thick despite the open window letting in the humid night breeze.
The low lamp on the side table cast long, wavering shadows across the furniture.
Lena sat rigidly in the armchair, her bandaged arm resting on the armrest, the fresh scrapes and bruises from the alley fight pulsing with every passing second.
Thomas Schneider and Mia occupied the couch opposite her, their postures stiff with anger and control.
Upstairs, the muffled sounds of the children settling in drifted down faintly.
Thomas leaned forward, hands clasped.
"Lena, we need to talk. This hostility… it's not healthy. We're family."
"Family?" Lena's voice was low at first, edged like a dull blade. "You lost the right to call us that when you decided to start a new one behind our backs."
Mia shifted uncomfortably.
"We didn't come here to fight. Your father just wants to support you for the Worlds."
The words were like a dagger wrapped in silk. Lena's jaw tightened.
"Support? That's rich coming from the woman who helped blow up our family."
Thomas's face reddened. "Watch your tone. You're still my daughter."
The slow burn began to heat. Lena laughed bitterly, short and sharp. "Daughter? Since when? When you missed my entire life? Or when you skipped every major tournament because you were too busy playing house with her?"
Mia interjected, voice rising. "You have no idea what our relationship was like. You're too young to understand."
Lena's eyes snapped to her. "Stay out of this."
The argument simmered, words sharpening with each exchange. Thomas listed excuses—work stress, feeling trapped, "finding himself."
Lena countered with cold facts: the late nights, the lies, the pregnancy announcement that shattered her mother.
The tension heated up gradually, voices rising from tense whispers to heated daggers being hurled across the room.
Elena and Kaito emerged from the kitchen, drawn by the growing volume.
Elena's face paled.
Kaito hung back near the doorway, arms crossed, his expression darkening.
"You never even tried to fight for us!" Lena shouted, standing up now. "You just left!"
Thomas rose too. "I did what I thought was best! You've always been so rigid, so unforgiving—"
Mia tried to step in. "Thomas, calm down. Lena, please—"
"Shut up!" Lena snarled at her stepmother. "Just shut the fuck up."
Thomas's voice boomed. "Don't talk to my wife like that!"
Lena laughed—a wild, broken sound that bordered on hysteria. She gripped her brown curls with her good hand, tugging hard as she tried to steady her breathing.
"Your wife? Oh, and then what? When you cheat on her too, you'll have another one? Is that how this works?"
"You don't know a damn thing!" Thomas yelled. "You're nineteen!"
"I'M ABOUT TO TURN TWENTY! WHAT'S EXACTLY YOUR POINT HERE?" Lena screamed back, voice cracking. "You married Mom at twenty! Nobody knows shit about what the fuck love even is! It's not even anything real! It's a state! It's not a feeling—you can't feel fucking love! You never loved anything in your life, and that's why you hate everyone else! Because you see how we communicate that state of love, so you go and shit all over it with your big ego!"
The room exploded into full shouting.
Thomas roared back, defending himself, claiming he had loved Elena, that he still loved Mia.
Lena's responses grew rawer, more anger that rose from her core.
"You never loved Mom! You never did! Don't fucking lie to me! Don't fucking lie to me—are you fucking stupid!? Your fucking slut knew you were married and fucked you anyway! What's stopping her from finding another fucking man? What, you think she loves you, you fucking piece of shit?! I hope you love Mia! I hope you do! Because I hope she fucking cheats on you so you know what it feels like to have your fucking heart break into a million fucking pieces, you fucking dick!"
Elena spotted the small figures at the top of the stairs—Lukas and Sophie watching with wide, frightened eyes.
She moved quickly.
"Lena, stop—this is too far. The kids—"
Lena whirled. "They need to know what a dick their dad and mom are!"
Elena intervened firmly. "Lena, enough. You're going too far."
Lena rubbed her face hard, throat closing up, eyes burning. Tears welled despite her efforts.
"Why is nobody on my side? Why does nobody understand why I'm fucking angry right now? It's because of this FUCKING LIAR! THIS FUCKING BASTARD IS IN MY FUCKING HOUSE ACTING LIKE SHIT'S FINE WHEN IT'S NOT!"
Tears spilled over, hot and angry.
Thomas kept yelling, doubling down. "So you think you're fucking grown now? You know shit so you speak to me that way? If I had raised you, you would never have grown up like this!"
"You never raised me!" Lena screamed through sobs, sniffling. "You never did!"
Elena approached, arms open to comfort. Lena shoved her away gently but firmly.
"I hate you. God, I hate you. I hate you so much that sometimes I just don't have the energy to hate you anymore."
Thomas blew up completely. His face twisted with rage.
Mia and Elena tried to calm him, grabbing his arms, but he shoved them aside violently. He stormed up to Lena, towering over her.
"I'll rip your arms off. I'll kill you and I won't even care if I go to jail!"
Lena stared him down, tears streaming, voice raw. "Go on! Hit me! Hit me if it makes you feel better! Will hitting me make you feel better about yourself?!"
The slap came fast and hard, cracking across Lena's cheek.
Pain flared, her head snapping to the side. The sound echoed like a gunshot.
Kaito moved like lightning. His fist connected solidly with Thomas's face, slamming him backward into the wall. Blood trickled from Thomas's nose as he crumpled slightly, stunned.
The children burst into loud crying upstairs.
Mia and Elena rushed up to calm them, ushering the terrified kids back to their room with hurried reassurances.
Lena stood frozen in shock. Her chest heaved with a sense of relief and fear.
Without another word, she turned and walked straight out the front door into the humid night, the door slamming behind her.
Kaito followed immediately, the sound of his footsteps chasing after her into the darkness.