Ken's mother stared at him with wide eyes, her hands wrapped around the edge of the table so tightly her knuckles turned white.
"What… what did you say?" She managed to get her words out. She looked at him in a way that pleaded for him to say something different, begging him not to say what he had said before. Ken saw the look in her eyes. He felt like there was a hand around his heart, squeezing it hard, but he refused to allow that to stop what he needed to do.
"When those cult members first attacked the town, I got to speak with one and I gathered information. Many warriors were captured, and a huge number came from our town.
They said they killed all the warriors, and that means dad was probably one of them," Ken said. He kept his tone flat to ensure he showed no emotion. His mother froze when she heard that, and so did his brothers. They looked at him in silence, as if waiting for him to say it was a joke, but it was no joke, there was no punchline.
