Chapter 2 - FRAGILE ARMOR
David’s brown utility jacket was cool against the feverish heat of his children's faces.
He dropped to both knees, the heavy denim of his dark jeans striking the rug with a muffled thud.
Behind him, two small figures huddled together like birds against a storm.
Leo, barely six, wore faded blue pajamas stamped with faded race cars.
His arms were wrapped so tightly around his little sister, Maya, that his knuckles were red.
Maya’s pink pajamas were damp with tears.
Her face was buried in the fleece collar of Leo’s shirt, her small shoulders hitching with jagged, silent gasps.
Evelyn stood over them.
She held the iron pan loosely at her side now, her head tilted at an angle of clinical disgust.
"Next time maybe those little brats will learn to touch my things," she said.
Her voice didn't rise. It was flat, smoothed over like polished glass.
David’s hand reached out, cradling the back of Leo’s skull, pressing the boy closer into his thigh.
His fingers brushed against the cold floor where a shattered porcelain music box lay scattered in twenty pieces.
"Did you do this before?" David asked.
His voice was a low, dangerous gravel that vibrated through his ribs.
May you like
Evelyn let out a faint, dismissive sigh, shifting her weight onto her heel.
"Stop babying them," she sneered, her eyes scanning the sobbing children with open contempt. "They're lucky I let them stay here at all."
