'First, you accused my brother of trying to… of trying to hurt your mom, and now my father?'
That's when Merlina saw it, the hurt in his eyes. Not rage. Not coldness. Just the kind of pain that doesn't know where to go.
For the first tonight, she saw him not as the one she leaned on, but as someone breaking too.
"Craig, forgive me… I'm a mess. I don't even know what I'm saying. I'm sorry, for everything. For going to him, behind your back, for… just—" Her voice cracks. "Forget I said any of this. Please."
Then the tears slipped again, not the same kind of sobs as before, but the quiet, shaking kind that come from shame, not fear.
Craig stayed still for a moment, he didn't know which part cut deeper, that she went to his father, or that she thought she had to. That she couldn't trust him, after everything, and still believe she needed to handle things without him. That she could accuse his family again and still think he'd be the one to hold her through it.
