Third Person's POV
Vivian kept whimpering, her voice thick with a cloying, needy kind of grief. "I know Seraphina took it the wrong way. Maybe I'm just too used to leaning on you, Morty... I never meant to challenge her. I never meant to mess with your contract."
She crawled closer, crouching at Mortimer's feet like a stray pup looking for a hand-out. She reached out, her fingers inching toward his thigh.
Mortimer recoiled. It was a visceral, physical rejection.
Vivian's eyes flashed with a dark, jagged resentment for a split second before she doubled down on the waterworks. "Morty... do you think I'm just a useless burden too?"
Mortimer kept his head down, letting the fever-dream haze swirl in his skull. He didn't say a word.
Seeing the "fragile girl" act losing its edge, Vivian's s
