I couldn’t move.
Alexander stood at the entrance of the garden, as if he were rooted there. His eyes were just stuck on his mother. The tension between them was so thick it felt wrong, it felt impossible to breathe, somehow. For a moment, nobody spoke, not even a little.
Then Alexander took one step forward, slow, “Say it again,” he said.
His voice was calm, and his mother lifted her chin, like she was bracing herself.
“I told Aurora the truth.”
“No,” Alexander answered, quickly.
His jaw tightened. Real tight. “You told her the story you wanted her to carry.”
Silence came after that, loud in a way that didn’t make sense. I’d never seen him talk to his mother like this. Not once, not like that, his mother looked shocked at first.
Then she looked offended, like he’d insulted her pers
