After Elias left I sat in that chair for what felt like hours while everyone around me tried to pretend they weren't staring and waiting for me to have some kind of breakdown. Lily had moved to the couch across from me and kept making concerned big sister faces while Zayen and Ren hovered nearby like they expected me to either explode or disappear at any moment.

"So," Lily said eventually because she'd never been good at uncomfortable silences, "that was unexpected."

I let out a laugh that ...