ALEXANDER

I swallowed hard and moved away from him, clenching my fist by my sides. The tension in the room was suffocating.

My mother stood between Kevin and me, her sharp eyes darting between us. “Enough,” she said sternly, her voice slicing through the thick atmosphere like a blade. “This childish bickering stops right now. You both need to man up; this is getting too much. Would you ever love yourselves?”

Kevin scoffed, rubbing his jaw from where I had punched him earlier. ...