“I ran because you wouldn’t stop it.”
His eyes hardened a little. “You think I didn’t know what that marriage was?”
“Knowing and stopping are two different things.”
“You loved him and you weren’t supposed to,” Marcel said after a moment.
“I still do.”
There wasn’t anger in my voice. Just truth.
He swallowed. “He was reckless.”
“He was decisive. There’s a difference.”
I walked closer to the bed and sat down in the chair beside him again.
“I’m not here to fight about the past,” I said. “I’m here because what they did to Yuna feels too familiar.”
“She’s twenty eight, Vivi.”
“You don’t think fear feels the same at any age?”
“She’s protected.”
“So was I. On paper.”
Marcel looked at me carefully now.
“You think Ares will hurt her?”
“No,” I answered immediately. “That’s the only reason I’m not louder about this.”
That made him pause.
“I trust my son,” I continued. “I don’t trust how this started or the Laveau family.”
His fingers flexed slightly against the blanket.
“You’re projecting,” he said.
“No. I’m remembering.”
That quieted him.
“I knew that girl since she was a baby,” I went on. “I knew one day she’d be chosen. I just didn’t think it would happen like this. Not while she’s still bleeding from whatever they did to her.”
Marcel’s eyes shifted to the ceiling.
“You think I enjoy forcing my grandson into a contract?”
“I think you enjoy control.”
That made him look at me again.
“You came back,” he said. “You sit here. You advocate. You act like you’re not part of the same machine.”
“I am part of it,” I said calmly. “But I won’t let it swallow her the way it almost swallowed me.”
