"No," she snapped, the restraint finally cracking. "You do not get to interrupt me this time."
Rafael leaned back in his chair instead, spine straight, hands still folded loosely on the table. If she wanted a spectacle, she would have to create it without his help.
"I have tolerated your obstinacy for years," Delphine continued, her voice sharp enough now that it was no longer merely audible but ripping through the nearby air. "I have defended your refusal to marry, your delays, and your insistence that your work excuses your absence from every expectation placed upon you as my son."
A pause. A breath drawn too hard.
"And then," she went on, "I discover that the one man in this Empire who should not be anywhere near my family has decided to make you his interest."
Kendall's fingers tightened around his glass. Anatoli looked up sharply.
