Th-thump…
Aegri's knees buckled. Her legs crumbled to the floor while her pleading eyes were glued to the phone in Ayse's hand.
"... My, oh my…"
Frustration extract crawled out of the phone and into their ears.
"Never in long life have I ever heard such a disrespectful claim made directly to me… Nor did I ever suspect that my daughter would be enthralled by a mutt with no reputation or accolades to his name…
"Faegrynn. Please, clarify the truth for the wannabe outlaw."
Mr. Holt's frosty, joking tone straightened her slumping back in an instant.
"What is the true passion you yearn to fulfill in life?
"… Hurry and educate the boy, Faegrynn."
Her mouth hung open already. Yet there was no feasible path for her thoughts to reach her tongue. That verbal road had been shut down the instant Ayse made his unadulterated claims. And the unsettling response from her father only extended the cranial shutdown.
