[DANIEL]
Daniel hesitated.
His rage screamed at him to leave, but years of discipline and self-control reminded him of his manners. He sat, but his gaze never wavered, piercing into Lily with cold intensity. He never like her before and he surely loathe her now.
"These papers," he said, gesturing to the scattered documents. "You think I don't already know? I've lived with this truth my whole life. I know what I am—a bastard, born out of sin. But that past doesn't define me. My mother and I left that life behind a long time ago."
His voice faltered slightly, not from weakness but from the weight of those words. His mother, a woman of quiet strength, had raised him alone, refusing to ever rely on the man who had abandoned them. That chapter of his life was closed—or so he had thought.
