Are you going to just sit there all day?" Harold's voice echoed through the house, sharp and demanding.
Anna was sitting at the kitchen table, staring blankly at her notebook. Her father's presence in the room made the air heavy, and she couldn't bring herself to meet his eyes.
"I'm doing my homework, Dad," she muttered, hoping that would be enough to quiet him.
"You're always doing your homework. What about helping your mother around here? You think your mother doesn't have enough on her plate?" Harold's words were laced with an anger Anna couldn't fully understand. She wasn't sure why helping around the house was always her responsibility—why he never seemed to lift a finger.
Her mother, Alice, was nowhere to be found. She had already retreated into her own world, her feet silent on the floorboards as she disappeared into the living room, where the television flickered without sound.
Noah burst through the door, his face flushed with the storm brewing inside him. "Dad, I need to talk to you about the game tomorrow. I need—"
"Not now, Noah!" Harold barked. "I don't want to hear it. You kids never listen."
Noah froze, his lips trembling, but then his anger boiled over. "You never listen! You never care about what I need!" His voice cracked, but he stood his ground, fists clenched at his sides.
For a moment, there was silence. The kind that filled the room like a heavy fog, suffocating everyone inside it. Harold's face twisted into something unrecognizable. The rage that simmered beneath the surface of his skin was something that Anna had learned to dread. She could feel the heat of it now, as Noah's defiance hung in the air like a challenge.
"You're out of line, boy," Harold growled, stepping closer, his shadow falling over Noah. "Don't you ever speak to me like that again."
Noah backed away, his body trembling, but there was no place to hide from his father's fury. The house felt smaller now—claustrophobic. Anna wanted to scream, to shout that this wasn't right, but she knew better. She knew that no one would hear her.