The Fixer's Burden

RONAN'S POV

Dinner should've felt normal. Familiar, at least. But the second the Omega pulled out the chair that used to belong to my father, I saw the flicker in my mother’s expression. That brief, raw flash of pain she tried to bury under her usual grace. It gutted me.

I sat anyway, pretending I didn’t notice.

The air felt thin. The scent of jollof rice drifted up, spicy and sweet, sharp enough