The Devil's Broken Doll
“He thinks I can’t—”
She didn’t get to finish.
His hands came to her shoulders, not rough, not restraining, but deliberate as he gave her a single, controlled shake that interrupted the spiral of her words more effectively than any argument could have.
“Stop.”
She blinked at him, caught between irritation and surprise. “What—”
“Shake it out,” he said, entirely serious.
She stared at him, disbelief cutting clean through the tension. “That is not—”
He shook her again, a little more exaggerated this time, his composure slipping just enough to border on ridiculous, the movement almost intentionally absurd in contrast to everything else that had filled the room.