Game over.
My instinct tells me to bend, to indulge, to reward the cleverness I know I cannot entirely resist.
But something deeper, harder, steadier has grown in me over the past months. Experience has taught me to recognize manipulation, even when it wears the soft, vulnerable guise of disappointment. These two are cunning, trained by observation, by mimicry, by countless rehearsed attempts to sway me. They are brilliant little negotiators, but I am sharper. I see through it. I see the tiny twitches, the over-exaggerated sighs, the tiny glances at each other, the way they anticipate each word, each reaction. They are not sad. They are bargaining. They are testing boundaries, seeing how far they can p