Raiden, his patience fraying, grabbed her hand, his voice tight with emotion.
"Astrella, have you lost your mind? Why are you suddenly selling our things?"
Our things?
Even Reaghan’s temper flared. "Mom, why’d you give away my bamboo dragonfly too?"
Astrella cast a brief glance at Reaghan, who was still happily munching on his candied hawthorn. Her voice was unshaken, but there was an edge to it.
"Didn’t you say you liked the frisbee Norella gave you more?"
Then, she shifted her gaze to Raiden, her tone hardening, her voice colder.
"And didn’t you say you didn’t want these things and I could give them away to anyone? What’s the problem now? I sold them and that’s suddenly wrong?"
Every item she’d sold today had been carefully chosen, gifts she’d poured love into for the father and son. Yet neither Raiden nor Reaghan had shown any care for them.
And now, when they were sold for barely anything to strangers, they suddenly seemed valuable?
Things that weren’t cherished were simply misplaced treasures.
Raiden’s silence seemed to scream frustration, but Norella’s voice cut through the tension, laced with guilt.