He had built an identity on being the one who could not be crossed.

And now he was standing in his own hallway watching that identity dissolve, because the little sister he’d dismissed for a decade was not folding, was not crying, was not afraid, was in fact walking toward him with the calm of someone who has done this a hundred times and holds every card.

I want to be clear that I felt no fear, and this surprised even me.

He was bigger than me and his fists were clenched and there was real violence sitting in his shoulders.