Ian pointed at Regan.

Regan called Ian a coward.

Each tried to feed the other to the court to save themselves.

This was the great warm family I had spent five years failing to be worthy of.

It had never been a family at all, only a partnership of takers, and I had been not its failed member but its intended meal.

Watching them devour each other, I finally stopped grieving my exclusion from that circle.