“I do,” he stated. “But I’m seein’ you don’t see it from ours.”

“Dad—”

“Lilah.” He cut me off. “Give you anything, give you the world. I know you know that. But I will not give you this.”

I clamped my mouth shut.

Chen, sitting beside me, stood, and when he did, I tilted my head back to look at him, seeing his gaze on Abel and his face twisted with anger.

“I did not start training when I was six years old to face a threat only to retreat when that threat came real,” he declared. “Xun didn’t. Wei didn’t. Ma, knowin’ this shit could go down for sixty-six years, fucking didn’t. We’re prepared. They can bring it on. We’ll be here to face it.”

“A smart warrior knows his opponent, when he can face him and when he should not,” Abel replied.

“A brave warrior knows when it’s worth it to face a lethal opponent anyway, even if the odds do not favor him,” Chen fired back.

“Fuck,” Abel snarled, because Chen’s comeback was a good one.

“Do not say this shit to Ma,” Wei ordered, also rising. “Do not break her heart like this. Do not even mention this shit to her.”

“It’s her I’m lookin’ after. She’ll get it,” Abel returned.

“It’s her who will not survive a broken heart that never mended, which, if you do this, you’ll shatter,” Wei retorted. “And you fuckin’ know that shit, brother. You fuckin’ know it. She barely could live without Dad. You think she can end her days without you?”

“Wei—” Abel began.

Wei leaned across the table to his brother. “Every woman in our line for five generations has been born to you and has died with you. You can’t take that away from Ma. She’s lived knowin’ one thing in this life is true—that she’ll have you from the first breath she took to her last.”

Oh…my…God.

I felt Abel’s emotion roiling off him, but Wei wasn’t done.

“This family gave you everything. You don’t get to decide to take it away.”

I felt Abel’s emotion now beating into me and I leaned closer to him.