"What sort of nonsense is that?!!" He took a step toward Levi, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
Levi's eyes widened, his body language shifting into something that looked like the careful stillness of someone who'd learned not to provoke an angry parent further.
"I don't want to be locked away again".
The words were quiet. The crowd went completely still, the implication hanging in the air.
'Locked away again?'.
As if it had happened before. As if the Quinn family had a history of confining their inconvenient son when he didn't behave as expected.
Mrs. Quinn's eyes almost rolled back. Her voice took on a sharp, cutting edge as she tried to reframe the narrative, to make Levi the problem rather than the victim.
"Levi, why are you talking to your father that way?" she pleaded, framing his self-preservation as filial disrespect.
"Do you know what you're saying?"
