The living room air vibrated with the shrill frequency of lena's voice. It was a sound Rachel had memorized over the last three years, a rhythmic cadence of accusation and disappointment that served as the soundtrack to her adolescence. Marvic stood in the center of the room, his massive frame casting a shadow that seemed to swallow the beige carpet. He didn't shout back. He rarely did. He just stood there, his chest expanding and contracting beneath a tight charcoal t-shirt that strained against the slabs of his pectoral muscles.