"What took you so long? I was about to fetch you, ya' know?" Stephen's voice, a blend of complaint and impatience, cut through my thoughts. He stood in the doorway, his brow furrowed. "And you look... weird. What happened?"
"It's—Nothing," I lied, the word sticking in my throat. This certainly wasn't the moment to tell him what our Father had told me. I'll just tell him some other time.
"Oh! What was that?" he asked, his sharp eyes finally fixating on the small, exquisitely red box I held.
"A present for the Moon family," I stated simply.
"What?! You didn't tell me to buy any presents!" Stephen exclaimed, his composure dissolving into a familiar flurry of panic. He began to wring his hands. "What to do? What to do?"
I sighed inwardly at the sight of his dramatic agitation. He wouldn't calm down until his anxiety was thoroughly quenched, so I offered the simplest, most convincing truth I could spare. "It was from Father."
