Hiraya's entire body went rigid like a rock, her bulging eyes almost popping out of her socket.
The world around her seemed to shatter like glass, as she inhaled violently, stumbling back onto her feet.
"No...no....no… You can't be Grandpa Pedro. He died before I...I....was ...before I even—"
"Before your father murdered me?" Griffin finished softly, tears sliding down his flushed cheek. "Yes, I did."
Hiraya clamped a hand over her mouth, a sickening cry ripping free from her soul as she crumpled onto the floor, her whole body trembling with the grief she had bottled in her heart even as a child.
Griffin slowly climbed down from the bed and walked over to his mother. He knelt beside her and wrapped his tiny hands around her neck, drawing circles around her back.
