The door slammed hard enough to rattle the keys on the hook.
Tyler looked up from the living room, a spoon halfway to his mouth, face still blissfully unaware.
Elias dropped his bag on the floor.
"You posted it."
Tyler blinked. "Posted what?"
"Don't."
The spoon clinked into the cereal bowl as Tyler sat up straighter.
"I didn't post anything. I just... shared it."
Elias's hands curled into fists. "With who?"
"Just a friend. A music guy. Old friend from college. He wanted to use it for his blog's background playlist, that's all—"
"Do you hear yourself?" Elias cut in, voice rising. "You took my unfinished demo — the one I didn't even name — and handed it to a stranger?"
Tyler opened his mouth, closed it again.
"You didn't ask," Elias said quietly now. "You didn't even ask."
"I was trying to help," Tyler said, standing. "You won't let anyone hear you. That voice? That song? Elias, it hurt. It was beautiful. People needed to hear it."
"I didn't need them to," Elias snapped.
That shut Tyler up.
From the hallway, Marc's voice carried in. "What's going on?"
"Ask him," Elias muttered, pointing. "Ask him what happens when trust gets uploaded."
Marc appeared in the doorway a moment later, dressed down and unshaven — casual, until he saw Elias's expression.
Marc looked at Tyler. "What'd you do?"
Tyler held up his hands. "I didn't post it. I just gave it to Rick—"
"Oh for God's sake, Rick?" Marc stepped fully into the room now. "Rick's a playlist leech. You know he's always mining for viral bait."
"I thought he'd keep it private!"
"You thought wrong."
Elias turned away, walking to the edge of the kitchen, gripping the counter.
"I didn't want this," he said, low. "I'm not ready. That song wasn't... it wasn't even finished."
Marc looked at him for a long moment, then turned back to Tyler.
"You don't share art that doesn't belong to you."
Tyler's face crumpled a little. "He's our son. It does belong to us."
Marc's voice went cold. "No, it doesn't. Not that. Not his voice. That was his."
The silence that followed was thick.
Elias finally turned, slowly, his face calm again — but flat. Too flat.
"You didn't just break a rule," he said to Tyler. "You broke me."
He grabbed his bag off the floor and walked past them both.
Tyler didn't follow.
Marc didn't stop him.
And Elias didn't look back.