"Why?" he asked, his eyes narrowed.

Because it was the only shred of dignity she had left. Although her dignity had been trampled on before and she was only beginning to piece together the broken fragments now, still… She did not want to be trampled on again.

"Because you're not the family that I want. For me, the current version of you can be the creditor that I'm indebted to, or you can be a boss lording over me, or you can just be a stranger, but you can never be my family!"

The word "fami