C15 The Hand That Never Let Go

For a moment, nobody breathes.

Selene goes rigid under her mother's hand, every muscle locked, like her body hasn't decided yet whether to lean into the touch or flinch away from it. Fourteen years of absence stand between them, and it shows in the way her shoulders shake, the way her voice comes out smaller than I've ever heard it. I watch her search her mother's face for something, anything