Nathaniel held Emma tighter, feeling her small body still trembling against him, her sobs beginning to quiet into softer, exhausted hiccups now that she was safely back in his arms. He pressed a hand gently against the back of her head, murmuring soft reassurances, giving her a moment to settle before he asked the question he needed answered.
"Emma," he said gently, pulling back just enough to look at her tear-streaked face. "Can you tell me what happened, sweetheart?"
Emma's lower lip trembled violently, fresh tears gathering as she buried her face back against his shoulder, her small voice muffled but clear enough for him to make out every devastating word.
"She said I was too loud," Emma whispered, her voice breaking. "And then she said I should go outside and think about how to be quiet. And when I asked when I could come back in, she said—" Emma's sobs intensified, and Nathaniel held her closer, waiting through the pause with a dread building steadily in his chest.
"She said you only love her now," Emma finished, the words barely audible, broken apart by fresh, heaving sobs. "That I shouldn't expect you to keep choosing me over her."
Nathaniel felt something in his chest go completely, permanently cold. He looked up slowly from his daughter's tear-streaked face toward Vivian, whose earlier composure had finally begun to falter, a flicker of something like calculation crossing her features as she registered exactly what Emma had just repeated.