Charles didn't like what Rafael had told him.
It wasn't that Rafael had been cruel. Rafael hadn't been cruel at all; that was the problem. He'd said it with that calm, bright accuracy of his, like the truth was simply a document that had been sitting on Charles's desk for years and someone had finally bothered to file it properly.
'Stop hiding your competence. You don't have to live in Theo's shadow forever.'
Charles carried the folder down the corridor like it weighed nothing, but the words sat in his ribs like a stone.
Rafael didn't know.
Rafael couldn't know.
