“You were never going to tell me.“ Rufus’s voice is steady, but there’s something unbelievably razor-sharp in it. He doesn’t even realize he’s taken a step closer until he sees the way you tighten your grip around the baby in your arms—his baby.

When you left him, part of him thought he’d be able to get you back once he became the new president of Shinra, that all your grievances with him could be solved after that. But you’re here now, miles away from Midgar, with a four-month-old baby boy in the splitting image of himself. If you wanted to return, perhaps you’d have done so before the baby was born.

For a fleeting, bitter second, Rufus understands. His own father was the same, distant, neglectful, absent even when he was in the same room. A cold man who let his family become an afterthought. Maybe you thought Rufus would be no different, that he’d see this baby as an inconvenience, something to brush aside for the sake of business. With his gaze trained fully on his son, Rufus drops his voice. “I deserved to know.”