"W-Wait..." she stammered, her confusion written plainly across her face. "How are you inside my house?" She stared at him in disbelief. "What's going on? Why are you here? And how did you even get in?"
"Are you certain..." His calm voice interrupted her before she could continue. "...that I'm the one who should be answering those questions?"
Her posture stiffened immediately.
The calmness in her father's voice unsettled her far more than if he had raised it. Her analytical mind instinctively searched for the hidden meaning behind his cold counter-question, yet every possibility only made her heartbeat climb faster. For a brief moment, her thoughts simply... stopped. It felt as though every carefully organized calculation inside her head had suddenly collapsed into complete disorder.
"Are you truly certain you wish to ask your own father what he's doing in his daughter's home... at this hour, hm?"
Understanding dawned a split second later.
