"I'm not going to be punished for it. I thought it was resolved and it wasn't. I'll fix it." Maryse probably wouldn't even care that the contract hadn't been finished. It had meant that the Institute wasn't paying another expense even if it had been promised to Adam.

"You need to eat." The comment was automatic, made hundreds of times before to his siblings whenever they forgot to take care of themselves. It'd probably make Adam angry but everything Alec said did that. "You're the one that gave me an ultimatum. You said wait five years. You're the one that twisted me trying to be understanding into... I don't know what. Any time I try to be nice you attack me." Scrubbing a hand through his hair, he blurted out something that he knew was going to make everything worse. "You don't get to attack me any time things don't go your own way."