Lavish | on hold

15 | A Dish Best Served Cold

Every time she closed her eyes, it was that night again.

Claudia and Christian were told once again to lock themselves in their rooms and to not come out until they were told to - they usually chose to come out once the screams and violent crashes fell to silence and they had built enough courage to come out. They were at the age to understand what was going on the other side of the door and they knew it wasn't something they wanted to witness, that was just enough to get them to comply.

It would take their father just a couple of drinks to drive him to the point where he would look at his wife with disgust as if she was satan in the flesh before him. Rei never showed even a squirm when his eyes got red and his words tripped and stumbled over one another. She confidently would tell the children to leave and would wait to receive her punishment. Sometimes it wouldn't even get to that point, all it took was Rei making one wrong move. The wrong dinner, the wrong dress, even the wrong look could set her husband off completely like a ticking time bomb left in the palms of your hands.

Claudia often wondered if her mother even knew how beautiful she was, internally and externally. How much Claudia prayed to inherit her soul and purity, not just her physical beauty. Even if her mother was an ex-model turned business woman, it was very easy to tell that a lot of her self-assurance had melted away with every sharp hit, push and insult that she took in. It hurt her to feel so helpless and to be forced to be so clueless when every night she would lose a piece of her mother.

A piece of her soul.

A piece of her purity.

At this point in time they were used to it even though Claudia would always be the one to remain anxious and afraid, anxiety and fear paralysing her in position so hypnotically that she would eventually forget that she'd have to breathe in order to live. Christian would take her into his arms, her personal safety blanket slowly cradling her back and forth to quiet her tears as the madness continued.

Out of the entire scenes that would occur unexpectedly, the scariest moments were always the day after.

"I'm home, everyone!" He'd sing with a huge smile plastered on his face, so authentic and genuine that you'd question if the weapon of a man you faced the night before was even similar to him currently. "And I've even brought gifts.."

Claudia and Christian didn't ever need any answers after that sentence - one thing they could never take away from their father was his amazing taste in gifts and that made them willing to forget everything else that came along with him.

Or at least ignore.

"Your father is a very easy man," Their mother once told them, wiping her tears away vigorously but refusing to tell her children why they were originally there. "All you have to do is play on his side and you win all you desire. Don't ever question it, just always play his side."

Claudia just wished her mother could've seen what playing his side turned their souls into and how it would always eat her away from the inside no matter how hard she fought it. She stopped loving her father long ago, now every time she thought of him she merely thought of him as survival.

And it wouldn't be long until she wouldn't need him to live anymore.

The public would've thought it would be almost impossible for such a highly elite, well-respected and renowned family like the Clermonts to be awfully silent at the dinner table but they were ever so talented at upholding their facade. That was one thing that was undeniably important to the three of them and no matter what trouble they'd stumble into, that was something they weren't willing to pass up.