ᵛᵉⁿᵒᵐᵒᵘˢ ˡⁱᵖˢ ▸ 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐅𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐄 ✓

two.

VENOMOUS LIPS.
002. | ❛ devilish smile. ❜

CERTAINLY AFTER BREAKING OFF HER COURTSHIP with Maximilian, the Buchanan's left the village of wealthy property owners like various of she has done with her suitors in the past. No one spoke of how the Williams had the power to make every possible wealthy suitor vanish without a trace, but there was no suspicions anymore and all seemed to point the finger to their eldest daughter.

"You simply can't follow the demands and whims of Emilia. I do beg your forgiveness when I say this but she's simply venomous." A lady whispered to her mother as Emilia stayed planted against the wall, waiting to hear what he mother responded. She wasn't oblivious that people spoke of her, the beauty and beast that was Emilia Williams. She was a grotesque rose, beautiful but with thorns that could pierce through glass.

"Mrs. Galloway, I know that Emilia can be a handful but she's my daughter. She's always strived ahead to gain anything she can without caring for others. What kind of a mother would I be to not grant her her every wish?" Her mother sipped her tea as her friend was getting impatient with the ignorance that resonated in her mother after years of manipulation.

"A sane one! She's simply harmful and one of these days she's going to—" Mrs. Galloway halted mid sentence as Emilia made herself be seen and heard when she waltzed behind from the wall.

Emilia narrowed her eyes at the woman before speaking and towering over her, "Don't mind me, one of these days she's going to what?"

Mrs. Galloway's demeanor changed to now a scared weasel than to the one of her lioness. "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?"

Emilia seemed to prey down on the weakling in front of her, taking her stance to a tender but yet menacing one as she lowered herself to fix Mrs. Galloway's hair. "You did nothing wrong, Evelyn. But if I catch you again trying to corrupt and brainwash my mother's mind, the next time I won't be so forgiving."

"It's getting late, you should go."

She let go of Mrs. Galloway's hair and let her riser as she quickly ran to the door, and Emilia gave her a small smile as she waved goodbye, "I hope you visit again Mrs. Galloway."

She took the seat where Mrs. Galloway was sitting opposed to her mother, pouring herself some tea and eating the remaining crackers. Her mother sat there without speaking and stiff as a nail was her posture while she watched her daughter change from a savage to the docile child she had raised.
She couldn't place when her daughter has gone so array, it seemed like one day Emilia's personality changed dramatically to one where she started fending for herself as if to prove something to others.

The rumbles and missteps of a new presence in the house disrupted the silence that the mother and daughter had between them. Emilia's mother sat in her seat not even going to greet the person knowing that if she did, she was in a direct line of fire her husband; the drunken one that came home.
Emilia could see her mother's finger trembling as it held the surface of the table, sweat that was visible from she was seating, and her agitated breaths. She was aware of her cold emotion directed to her family, but never did she want to see them get hurt. Especially her mother or Maya.

Emilia rose to her feet but not before placing a soft kiss to her mother's forehead, going off to deal with the drunken man she called a father. Trudging in her long skirts, she took of to her father's office where she knew she would find him with another bottle of liquor that he hid in his desk. As soon as she set on foot into her father's study, a glass bottle was thrown her way and lucky enough she ducked in time. The smell of booze radiated from where he stood to Emilia's nose. The stench of booze and whores, the half man that she didn't deem worthy of her mother.

"You're third time arriving to our household hammered. I wonder if you have any shame or guilt of what you're doing to our family. Wallowing in your own pity with whores, probably creating
bastards—"

"Watch your mouth, Emilia. I'm your father and hereby deserve respect." Her father seemed to get out the words without slurring them, circling around to the front of his desk and over to Emilia.

"The same father who threw a bottle of whiskey at me? God, if you throw something at me, I rather it be a bottle of gin. You don't even deserve the shred of respect that I still have for you. God knows how you managed to get my mother in marriage and stuck around to birth two daughters, who put up with the crap that you—" Emilia's speech was cut off by a stone cold contact of the back of her father's hand to her supple cheek. The redness that radiated through her cheek, she held her cheek at the outraged action that her father did. Cold eyes stared down at Emilia, as she stood up and looked her father back in the eyes.

"If you ever lay a finger on me again, it'll be the last time you have hands. Same goes for Maya. You think I'm scared of what you threaten me with? I stopped being the obedient girl long ago, and that's what got us here. Or don't you remember how we got our family fortune? It's because of me that your living this luscious life and I won't hesitate to kick your ass out to the curb and into the dirty streets where you came from. Don't test me." Her eyes pierced through her father's poor image, submitting him back to his lower class status.

She wasn't idly standing in front of her father anymore. Now the spinning image of his daughter stood before her, which made him wonder if what actually happened was a figment of his imagination or reality. But either one of them scared him because his eyes couldn't get rid of the devilish smile that seemed to stare back at him in the night.