Page 84 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

My attention turned from my mother to my father, who was talking to someone on the phone. Aaron De Loughrey could be in a burning building, but if he were talking to a client on hisphone, nothing more important would exist to him at that very moment.

“Hello, Dad!” I said extra loud to gain his attention, but instead of apologising and telling the person on the phone that he currently had no time for them, he waved me off to be silent until he’d finished his call.

It’s fine, I mean, I haven’t seen you in seven months, but I'm sure that call is more important than properly saying hello to your daughter.Don’t worry, I get it.

“You’re talking like a waterfall in comparison to the day I brought you here, Darling,” Mum noticed, looking me up and down. And as much as the child inside me had wished to recognise pride in her gaze, I only saw disapproval.

When I was silent, she wanted me to be loud. When I’m loud, she wants me to be silent. That was madness in the ways of a mother.

“That’s why you wanted me to come to Aquila Hall in the first place, right? I’m healing, Mum. I enjoy talking again.”

She hesitated a little before she slapped on a smile. “Of course, Darling.”

Maybe she was telling half the truth. I had to mean at least something to her, and a mother wants her child to be happy and healthy.

“Hello, Dorothee,” my father said with a polite smile after he had ended his call. “I apologise, that call was important. I like your trousers.”

I gave him a genuine smile. “Thank you, Dad.”

Mum rolled her eyes. “She thrifted them, Aaron. You know how unhygienic that is.”

I bit my tongue at her comment, searching for another topic to change this conversation to.

“Can we stay to watch the theatre club present their version ofA Midsummer Night’s Dream? A friend of mine got one of the leading roles.”

My father's eyebrows raised in surprise. “You’ve got a friend?”

His surprise at that shouldn’t hurt, but it did, at least a little. I could only hope he was referring to the former‘friends’I had, who found it funny to use my fear of the dark against me, and not that he believed his daughter was too mad to find people actually liking her.

Once, Ariadne, a girl I believed to be my best friend at the age of eight, held my head underwater during swimming class until I started choking on the fluid filling my lungs. She’d laughed at me and said that she just wanted to baptise the demons her mummy had told her about out of me.

“Yeah, I’ve got five, actually,” I said proudly, but my parents only shared a look.

“Darling, making friends at a place like this doesn’t seem… clever to me,” my mother told me.

“Why? Because they could be as mental as I am?” My smile had left my face, as much as I had made an effort to keep it. I was so happy a few minutes ago, but my mother somehow always managed to wipe my smile off my face.

“Dorothee. That’s not what I said,” she defended herself in a quiet tone to not cause a scene.

“But it’s what you meant. But don’t worry, Mum, I won’t be able to bring any more shame on the family name hidden away where you like me.”

Her jaw dropped in shock. “Dorothee!” she hissed quietly.

My father placed his hands on my mother’s shoulders. “Of course, we’ll watch the play with you. Your mother and I are still jet-lagged from our flight, and some quiet entertainment before the long drive home will do us good. Right, Cordelia?”

She exhaled angrily, not taking her eyes off me. “Of course.”

This time, as I forced a smile on my lips, the happy thoughts didn’t succeed over the memories that started to hit me when I thought about the De Loughrey manor. The place where all I could do was watch but never listen.

My parentsand I took our seats at the back of the auditorium to watch the play. After spending almost two hours with them, I was already fed up. Mum constantly muttered something about how this place gave her a headache, and Dad took one call after another while I showed them around.

When we had our appointment in Chadwick’s office for him to give my parents a report on how I was doing, both of them suddenly acted like the best parents anyone could wish for. Shame had filled me with their behaviour because Chadwick knew about how my home life had looked as I grew up. Session after session we talked about how hard it was to grow up with the feeling that I’d never be good enough for either of them. And now they sat here, and all I said looked like a complete lie.

The red curtains were still closed, but the light in the room started to slowly dim. Someone from the front row got up and ran towards the back of the room, where I sat. As the small figure came closer, I recognised Maisie, who wore a long white skirt with a matching white blouse that had long witchy-like sleeves which spun around her in her quick walk. Her golden and crystal jewellery gave her an unworldly touch. My friend had these looks that could only ever be compared to an angel.

She took my hand and smiled widely. “Come on, we’re sitting in the front row so that Jesse can see us.”

I stood up and looked at my parents, who eyed the blonde girl that still held my hand. “Mum, Dad, that’s my roommate Maisie.”

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