Strings

Chapter 29

Avery

I sigh deeply, the exhaustion and the weight of the last few weeks catching up with me. Do you ever have those days where you'd like nothing more than to just sit back, relax and maybe try to catch your breath every once in a while before you have to get up and just get down with the hustle all over again.

Well, this moment was gonna be that breather for me, as I lay sprawled over the couch across the fireplace with a glass of fresh cranberry juice. I know what you're thinking; that a glass of red wine would have sufficed better but eh, I am a lightweight and besides cranberry juice was the exact color of red wine and it's always fun to pretend! #adulting.

All sorts of thoughts cross my mind as I just bask in the weightlessness of this exact moment. Frustration brought me downstairs as I stare vacantly at the cozy fireplace. Boy, it was cold; I thought as my furry pj's did little to protect me as I wrap my flannel closer around my body.

My thoughts stray towards Hayden as they quite often do in their own accord. We have fallen in the comfortable rhythm of our lives yet we don't interact as much as I'd like to.

It was mutually agreed that although we have become equal partners and shareholders in Marshall & Co. as well; we as the Knight Enterprises wont throw a big bash as an announcement for my family's sake. Its not like they can do anything if we decide to go through with it but it'll just add on to extra humiliation to their credit since rumors regarding the inner-workings of the business had already been going around in hushed whispers and not-so-hushed articles. I had tried reaching out to Olivia, so we could talk as sisters and not just a couple of people in business but she had refuted all and any attempts I made. She snapped at me after that meeting was over when everything had been done, decided and signed yelling, profanities and making a huge scene at Hayden's office.

I had never seen her like that before, in this sort of violent, aggressive, irrational and senseless avatar. Nothing would calm her down and Hayden had to call security to escort her out as father couldn't even bring himself to look at us in the eye.
I've never looked at it like that but I guess the taste of fame is alluring and once tasted some people loose themselves in its momentary ecstasy and lose sight of themselves; but to watch it already happen to Olivia was just...heartbreaking to say the least.

I talked to mom about this and apparently this type of behavior has been persisting for years now, because of which they made her see a therapist; a suggestion she vehemently refused but succumbed down to eventually on conditions of extracting more money from dad but atleast now we know what she was doing with all this money for all this time. On the shrink's recommendation to visit an establishment with a well-renowned psychiatrist, Olivia had a massive fit and ran away back to her old ways with mom and dad trying to keep her activities under the wraps from the media and the tabloids. Which I can't imagine would've been an easy thing to do, in the first place, since paparazzi follows Olivia everywhere she goes like a dog, so considering that, they did an excellent job since even I couldn't catch up on her violent, destructive traits (although that may be because I hardly saw enough of her to catch up on anything in the last few years); but as parents, I think they both failed for not providing Olivia with the help she so desperately needed at the right time, even after continuous warnings from her therapist and for letting all of this happen to and with me, not moving a finger to even inform me, let alone help me out.

They prioritized their business and its reputation over both their daughters and in the end they were left with nearly nothing at the mercy of the English mob and the Knight Enterprises and both their daughters estranged from them. What could and should have been a cozy, well-knit family was falling apart at the seams, and although it always hurts to no end, to think of it like that; it is what it is and there's nothing more I can do; for both my sake and theirs to alter the present of things.