Broken Bonds

Chapter 50

(***panic attack trigger warning***)

Reine Parker

Rummaging out the piece of paper which I picked up at the park the other day, I scrutinised the handwriting on it. I believed that I've seen this handwriting somewhere before... 

Standing up from the chair, I headed towards the cardboard and pulled out the big box which I had stored in the cardboard for years. It contained many of the photographs which I had once pasted on the wall, but I had taken them down after the passing of my dad. 

Digging through the piles of pictures, I finally got out the handwritten cards which were given to me every time during either my birthday, or any special occasions when I receive a gift from them. 

Flipping open one of the cards, it was from Alexander, who wrote me a card during Christmas Day when I was four years old. It wrote, 'Merry Christmas, Avy! A handmade keychain from your favourite brother!'

Putting it aside, I opened the rest until I finally found one which was written by my dad. It was a birthday card. My breath hitched when I read the last line in the card. The handwriting was almost the same as the one written on the paper. 

Caroline Monet. The woman whom we once loved as our mother, the person whom my father loved so much, but ended up being the one who killed him. 

It was her. 

I rummaged through the rest of the box, hoping to find other things which consisted of her handwriting, but there was no such luck. I needed more things to prove my suspicion. 

Tossing the cards aside, I ran down the stairs and stopped right in front of the room which no one had entered ever since the incident. Their bedroom. I placed my hand on the door handle, and took a deep breath. I swore to myself to never enter this room again ever since then, but this matter was far more important than what would trigger those memories again. I had to enter. 

Pushing open the door, I could hear a slight creaking of the door, probably due to the rust forming because the door was not opened in years. Everything looked the same, not a single furniture had been shifted. The lingering smell of bleach could still be detected as the windows had never once been opened after the servants cleaned up the place. 

I closed my eyes shut, as I finally snapped myself back into action and started looking around the room. The drawers, wardrobe, night stand, nothing was found, until my eyes landed at the study desk. There were 3 drawers right beside the desk, only with one of them locked. 

Looking around on the desk for any signs of key, there were nothing besides a small pile of paper lying on the desk. Moving my hands underneath the desk, I felt something in the shape of a key stuck there. I bent myself down and went under the table, and fortunately, there was indeed a key pasted right at the corner of the table. 

I immediately pulled out the key and unlocked the last drawer, only to find a long black box within the drawer. I took the box and sat near the bed, looking into its content after taking away the cover. 

It was a photo album, with labels written on them. A picture of both my dad and Caroline Monet was on the first page, below the picture wrote, 'happily engaged!' As I flipped a few more pages, a picture of an ultrasound with another label that said, 'first baby boy on the way!' 

I hurriedly fished out the piece of already trampled paper in my pockets and matched its handwriting against those on the pictures. Releasing a shaky breath, the photo album fell onto the ground. I was right, she was not dead. 

Stuffing the paper back into my pocket, I picked up the photo album and flipped till the page where the last pictures were found. It was the last family photo we took, which was during Ari and my birthday. As usual, there were words found below the picture that wrote, 'our baby girls turned 5!' 

As if on cue, the sound of gunshot flashed through my ears after reading it. It felt as though I was back again, on the day when the tragedy happened. The album slipped out from my hands as I realised how I was sitting in the same spot when it happened. 

It was then when I felt as though air was being sucked out of my lungs, struggling to breath as tears rolled out of my eyes. The scene back then flashed right in front of my eyes, I watched as she pulled the trigger and followed that, dad fell limp onto the ground, with a huge pool of blood around his body. 

I looked at my hands, clothes, and everywhere. Everything was bloody, the smell of blood hit my nostrils as I felt the strong wave of nausea hit me in the guts. 

Please make it stop.

Lorenzo Romano

Walking down the stairs, I was heading towards the kitchen to get a drink as I had finished working out in the gym, when I heard the sound of glass shattering coming from that room. Our parent's bedroom. 

We made it clear to all the servants to not enter that room unless they were told to do so, so who the hell was so bold to defy that order? Feeling a surge of anger, I pushed open the door, only to find Avery sitting on the ground right beside the bed, with a broken lamp beside her. 

She was breathing heavily, with her hands trembling in her lap, and the broken pieces of the lamp had pierced into both her hands and legs. I immediately rushed in front of her and kneeled beside her. 

"Avery...Ave!" My voice got slightly louder as I tried to get her back into reality. I panicked, as I had no ways of getting her back. Cursing under my breath, I quickly got up and yelled, "Get the fuck down! Help Avery!" The sound of door opening and hurried footsteps were heard and they soon rushed down the stairs. 

Alex was the first to get down, and he immediately got to her side. 

"Avy, look at me please. It's Alex, Avery." He slowly placed his hands by her shoulders, as he tried to calm her down. She shook her head, still looking at her hands and muttered, "She shot him... he's bleeding, save him. Save Papa, please...." Beads of tears rolled out from her eyes, as she continued breathing heavily and muttering to herself. 

Even Alex and Eli did not know what to do, despite being the calmest of us all. We had seen how Ari reacted when she had panic attacks, but it was not as serious as what we are seeing now. Theo stood rooted to the ground, unable to process this scene in front of him. 

"Fucking hell, how do we stop her?" I cursed, as Alex and Eli both tried to get her out of the attack. 

It was then when Roman Parker appeared at the door, his eyes widened in shock as he pushed aside both me and Theo, stepping forward to her. 

"Ray, look at me. Look into my eyes and breathe." He gripped onto her arms, as he made her look at him. She didn't listen at first, but eventually focused on him and paced her breathing together with him. Her heavy breathing seemed to have lighten after a while, as it slowly got softer and lighter. 

Roman Parker slowly pulled her into his arms as he coaxed her softly, rubbing his hand up and down on the back of her back slowly. Ave wrapped her arms around him, until her hands loosened around his waist as she passed out. 

The four of us moved forward, wanting to make sure that she was fine, until Roman Parker shot a death glare at all of us, refusing to let anyone go near her. He picked her up slowly and stood up, not before warning us in a low voice, "We will talk about it later." 

With that, he carried her up the stairs and left us standing in the room. 

We were standing there helplessly, watching her suffer in pain. 

updated! apologies in advance if the panic attack part was not well written enough T_T personally I had a very very small experience with it but this one was a big one so not sure if it was well described NWJDJWNDWJW 

feels good to be able to set work aside and continue with the story! hopefully I have enough brain juice for the day to be able to do a double update! 

Happy reading! -29/10/2022