Engagement of the Year (1)

Inside the thriftless guest room, arranged in person for her by the matriarch, Sirena couldn't help but scoff at the back of her mind. The bitterness caused her stomach to feel nauseous. She felt disoriented for some unknown reason when she gazed at the reflection of her face in the mirror, which appeared both familiar and foreign. It unsettled her, as she felt out of place.

Something was wrong. She thought.

... Ineffable perhaps?

"Miss Calantha, you are breathing awfully! Please do take unhurried, and solid breaths." Behind the mahogany wooden chair, Lady Chloe stood as she gently combed the tangled hair of the nervous woman ahead of her, assisting in releasing the weighty tension off her chest. Lady Chloe already saw this coming. There was this lingering call in her head, but her tongue was tied.

The same old excuse.

"Yes, yes! Just like that, take it slow and steady. Through the mouth. You will be fine. Trust, it is a fleeting moment that will pass like the seasons." Lady Chloe continued to detangle the woman's hair, without realizing she had begun to pat Sirena's back as a mother would to her infant.

She continued to spill persistently much to Sirena's irritation. "It's not difficult. You opt not to be judged or condemned, not by the matriarch or that man. Not that they can either way. You are stronger than that. The others are nothing but shells in the sea. Relax your body and place your trust in me."

"Eh? You are exceptionally patriotic tonight, I see." Sirena rolled her eyes and inadvertently made eye contact with one of her secretary's worried ones. "I am but a grown woman, and not some flimsy child who gets panic attacks all because I am about to come face to face with my hypocritical family members. Chloe, I must have been a burden on your shoulders, haven't I? Oh! And that reminds me, you should take a week's leave off from work. Get those old bones massaged."

She jeered.

Lady Chloe's lips twitched in response. Her boba eyes seemed ready to argue as if life depended on them for the hurtful interpretation of those words. However, she closed up for the betterment of the uprising situation back at the table in the main hall.

But that didn't stop her from returning an answer.

"You are not a burden, Miss Calantha. I care for your health. I will not be taking any form of leave, not now, not ever."

Sirena paused for a second. A part of a string in her heart shook when Lady Chloe finished her reply, notwithstanding, she hid it well and went back to her cold farce. To change the topic, she asked. 

"Why did she send a dress as well? Cooking up another one of her witty plotlines?"

After the encounter with that a**hole, Sirena had caused trouble wanting to flee from the yacht. A while back, her behavior was a bit over the sky, and if it hadn't been for the secretary by her side, she would have gone a little loose. Just as she was calming herself, Lady Chloe materialized with a dignified grey dress curled around her wrist from nowhere, preaching to the other about how it was a miracle the matriarch had saved the day, which was nothing but a mere coincidence.

... or a simple nuisance. 

Sirena burned anger.

She felt a sinister ploy in between and was sure it would become madness that would later roll her to the verge.

"Speak," she conversed in a commanding tone.

Lady Chloe continued to weave the hairpins into the woman's brunette hair, creating the picture of a fallen angel as her hair was tied in a twisted bun. She cleared her throat, her folded hand a little close to her mouth where a few of the pins had lingered.

"The matriarch..."

"And... I assume you are dilly-dallying on purpose, Secretary Chloe?" a rough-edged voice laced with maturity spoke from across the room, bringing a glitter of fear to the secretary's eyes. As she hadn't expected the matriarch to be there herself, the woman hastily spun around to receive her.

"Ma... Madam, I was assuring Miss Calantha about..."

"There's no such fallacy about reassurance, Secretary Chloe. Be more cognitive and make haste. We shan't keep the guest waiting. You are not watering a flower, are you?"

In the dim light, a clear porcelain silhouette became visible, their magnitude standing out. The figure was guarded by a brown tedious staff that supported each step taken. It's not like the figure is stationary in the leg, but more like, a need through generations.

Contrarily to her secretary, Sirena didn't care when she gazed at her mother through the mirror. There it was again, the undesirable facial expression as though she was doing a favor to her. Thus, the bitterness she once tasted couldn't help to creep back in.

"Excuse us."

Secretary Chloe wasn't told twice before she consented to the command. The only challenge she faced before egressing was the thought of the two in a closed space... Alone.

It most definitely was akin to a hyena and a lion growling at each other and trying to rip their flesh apart without a single touch of their claws but the teeth.

"Y-Yes, madam..." Secretary Chloe took a retreat step and awkwardly exited the room for the mother and daughter.

Now the room was deluged in silence, with just the clicking thud of the staff as the matriarch ambled closer to Sirena.

"I don't remember carrying a stone-deaf or mute child for ten months straight." the matriarch's frustrated voice resonated and covered the silence.

"It took you five years to return to the family, you ungrateful brat!" 

Like a fragile crumbling wall, a sound emerged out of Sirena's lips - a sigh.

She looked at the approaching woman in wordless amazement. The same woman that drove her out of the same family years back, calling her a bastard. The same woman who raised her because of a duty, and not from the heart. The same woman who refused to give her a name, until three years after. The same woman who expected perfection, but all she ever saw was her flaws. 

How could she go home when that home didn't feel like home anymore?

She had gone past that stage of questioning.

Out of sheer provocation, the matriarch, her maiden name known as Daria, quickly succumbed to patience when she almost hit the other with her staff.

"Take my hand, insolent child!"