Tradition

After Judith was pushed out, she stared at the door with guilt in her eyes. She really did not know her son's favourite food but Carl did. For the first time in her life, she was ashamed, she felt incompetent. Her mother always knew things about her even without them speaking so how come she did not know anything about her own child? This question bugged her. She massaged her arm where her father had struck her earlier, the pain made her eyes water.

She was never attentive to him, she only wanted what she considered best for both of them. As she stood staring blankly at the door, tears rolled down her eyes, ceaselessly, she realized she was always alone and truly did not have anything. In her fight for power and money, she had lost what was most important to her. It took losing him to make her realize he was very important.

Judith was threatened by the situatio she found herself in. Her husband was acting strange, her in-laws were not her fans, her parents did not like her too, now her son hated her. Could she keep her position as madam and still make Ryan accept her while still fighting for them? She did not want Ryan to be sent to State E so she thought of ways to kick Carl out so her son could properly inherit everything, solidifying her position in the process.

The CCT is a huge expanse of land at the center of the country, the boundary between the two original nations. It is common knowledge that the aristocrats from the ten states reside in the CCT, it was all part of the agreement when the two old countries decided to merge. This marked the first instance of co-habitation between the two nations.

It is trite law that every aristocratic family reside in the capital, with this, it is debatable whether the aristocratic families are actually hostages of the nation even if they held immense power as the old heads of the families were like the elders of the country.

Even though Star country is a confederal state, the individual states are not allowed to secede. Part of the decision to ensure that each state does not try to break away from the union, they are all given equal representation and equal rights, and their powerful families are forced to remain in the capital. This is because, the country was formerly ruled by these aristocratic families.

However, the branch families are not bound by this law. So over time, in order to ensure that their states do not suffer and they still have a root to return to, it has become tradition that the sons except the first born son and the daughters return to their state of origin to help build the economy of their state, starting his own branch of the family. Just so that they have a place to return to, a place called home.

Ryan was approaching the age where he would have to go to State E, as such, Judith was not comfortable because it only meant the family would fall into the hands of Carl, her position as matriarch would be compromised. After all, who would let the mistress who stole everything from their mother remain in her position. This fear made her want to cast Carl aside. If he was disowned, then her son could remain in the capital, flourishing. And she could also maintain her position. Forgetting that her son could also flourish in State E if he has the potential.

This old tradition made her plot against Carl, ruining his image in the eyes of his father. On the night of the incident, she put sleepy pills in his drink. Then she asked a maid to help him to her room, where she was already half dressed. He actually did not do anything as he was in deep sleep but she screamed for help drawing the attention of some maids to the room before pushing him to the ground. When they entered they assumed he had attempted to r-ape her and she knocked him out because of the state of things they met, it was like they indeed had a fight.

As the good woman she was, she told the maids not to tell Brandon anything because Carl was drunk and did not recognize her, besides, Brandon might misunderstand and throw him out. This of course was just lip service because the next morning one of her maids could not stand the fact that her madam was harassed by a beast but could not get justice for herself because she wanted nothing but peace. So she over exaggerated the story to Brandon, saying Carl had forced himself on her while she continuously struggled.

What made Brandon more annoyed was the fact that Judith wanted to conceal the matter from him. If not for the faithful servant he would not have known his son harboured such feelings for his dear wife. The thought of Carl kissing and caressing her body infuriated him that he did not stop to think or ask questions clearly before condemning Carl. Even if he had asked, the question would have amounted to nothing as Carl was not aware of the situation.

When Brandon had mete out his punishment, she did not expect banishment for just five years. She had hoped for Brandon to disown him. She regretted using sleeping pills, she would have used aphrodisiac and made sure Brandon witnessed the scene, may be that way, he would be gone for good. Still, it was better than nothing, she still had time to plot against him.