𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑-𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 | 𝙖𝙩𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙡

xiv. childhood trauma is a bitch

𝐂 𝐇 𝐀 𝐏 𝐓 𝐄 𝐑 𝐅 𝐎 𝐔 𝐑 𝐓 𝐄 𝐄 𝐍

𝖻𝗋𝗈𝗎𝗀𝗁𝗍 𝗍𝗈 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝖻𝗒:
𝗌𝗍𝗋𝖺𝗇𝗀𝖾𝗋 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗀𝗌 𝗌𝖾𝖺𝗌𝗈𝗇 4
& 𝖻𝗍𝗌 𝗆𝖾𝖾𝗍𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗉𝗋𝖾𝗓 𝗍𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗒 👀

𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐦𝐚 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐆 with one's parents is familiar in most peoples' lives at one point or another. For one it could be over forgetting to do the dishes or taking out the meat from the freezer before they got home. Another it could be over the parent's mistake, though they refuse to admit it. Nights of yelling, doors slamming, missing apologies, and insults that linger in their heads for the rest of their lives.

In the end, most of the time, they got resolved or ignored until the tension went away. It would end up fine in the end.

For Ellie? That parent-to-child bond was broken long ago into plenty of unfixable pieces.

Now here she was wanting to be literally anywhere else as he talked with her.

She didn't necessarily hate him; it was hard for her to genuinely hate someone. Dislike, sure, and some people she just avoided because they creeped her out. She didn't even hate the people she murdered. It was strictly business—well, most of the time. Ellie knew Maria hated the man, but then again, her short temper caused her to hate a lot of people.

She should hate him, but there were no words to describe her feelings toward the man she called her father. They certainly weren't good, that much she knew.

"This is not exactly how the average family has a reunion." Ellie commented as her neck cranes to look around at the strange setting around her. This wasn't dinner with all the members nor bringing flowers at her arrival.

"We're not the average family, wouldn't you say?" He leaned against the railing with a smug expression.

A long-drawn-out silence fell on the room, the men standing as bystanders too nervous to even make the slightest bit of noise in the tense air.

Her father broke it without a second thought, "I bet you're wondering why I brought you here?"

She eyed him, "I'm wondering why you took such large measures and were so hell-bent to get the girls you left behind back."

Claude Barron was a businessman. Every move he made was for his benefit. His mob, Le Milieu, always came first. It was never his family, given their genders. He'd never admit that out loud, but the girls knew. That was the world they lived in. Women weren't seen as very important unless a man needed a baby or someone to clean the house.

The Barron sisters took their last name as a title as a way of rubbing it in their father's face so that they could be just as powerful. They were prideful of their last name because they made it a name that everyone recognized all on their own. They never needed his help.

He took her silence as an answer, "It's time you two come home."

Ellie laughed out loud, but as she continued laughing, the dead silence from the others caused it to slowly die down.

He just stared at her with his brow raised.

"Oh, you're serious?" She blinked in surprise.

This time, his silence was her answer.

He wanted them... back? After all these years, when he dropped them off so easily after their mother died, he suddenly just wanted to pick back up where they left off? She couldn't even begin to believe her ears. This had to be a joke.