The Music In Me

•1•

Irena looked around in utter horror. The paparazzi closed in on her daughter Christabel and her, trying to get them to reveal something. Irena felt a very strong urge to shove the reporters aside, but a life of fame had taught her that did not end well. So wrapping her arms protectively around Christabel, she rushed to their car, asking the chauffeur to drive away immediately. 

Christabel's amber eyes were brimmed with tears and while Irena felt bad for her daughter, she was also annoyed with her. Christabel, called Tabby by her parents endearingly, was the eldest child of Timothy Alan Macci and Irena Quentin Macci. She had grown up being scrutinized by the society's cruel judging eyes but she had always thrived in the spotlight. Until now.

Irena was a world-renowned music director. Theworld danced to her music and crowds went wild at her sight. Her beauty was commonly described as the personification of her melodies. She was the daughter of a military man, hence the fame and glorification of her beauty was tough to navigate, having lived a secluded life in the army quarters being homeschooled, but experience had taught her well. At just the age of 20, she married Timothy Macci, cricket player and occasional actor and Christabel was born the next year, soon followed by her twin brothers and younger sister. 

Both Timothy and Irena had accepted the fact early on that would not be able to remove their children from the public eye completely and so instead, they taught them how to deal with the spotlight in a healthy way. They tried their best to fulfil both their professional and personal needs and they were sure they had succeded.

Then their first child finally became a teenager. The early teen years were actually fine and Timothy always joked about how Irena had overestimated teenage tantrums, but his views changed since her 19th birthday.

Now in college, Christabel seemed to have fallen in love with a popular politician. Irena and Timothy both sensed something wrong about the relationship and warned her against it, but she only fought back, advocating for herself by reminding her mother that she had married at 19 so she had to allow her daughter to do the same.

Christabel continued with the relationship and sure enough, the politician turned out to be using her. Instead of being thankful to her parents though, she came back to fight them-

"I knew your fame would ruin it for me!" She shouted.

"But what did we do? We warned you and you did not listen to us!" The parents would explain.

"Sure! You think this is my fault? Or you think that you knew my boyfriend? No! He was all good and sweet until the paparazzi started to meddle! Why did they need to follow him?"

"How are you not thankful Tabby! You got saved from a cheater! If you cannot see our cautions and warnings, atleast be thankful that someone acted as an eye-opener!"

She had stormed off that day, but came back the next day with her bags and stuff. She stayed locked up in her room, not talking to either of her parents.

The media was relentless and it always wanted answers, even when it had been literally half a year since the incident. Christabel still felt that the fame was the reason her boyfriend left her and Irena was done trying to explain things to her.

They reached home and after a scoff directed towards her mother, she rushed upstairs and locked her room.

Irena sat on the couch beside Timothy, who was busy forming the team for his next match.

"Don't you think we should do something about her attitude? I don't appreciate the way she talks at all!" Irena said, concern and worry almost bringing her to tears.

"What I know YOU need is a break from all of this" Timothy said shortly.

"A break! I cannot take a break from my own family Tim! That's not how thing's work! She is our daughter and we need to sort things out before it's too late for her"

"And you think I like to watch her like this? I get what's worrying you Irena but if she's determined to mess things up and prove that we're bad at parenting, I want to atleast have a career they can focus on! I think you should just let her be"

"Unlike you, Tim, people will not focus on my professional life if my personal life continues to messed up. I am a woman, you see... I'm what my family is. And I think you can start to take a little more interest in our children because today it is Christabel, but in three years, the twins will be 18 and the year after that, it will be Desdemona. Will you ignore them too until they can act according to your convenience?"

"Listen, Irena. I cannot do this now. I have a tournament to plan and winning this is going to be important for me. I need to just focus and let other things be. And I mean it when I say this- the children may not need a break, but I need a break from you all. Especially you. If you cannot see things working out after you handled them your way, maybe try my way for once! I don't think I can stay with a woman I've never met. This is not you. You used to be interesting. It's not just Christabel, I think I too don't appreciate YOUR attitude. Go somewhere! Get a life! I never thought you would be the type to lose yourself in a household" Timothy said dismissively.

She looked at her husband as he walked away. She walked into the first room upstairs and found Christabel sitting on her bed with a tub of icecream.

"Papa is right, you know? Maybe it would be better if you leave us alone" she commented.

Irena did not cry. She rarely did anyways. But she did something she knew she could. It was also what everyone else wanted anyways. She left.