Blood vs. Water

New York

New York felt much chillier than Daphne was accustomed to, as her feet hit the marble floor.
She slid her feet into her fluffy slippers and got up from her bed in search of any movement in the vacant house. Her father would most likely be here, because the office lets him work from home most of the time. Her mother had a bit of ADHD, never being able to stay in one place for too long.

Their mansion in Tuxedo Park was an impressive display of modern design and generational wealth.

With that being said, it can be assumed her father was well off money wise and his father before that and so on.

Daphne's darkish, Auburn hair must have still been a mess and her clothes overstretched as per usual.

She's been awake since sunrise, but she would much rather stay cuddled between the covers, watching some movie or mindlessly scrolling through social media.

Her knuckles thump against the heavy old wood door of her father's study twice, in a quick pace. She subconsciously takes her hair into a ponytail, to create some sort of order out of habit. Her fingers slightly graze a scar on her abdomen and her heart exhilarates .

"Come in." She hears her father's gruff voice call out to the person behind the wooden door.

His eyes looked dark and exhausted as he lifted his head up to his youngest daughter. She couldn't help but wonder, maybe her father did find some sort of love for her in his blackened and icy heart.

"Good afternoon." He gives her a pointed look, giving her appearance a once over look. She knew he was judging her oversized clothes and lack of lady like behaviours. Or maybe it was the delayed time that she finally decided to get up from bed and greet him. "Did you sleep in that?"

"Good morning, Dad. And yes I slept in this and I will also be staying in this throughout the day." She moves over and leans onto the corner of the desk next to her father's paperwork. Her eyes tried to catch a glimpse of what he was working on.
She always had a strange fondness to criminal cases and murders.

His gaze caught her wondering eyes furthermore moving the paperwork out of her sight. "Do you need something Daphne?"

She sighs looking at the carpet that has been replaced several times since she was born. Her eyes follow a ray of light shining through the window from behind her father. There was a huge backyard staring back at her. Her mind starts to wonder to her childhood memories, but she quickly regains responsiveness, remembering why she was here in the first place. "Is Mom in the house?"

"No, she's at the bakery today." He takes off his reading classes to look at her more promptly. She looks back at the overworked and stressed Benjamin Jackson in front of her. Sometimes when Daphne was younger, she often wondered if being a lawyer meant taking some of the cases you had to defend, even though you knew the defendant was guilty, personal. She knew the answer to that question now.

"Why?" She asks giving her father a new confused look. "It's Saturday and-."

"She has a job, unlike some of my daughters." He tells her, giving a slight disappointed look, swotting her away from the desk with his shaky, wrinkly hand. The wedding ring shines in the light from the window behind. A constant reminder that this man was married.

"And unlike the bad husband you are, I actually remembered that today is Mom's birthday." She rictuses at him and pushed away from the desk to stroll back out the heavy door.

She hears him cussing under his tone as he scrambled to get his car keys and jog past her to get downstairs. She waited and listened for him to slam the front door behind him, suddenly angered by his own forgetfulness and her witty remark.