Venus Rouge

The Fallout (Part 2)

Call me a pessimist, but when I plan, I'm always looking for something to go wrong. There are always uncertain variables that could throw everything off course.

That "something" going wrong was in the form of heavy snowfall that popped up on the very freaking start of winter.

I wouldn't have minded too much if it was simply that, but this surprise snowstorm decided to sneak up on me on one of the rare days I was at Verne house!!! There was no way a carriage would make it through that white oblivion either.

I was stuck.

I'd been avoiding this place more often lately ever since the atmosphere became... strange. It seemed that the "happy" couple were close to dropping all pretenses now that they were out of the public eye. Or at least Verne was tired of pretending. All the grass had been cut and the snakes were plainly visible. It was not the best time to be there... Hey miraculously here I was.

'What the hell?! Did I walk under a whole bunch of ladders or something?!!' I made a noise between a sigh and a groan as I released the curtain letting it drop back to cover the view of the neverending snowfall on the other side of the glass. The universe refused to let my plans go trough without a hitch it seemed.

I slumped back onto the fainting couch in Ronnie's playroom.

Right when I was on the verge of implementing my plan this happens...

I sighed again as I watched Ronnie playing tea party with a myriad of unfortunate jam and tea stained stuffed toys.

I was even planning on bringing Ronnie along with me when I left for the capital this time. I didn't need her getting caught in the crossfire. It was already snowing when I arrived in the fief but I didn't think it would turn into this by the next morning leaving me no choice but to postpone everything.

Unfortunately, hindsight is twenty twenty. Maybe if I wasn't so concerned with not implicating Veronica and myself while making things as clean as possible I could have avoided the drama that came next, but there's a reason it's called "hindsight".

When the playroom door opened slowly I completely expected it to be Maddie or Tish. The voice that greeted me, however, gave me no small amount of shock.

"Kaoru, darling, come with mommy please." Came a d soft, sickly sweet voice from the doorway.

I snapped my head around so fast I swear I almost dislocated something.

There, standing, in the playroom doorway in her usual finery, was Claire Verne; smilng sweetly in my direction no less.

You must understand my shock. Ever since she moved us to Verne house this woman has never set foot in the playroom, much less given us the time of day when not pretending to be a caring mother for the public. Sometimes I think she forgot she had children. It was the same way back home in the Onyx fief but to a lesser degree. I suspected it was because the Onyx estate was too small for her to completely avoid us and pretend we didn't exist.

You could blow me over with a feather. I didn't think she even had a clue where the playroom was, so her sudden appearance immediately put me on high alert. What was with that sticky sweet tone of voice? If anything it made me even more wary of going anywhere with her.

I considered raising hell to draw attention and one of the servants here to make sure she wouldn't try anything, lest I have a good reason to drag her reputation through the mud, but doing so would probably put Verne on high alert as well, and I would hate to have to put his comeuppance on hold any longer.

I was not keen on finding out what she had in store for me though so I might have to risk it.

In the end I decided to go along for a bit to determine the threat level. Keeping my face completely neutral I stood from the fainting couch and walked towards her in a steady unhurried pace. Ronnie looked away from her game curiously and a little worried, but I just patted her head on my way past.