dear violet ➳ andy biersack (currently editing)

34

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chapter
thirty four
violet

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I weaved my way through the crowded caffé, looking around for Andy's table.

Everything seemed to be either booked or full, and the clinking of ice cubes in glasses, the clattering of silver cutlery against plates, the loud chatter, all filled the stuffy room to the brim.

I turned around, and walked headfirst into somebody.

"Oh! Crap, sorry! Are you -?" I stumbled a few steps back, breaking off in a wave of horror as I recognized the ever so familiar features of the woman standing before me.

Pin straight pale blonde hair framing a drawn, stern looking face with dull grey eyes and thin pursed lips.

I whispered hoarsely, "Mom?"

Catelyn smiled flatly at me; a dim sort of smile that refused to ignite anything in her eyes. She was a stern faced woman, a cold hearted woman.

And I hadn't seen her for six whole years.

She said, "I've been meaning to talk to you, Violet." 

I just stared at her in pained disbelief.

I found that I felt nothing; no attachment or love. No urge to burst into tears and hug her. Nothing. 

Because after so long, after such misery, any love I had for her had grown numb and dead. 

And yet, still, she stood there right in front of me. My mother.

Eventually I got out, "Why now?"

Catelyn shook her head tersely. "I heard some really bad news, and I had to make sure that you were okay. The lead singer of The Black Veil Brides knows who you are, and I just needed to make sure that he has absolutely nothing to do with you because, Violet, that man is evil. Have you heard about the death of his previous girlfriend? Listened to his music -?"

"I can't believe you!" I burst out in a sudden hot flush of rage. Catelyn blinked in surprise, her face remaining so terribly impassive. "You vanished for six years without even checking to see whether I was alive or not, and now you just pitch up randomly all to badmouth my boyfrie-?"

Catelyn clapped a hand to my shoulder, her eyes growing wide and horror-filled.

There was something just a bit wrong, something going on inside that rotten black heart of her's.

I could tell.

Was it from living with my father? Had a life with him driven her over some line, broken something in her?

I would be able to understand that.

"That - that man is your boyfriend?" Catelyn's voice shot straight through three octaves and broke off on the last syllable.