Fireflies And Butterflies (ON HIATUS)

22║First Statement

"I can explain," was the first thing that Czarina heard from her mother's mouth when the video stopped playing.

Various guests were looking at her with disgust, shaking their heads. Czarina stared at the faces of her father's colleagues and their spouses. Some of them were shocked, and some of them were giving her looks that were demanding for an explanation. Qlaus' gaze was worse than the rest, his eyes concealing a raging storm that was about to wreak havoc. Czarina looked at her mother and their gazes met. Her mother gritted her teeth and sharply quirked a brow at her, her lips a thin line. She exhaled slowly and dropped her gaze.

"Please... everyone calm down," Qlaus said when people began to air their angry and disgusted thoughts. "Please... she didn't know what she was saying... or doing."

"Of course she did!" a woman from the audience hissed loudly. People concurred and nodded at her. She pointed at the screen, the video replaying several times. "Look at the video that was just played. Apparently that didn't look like her not knowing what she was saying! She was threatening her own daughter!"

"Is this how rich people behave? Unemotionally and mercilessly?! Even to their own children?!" an elderly man said, banging the table with his fist.

Czarina raised her gaze as Qlaus stood, his hands tightly clasped, the veins on his hands visible. Before he could speak, someone interrupted him with a booking voice.

"I'm pretty sure that you also had a hand in this. This is the twenty-first century for crying out. Grow up!" shrieked a young woman as she folded her arms.

"What?!" he said, his eyebrows jumping up into his hairline, "I never agreed to this. I didn't even know that my wife had said such things to our daughter." He placed a hand on his chest. "I love my daughter. Every part of her is also a part of me. Hating her is like hating myself. Nothing can change the love I have for her."

"But your wife has a different story to tell. It's obvious that she's like a bad cell in this town. Her insensitivity did not start today, and it's not going to end today," said an elderly woman.

Reine jumped to her feet. "Hey!" She pointed at her. "Watch your tongue! Do you have any idea who you're talking to?!"

"You did something wrong and you're still trying to defend yourself?!" Qlaus hissed in a booming voice, giving her a sidelong glance.

Reine spun around to look at him. They held each other's gazes for a while before Reine groaned, scrunching her eyes shut. She pinched the bridge of her nose and cocked her hips. "Fine! I said what I said and I can't take those words back." She folded her arms and stared at the guests. "I thought that it was supposed to be Ömer's campaign video that was supposed to be played?! Who the hell recorded that and uploaded it?!" She glowered when the guests began to murmur. Some of them stood up to leave with whoever it is they had arrived with. "Come out and face me this instance!"

There was no answer for a while. It was just the sound of the guests leaving the ballroom before someone in the crowd, in a bold, leisure tone, said, "I did." Everyone paused, looking towards the source of the voice. Czarina also raised her head to see who it was, stiffening at the realization that it was Maimouna who had publicized the video.

Reine turned her head towards the voice. "You." She narrowed her eyes. "How dare you you insolent—?!"

"Don't call me insolent," Maimouna said as she stood. People stared at her as she stepped gently towards the area where the aristocrats and their families were sat. She backed them and faced the crowd. "What you just saw now is just the tip of the iceberg. And I used that to show you how these people treat themselves. If they could treat their own flesh and blood in this manner, how do you expect them to treat their servants? How do you expect them to treat my kind? How do expect them to treat Yum—?"