Past- Alden

"What are you saying?" Cardia asked and Alden grabbed onto her hand tightly, refusing to let go.

"Please leave Mason, he doesn't deserve you, sister," Alden said desperately, his voice barely a whisper. "He leaves you alone for weeks on business trips and goes and hooks up with random strangers in foreign bars. You're worth so much more. Come back home, Cardia."

"He is my husband and I love him," she answered him evenly. "And I have two children with him. He is exactly how I want him to be, a money making machine. I want to focus on Lucien and Heath, do not bother me if you are done making your point."

She turned away and left Alden standing in the empty hallway when Lucien came home from school. "Uncle Alden!"

Alden turned towards the seven year old kid with bright grey eyes. Lucien was good at everything he did and was a very lovable and obedient kid. He was Cardia's most prized possession. Alden's blue eyes pierced through the kid, all his hatred for Mason suddenly directed to Lucien.

If only she wasn't pregnant with Lucien, she wouldn't have married Mason in the first place.

"Hello Lucien," he smiled and took him up in his arms. "How was school today?"

"It was good!" he replied cheerfully. "But I saw a cat get run over by a truck near the school gates and when I tried to help it, my teacher told me not to touch it because its gross. It wasn't gross, but there were a lot of blood I guess..."

Alden smiled. "It isn't gross. Your teacher is stupid. Would you like me to show you how to put a cat back together when its brains have splattered all around?"

"That sounds... a little weird."

"Oh, but it isn't," he started walking towards the garden. "Come I will show you."

***

"Lucien answer me," Cardia stared at his face with a steely gaze. "Did you kill Arthur's pet cat?"

Lucien glanced at Arthur, their butler, who was madly in love with his mother. He knew mother cared for him a lot too and oftentimes she chose to spend time with him instead of with Lucien so when Uncle Alden told him to pick a cat, he obviously went for the one Arthur kept - knowing it would make him mad.

Lucien silently stared at the floor without saying anything. He knew it wasn't Uncle Alden's fault but his own for choosing Nanami, Arthur's cat, but surprisingly he didn't feel one ounce of guilt for taking its life.

"Lucien-"

"She deserved it!" he screamed and ran towards his room in full speed, slamming the large wooden doors behind him and pressing his face into the pillow. That night, Cardia woke up at around three a.m. and knocked on Lucien's door. He had not ate dinner and not come out of his room since the incident earlier.

"Lucien," she called out to him lovingly. "Listen to your mother, come out."

"No," Lucien mumbled through his tears. He didn't know why he was crying, perhaps because he didn't want his mother to get angry at him or perhaps because he knew he meant less to her than Arthur.

"Since you're not asleep yet, let's go out to a walk together," she said softly. "I won't scold you, come out."

Lucien slowly opened the door and hesitantly peeked through the gap in the door. Cardia didn't look angry or mad so he stepped out and followed her into the huge garden at the back of their mansion.

"Why did you do that, Lucien?"

"You always spend time with Arthur, never with me." He looked at his feet. "You hug him and you kiss him and you spend so many moments with him that you don't with me. I hate it. I hate it so much, mother. I love you more than he does."

Cardia smiled. Lucien stared up at her with awe in his eyes. In that moment, he knew he had never seen something more beautiful than her and will probably never will.

His mother was the most beautiful woman in the world.

"When you grow up I will share those moments with you too," she smiled kindly. "And I do not love him. He is more useful than you are currently so I am more affectionate with him."

She paused and picked him up in her arms. "Mother loves you the most in this world but if you hurt someone close to me I won't love you as much anymore."

"Do you love Uncle Alden, mother?" Lucien asked innocently, wrapping his small arms around her neck. "He always looks so sad whenever he looks at you and Arthur or when Father comes home."

"I love him more than anyone else in this world, but we can't love each other."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lucien tilted his head and Cardia laughed. "Why does he stay with us anyway? Does he not have a home?"

"Alden is a piece of work, I will tell you that," Cardia walked through the rose garden. "He stays with us because society won't accept his craziness."

"When I grow up I will chase him away," Lucien clenched his fists. "I don't like the way he looks at you sometimes, mother."

"My, what a grown up thing to say," she ruffled his hair and put him down. "Be good to me Lucien and I will be good to you."

Lucien nodded.

"Let's go inside and sleep," she turned towards the mansion. "Goodnight, Lucien."

Lucien watched her walk away and then turned to the garden, touching the soft petals with his fingertips.

"Only if there was no Alden or Father or even Helia," Lucien murmured to himself. Helia was barely one year old and she couldn't even speak yet but the amount of hate Lucien had for her was surprising even to himself. Because she was younger Cardia was always attending to her, not even paying attention to what Lucien did. He stared at the cloudless sky and wondered when was the last time before this that he and his mother had such a long talk, although it couldn't be more than five minutes.

He went to bed wishing that night that Helia was never born and Alden no longer stayed with them.

Alden embraced Cardia the moment she came back into her room and smiled at her. "I love you."

"I'm tired of you," Cardia said simply. "Did you have a hand at what happened today?"

"Whatever do you mean by that?" he feigned innocence.

"You know exactly what I mean," she threw him an icy glare but he remained unfazed, running his thumb over her lower lip.

"Oh but Lucien told me himself he hated everyone that stood in the way of your love, including Arthur, Mason, me and even Helia. You might want to be a little more affectionate with him, he is still a child in need of his mother's love."

Cardia brushed his hand away. "I don't have time to entertain him, I am already busy with so much. Don't make things difficult for me."

"But I wasn't," he kissed her hair and she closed her eyes. "You might wanna look out for him, after all, I know my kind. You're not any less crazy than me, sister. You should know as well."

Alden smiled against her hair, knowing that once the seeds of doubt were planted all it would take is a little watering.

"I am not crazy..." the rest of her words were muffled by his mouth and she gave in, trying to relish in the moment.

The next day, Alden left for a job abroad.

And the day after that, Helia was found dead in her room.

Cardia hugged the small body of her dead daughter, her body getting racked by silent sobs.

"There is no way... no way..." she kept murmuring over and over when Lucien entered the room, smiling cheerfully.

"Oh! She's finally dead!"

Cardia silently murmured, "Fuck."