The Bodyguard

Family Events

The car ride is absolutely, terrifyingly silent as she sits beside Mr. Knyte and across from her mother. Beside her mother is Mr. Delmont, a stone cold look on his face and jaw tightly clenched as he stares out the window. Emilia watches as her mother almost cautiously slides her hand onto his thigh, squeezing gently in a reassuring fashion.

Something silver flashes lightly on her mother's wrist as Emilia looks away trying not to cry, trying not to get angry at the sight. She knew that bracelet, it was the one her mother had worn every single day since her father had died, the one he had given her on their fifth anniversary. The same year that she had been born.

Gently, inconspicuously she wiped at the corner of her eye with a pinky to clear away the single tear that had welled there attempting to ruin the gothic makeup. She didn't know where it came from, if it was anger at her mother at Mr. Delmont, or if it were sadness and shock that she would dare to wear something like that now. To pretend that she still loved the man that had left them, deserted them and then was murdered by the man now beside her.

Forcing herself to look away, her eyes trailed down to the shoes inches from her own feet. She could already feel the ache building in her toes from the pinch of the nude stilettoes constraining her feet visible as the silk folds brush open at the slit to see her just shaved legs.

His shoes, black as the tinted windows with thin white socks peaking just at the edges of his three-piece suit pants, layered against the black leather of the car seat with legs slightly parted and hands placed on his knees in a rather tense stance. Her eyes travel past him to the tinted window flashing with those brief lights of passing cars every now and then. 

"So, where precisely is this party?" She finally asks, looking not at Mr. Delmont but at her mother, crossing her arms across her chest and feeling the cool material against her bare arms as it shifts slightly, making the only other sound in the car that of a rustling champagne silk dress. 

"It's at a friend of mine's." Mr. Delmont says, not bothering to elaborate on the obvious of where precisely it is, and based on the fact they are passing through a clump of palms nearly 10 minutes outside the city and at least a half hour from the Delmont mansion. 

"Thank you for elaborating, mom?" Emilia changes, not even bothering to look at Mr. Delmont with the annoyance very obvious in her voice that it was not her mom the one that answered the question.

"Like Anthony said Emy, it's his old friend's house." She said, smiling cajolingly to try and ease the tension resting between her daughter and new husband. "I am quite certain it will be absolutely lovely." Her smile turns to one of a loving longing as she looks at her new husband once more like she wants to jump in his pants at that very moment.

Emilia tries so hard not to flinch or gag, or really to react at all to this slight change of subject as she looks outside once more trying to figure out precisely where they are and if she could make an excuse for a proper escape.

The rest of the ride is left in nearly an unbearable huffy silence, only the brief whispers of shuffling feet or moving fabric dare to interrupt the unspoken hatred resting between her and Mr. Delmont, her mother sweetly oblivious and Mr. Knyte looking relaxed as always. 

He reminded her of a tiger. A large lethal cat waiting for the chance to pounce, to rid the world of a terrible venomous snake that lays coiled across from him, its coils looped dangerously around Emilia and her mother. For if he were to leap too soon they would be stroke by his terrible venom from which there was no cure. But if it were too late they would be crushed beneath those constricting scales and he would have no chance to save anyone. So he must lie in wait for him to make a mistake, to have enough distraction to destroy the cobra without it having the chance to strike first.