Painful Smiles

Clara averted her gaze when the police man sat in front of her.

“Did you know your home had a CCTV camera?” he asked in a hushed tone. Clara turned to him.

“I guess you didn’t know” he shrugged. Her eyes were now glued to him.

“So the camera caught you push your little brother down the stairs. Caught you break your mom’s vase to caught your sister with the pieces and also at one time, caught you stabbing your sister with a knife one night”.

Sweat was profusely streaming down Clara’s neck, down to her thighs.

“Well, you are a minor and won’t go to prison but those are crimes. And you were said to have survived a traumatic kidnap or say, attempted murder. It’s safe to say that you are….” The police mam searched Clara’s face to get a reaction.

She frowned and answered, “I am not mad. I am not detrimental. All of you are. My brother spread rumors about me. Yes, it was an accident, I admit”.

The police man nodded, “You admit?”

She rolled her eyes but nodded, “Yes, I do. And it was for defense to use the broken vase on my sister, she’s stronger and would have killed me. And the knife accident, a total slip. I am not detrimental”.

The police mam nodded again and wrote down something’s in his notes. “If you aren’t detrimental, and what I initially wanted to say is, you are psycho. Confirmed one”.

He left the room to answer to his superiors. Clara gulped down saliva as his words kept on repeating in her head. “You are a psycho”.

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If someone had told Michael he would be babysitting a woman in her forties that day, he could have laughed hard and said impossible. But he was.

Mrs. Larabee had cried so much that he felt he shouldn’t leave till she got better. Well, his mistake number one.

It took hours till she “got better” but them she asked a direct favor to stay longer as she wasn’t used to being home alone.

“Well, maybe you could bail your husband or something…” Michael tried suggesting anything to rid him from a possible babysitting.

“I don’t want to see his face. He is the one who had started the preferential treatment that led to this. Also, he isn’t always home. Claudia is the homebody here. She’s always home”.

Defeated, Michael just accepted the offer to stay.

Maybe it would give him a chance to get the full story on how “Clara forced her sister to donate blood”. He just want to assume the woman had slipped tongue and used wrong names.

After all Clara and Claudia sounded alike.

“My girls are different. And yes, Claudia is wilder but I’d say much of a risk taker. Clara is the happy one. Friendly and love colorful things. Claudia is easily bored. That’s them before a major incident in our life though” Mrs. Larabee began narrating.

Michael felt it weird she’d just open up to someone she barely knew but he understood that she needed someone to talk to, badly.

He only felt bad for himself because in her story he’d be the villain.

Mrs. Larabee pointed out distinctively how much she regretted not protecting her daughter from the abuse.

Forced to donate blood at a young age and then paid to keep silence while she was a free citizen of the U. S.

The mother also added that it wasn’t just the fear of losing the case that stopped her from protesting but also the fear of the case blaring on the news as “French Heir abuses rights of American preteen” which was possibly how it would have been.

The American media wouldn’t waste time to pin the case on France and start a possibly media war from the countries.

She didn’t want that as her daughter would be seen as a pathetic victim instead of someone trying to fight for her rights.

But in the bid to avoid all these, she failed to protect her daughter’s trust in her and caused them to drift apart due to the guilt she had.

Guilt filled Michael also. Since he was younger he always thought the girl who gave him blood “donated”.

He never knew she was forced to give it out. And paid for it. And threatened to keep it a secret.

He had realized that few days ago when his father was saying Clara might not like him since she hadn’t really volunteered her blood. But Michael never imagined that it was a coaxed business.

“I hope I am not making you uncomfortable as you are French? I don’t mean Frenches are bad. I work with a lot and they are really nice and funny but that experience was really bad for me” Mrs. Larabee sniffed.

“Oh, hmm… it is bad. I’d just say that maybe the other party had no choice and didn’t know things would turn out this way. Maybe” he faked a smile.

Mrs. Larabee smiled at him and then suddenly offered to make a snack for him. She disappeared to the kitchen before he could protest.

Michael stayed glued to the chair. His phone began beeping and he knew it was Mrs. Peniel. She would begin thundering on how he left without telling her.

But that was the very least of his problems.

Clara was surely aware of who he was or there was no other reason she’d act like the real donator?

Her reason for acting was still unknown. Shouldn’t she be sharing the same hatred her family shared for the family that was donated to. Or did she hate Claudia so much that she didn’t care.

This information explained why Claudia had a weak body despite her strong nature. It explained why she never trusts and cared less about showing weak emotions.

Clara so had a query to answer.

How long did she know he was the one? Why was she purposely hurting in front of him? Did she realized that he would have a special feeling for her? Why exactly did she lie about being the one?