I wasn't supposed to make you like this.
Right now I would be fulfilling promises to you I've already broken.
I had five weeks to think things over. To think about you Venice. I don't pick random people to cling to. I remember the first time I saw you, you were in a happy place in your life. Felicity and Jenn were by your side, you had a typical teenage life. I guess that bothered me so much, because I didn't have that. I stood on the notion that you were making the wrong choices all because I didn't know how to live an ordinary life.
I was in a cage my whole life, and I called it home. I came from a respectable family. I had everything. I had all the luxuries I could ever ask for. My parents had a fall out when I was fifteen and I couldn't see my mother after my father had an affair with one of the girls who-
I don't like remembering that time, I don't know if she's dead or alive. That doesn't mean I care, she did little to protect me from the kind of person dad was. Life hadn't always been like that. Then I saw you and your parents, simple. That's the only way I could describe it. You had something drifting you back from them, but your bringing up was normal. What do I even know about that word?
Now you looked like you couldn't even stand on your two feet. I could see your hands shake, and your spirit from the first time we spoke, it's like it had been deteriorating and I didn't know. Or rather I had assumed your boyfriend had made you happy. I was that lethal dose of a poison that killed you from the inside out. Unintentionally I caused you this pain and as much as I was sorry for it, it gave me some sense of peace that I saw myself in you, the suffering.
"...I had something to say if this is the last time I'll get to see you Quincy Roux. I do have a poor sense of discernment, I have nothing and no one to blame but my quick trust for people. But I'm not stupid. Only that never applied for you, I was stupid, an idiot for you. I wish I had known you were the one watching me. I wondered when we found Felicity's body, was it love? Was it some kid of animalistic possession you had? Was I some kind of pet to you? Did I ever...matter?" Her voice whispering at the last word.
I didn't know how to explain to all these people why I couldn't claim what I felt as love. I saw it destroy people, jut like how it destroyed you. I couldn't let that in between me and how I perceived the world to be. I looked at her, because that was what she wanted. You were commanding my attention with your gaze. A gaze I had fallen into one too many times. I nodded and she went on.
"You're a monster, you're the monster you chose to be. I don't know you well enough to judge what happened. Your childhood seemed fantastic, you had everything you could ever want. And here I am, a stupid eighteen year old, hoping for a twenty three year old to love her back. You scared me to death, you got what you wanted, you hurt people around me, invaded all the privacy I thought I owned for months, killed a man I genuinely liked that time. You have my heart, everything, what else do you want from me!?" I learned my lesson so please-"
Her legs gave in and she dropped to the ground and everybody stood up to check what just happened. I stood as well. Gut-wretching sobs filled the room and I froze. It was Venice. What had I done? The last time I ever heard screams like that were from Daniella, when she was on the brink of death. Her lawyer went towards her, the judge called for order, but no one seemed to listen the hearing was moved to later that afternoon. My hands wouldn't stop shaking.
* * *
"She won't be able to continue with her mental state, sir." Yamen was a skilled psychiatrist who dealt with young adults in legal matters in criminal law. She had calmly taken Venice's parents outside the hall from her office.
"What mental state? Venice has always been a strange child. So suddenly saying she can't do something is babying her," her father says and Yamen raised a brow and scoffed lightly. If these were the kind of people that raised Venice she could understand now.
"It needs to be treated, your daughter had complex PTSD and it looks like it didn't just root from anywhere. I've been with her for two hours in here and she needs help. I'm not requesting this, because you're clearly uncooperative and my priority is the wellness of my patients. Venice, will not testify or be stepping in that court room again. I will let her lawyer know."
"Who the hell do you think you are-"
"Honestly shut up, just shut up already," Venice's mother said as she was composing herself after hearing the state her daughter was in, "you don't care about her a girl you used to be all over, because you loved her. Doctor, he and I have been divorced for months, we stayed because I begged it for Venice's sake till she got to college."
"Was Venice aware about your divorce? And who is going to be the primary caretaker after all this is over?" Yamen asked.
"I will take her to live with my boyfriend and her. Don't worry she knows him really well and they are both on good terms. I want to help her, I want to be there-"
"So, I'm being put as the neglectful parent here? I have a right to a say on my daughters well-fare as well." Her father argues and Yamen sighs and turns to them both.
"We will have to be notified of her official caretaker, otherwise we'll be stranded and find no way to help her. So, for the last time, does she have an official caretaker between you two?" Her mother nodded and the father remained still and unmoving.
"Then ma'am your daughter has consented to help since she is an adult but she can't do this alone. She's requesting to see Quincy, and Quincy himself has requested the same. Do you allow this?"
"Yes, but I'll go get him myself doctor," Venice's mother says.