Kimberly's hazel-green eyes immediately landed on Walter's chocolatey brown from all the way across the room. She hadn't even noticed when he'd slipped back in his seat. She thought he was leaving the event with that girl.
Their faces were encrypted with similar expressions. He was just as clueless as she was. Perhaps, the parents had pulled the element of surprise on them. The only difference was that Kimberly could masquerade her emotions much better than her ex-boyfriend.
Walter gasped, as he looked at his father with a gaze that could pierce through the strongest of metals. For a little moment, Kimberly found herself wanting to reach out to him. Hold him and tell him that it will all be alright. But she knew she couldn't, she didn't have that right.
Never had, never will.
With all her will she prevented herself from lunging at her mother right on the stage and break her nose. Hence, only through her parted lips, she drew in tiny breaths so as to avoid relapsing into her intermittent explosive disorder.
The crowd burst into claps and appreciations as the newly engaged couple was soon surrounded by media reporters.
"Congratulations on the engagement but sources tell us that your divorce hasn't been finalized yet." The mic was pushed into Evelyn's face, putting her on the spot.
"Those are lies. I've been divorced for almost four years now." She smiled maintaining her quintessential posture and Kimberly found herself scoffing.
"Where is Benedict Hexington?"
Evelyn shamelessly avoided that question like the whereabouts of Kimberly's father didn't matter. Like he was perishable, irrelevant. Kimberly wanted to grab that microphone and tell everyone just how phony her mother was but she was held back by her father's words.
Please cooperate with her. She's been through enough, Benedict had said to her. Because of me.
Kimberly didn't know what that meant and she didn't plan on finding out but everything that happened to Evelyn, herself, and the B.H medical centers was somehow reported back to Benedict. And Kimberly didn't want him to think that she had not only humiliated the woman he loved in front of the entire state but also jeopardized the reputation of an institution - he built from scratch - by creating a scene.
"Sources tell us that he tried to kill himself with a drug overdose four years ago, how do you think he'll take the news of your engagement?"
"No, he didn't. There's no need to sympathize. He was a drug addict and he's getting the treatment required." Evelyn spat, the despise firing up her eyes. Kimberly clenched her fingers, she could feel her bile rising up and the little control she had over her anger, loosen.
"Is it true that you were the one who divorced him?"
"No. I tried to help him but he was beyond receiving emotional support. He needed to be institutionalized. And that's what I did, for his own good but he thought otherwise. The divorce was his decision." Evelyn tipped the corners of her eyes - in hoax attempts to gain sympathy - before clenching the white cotton handkerchief in her fist. "I tried to love him, though sickness and in health, just like I had promised but I couldn't live with a man like him anymore."
"Miss Evelyn, what do you mean by a man like him? Did he ever hurt you?"
"Evelyn does Mr.Benedict-"
"I've cut that part of my life long ago. Now if all of you have questions that are inclusive of my drug addict ex-husband and not my current engagement, please excuse us." Evelyn pushed through the horde of reporters with her new fiancée caging her to safety.
Not only had she lied about Benedict being a drug addict but also about him divorcing her. In truth, he had only tried to kill himself due to the uncertain circumstances which had burdened him at that moment but to Evelyn, he had always been a drug addict and she let everyone believe that too.
"Evelyn Hexington has refused to answer any and all questions regarding her ex-husband and the former owner of the B.H medical centers." The reporter with faded blonde hair and sandy brown eyes said into her microphone. She clutched her mic closer to her chest as she further said, "But however Evelyn did mention something about Benedict refusing medical help, struggling with drugs and that Evelyn could no longer live with a man like him. Does this mean he used to physically or mentally abuse her? Or their daughter Kimberly Hexington? We'll get to the bottom of this, stay tuned with 7plus news."
That was the last straw, Kimberly could no longer witness her father's reputation being viscously paraded through the media because of her mother.
So she lost control over her anger, relapsing into her intermittent explosive disorder.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
The tantrum began with her breath transforming from quiet and regular to a panting gasp. Kimberly sucked in the air like it had suddenly become thick and was now almost too difficult to draw in. She became deaf to the soothing words of Maxon and Sebastian, rapidly backtracking on her previously tough stance; now offering more than they ever had. But by then, it was irreversible.
Kimberly had already relapsed.
She smashed whatever she could lay her hands on. Years ago when her disorder had started her father would hold her down, whispering soothing words in her ear.
There was a cold burning to Kimberly's rage, an ice, that scared even Maxon and Sebastian. She had felt this feeling before, this burning sensation in the ribcage where her heart perched. She'd felt this exact emotion when the paramedics reeled her father into the ambulance on a stretcher. When her mother forbid her to see him in the hospital when Evelyn locked her in her room so Kimberly couldn't run to her father's aid.
Picking up the broken glass from the floor, Kimberly gripped it in her bare hands. She needed to bring stability in her demeanor before she lost controlled and launched at the conniving woman standing in front of her.
Warmblood gushed out of the wound from her hand. The flesh split paving way for a sting and crimson liquid. Blood slid down Kimberly's palms and soaked the georgette cloth material of her flowing dress. The pain was yet to fluctuate on Kimberly's face. Her defiant stance and angry crease through her forehead indicated that she wasn't about to go down without a fight.
"Put it down, Kimberly." Evelyn tried to sound rigorously grueling but the little gulp of fright defused her ruse.
"Did you hear me?" She warned yet again but there was no show of exigence in her eyes all Kimberly could see was rising trepidation and a little triumphant smirk made its way on Kimberly's lips. "Put it down and we'll talk."
"Talk?" Kimberly threw her head back in a sarcastic chuckle.
Maxon leaped forward to embrace her but Evelyn slapped her hand across his chest; ceasing him from coming any closer to his friend. A blurred memory of Evelyn ceasing Kimberly the exact same way from hugging her unconscious father on a stretcher kicked back in. A memory she had buried deep into the cages of her brainiac RAM.
"Don't go near her," Evelyn whispered but Maxon shrugged her hand off her chest. "She's not in her right mind. She's dangerous."
"Don't tell me what to do." Maxon barked. "This is all your fault."
Images of her unconscious father and that dreadful day started reeling in. Kimberly had blocked those remembrances long ago so as to avoid mental breakdowns but little clips started playing in her head again. An abundance of feelings subjugated her and drove her bonkers.
Kimberly saw his face, his body laid half-dead on the stretcher. The fear she felt, the despair she felt. It spoke to her in its cackling voice. Telling her legs to go weak, her stomach to lurch and her heart to ache.
The thoughts were accelerating inside her head now. Kimberly wanted them to slow down so she could breathe but they wouldn't stop. Her breaths came in gasps and she felt like she would blackout. Her heart was hammering inside her chest as it belonged to a rabbit running for its skin. The room spun and she squatted on the floor, trying to make everything slow to something her brain and body could cope with.
She yelped a loud scream. It was the kind of scream that made your blood run cold. It was a kind of scream that made the hair stand straight up at the back of your neck. It was a scream of wild panic. A scream of hysteria, disbelief, bordering on terror. It pierced the brain and ignited some primeval pathway to images unknown. Adrenaline surged through Kimberly's veins heightening the frequency of her screech.
"Kim." Sebastian grabbed her body before she could hit the ground. The glass dropped from her hand as she clutched in his collar, blood drenching on his white Tommy Hilfiger shirt.
Kimberly steadied herself, pulling her feet back on the floor looking at the culprit who provoked her.
Evelyn.
"Kimberly," Evelyn whispered, surveying if the rage attack had passed.
"How dare you?" Kimberly's voice was low yet menacing, no space for excuses.
"I can explain. Eric and I-"
"I don't give a fuck who you whore around with. How dare you humiliate my father in front of the entire state." Kimberly took a menacing step towards Evelyn as Evelyn involuntarily took one step back.
"How dare you blame my father for the divorce?" Kimberly's knuckles turned white from clenching her fists too hard. "How dare you call him a drug addict in front of the media from all over the state?"
"Kim-"
She shrugged Sebastian's embrace on her as she took another step closer to her mother. Evelyn was backed against the wall with a look of utter terror in her eyes.
"You pushed him on the brink of self-destruction. You are the reason my father tried to kill himself and you have the audacity to demean him?" Kimberly's finger poked the skin above Evelyn's collar bone as Evelyn swallowed an empty gulp of air.
"You divorced him. You abandoned him." Kimberly spat. "You destroyed him."
Maxon pulled Kimberly away from the woman who birthed her. If not for the boys, Kimberly would have committed murder long ago.
"I will kill you." Kimberly shrieked, looking at Evelyn, as she felt her throat tighten.
"You lying bitch." Kimberly added before trying to lunge at her.
Sebastian was suddenly between the two women, looking as if he knew what would happen if the situation wasn't pacified.
"Kimberly, I may have lied about the divorce but I didn't lie about Benedict being a fucking drug addict." Evelyn snarled, shooting a glare from behind Sebastian's shoulder over to her daughter. "Your father is not who you think he is. He's a fucking monster."
"Will you fucking stop adding fuel to the fire." Maxon barked, his eyes locked on Evelyn.
Kimberly lunged for Evelyn milliseconds later, keen on slamming her head against the wall she was standing near and watching her mother crumple to the ground. Unfortunately, Kimberly's plan was foiled when Maxon grabbed her by the waist and began dragging her down the opposite direction.
"Let me go!" Kimberly shrieked as she stumbled along beside him, trying hard to wriggle away.
She shoved him towards the wall, his head whamming against the concrete and wasted no time sprinting back towards Evelyn. Though the move had clearly shocked Evelyn she didn't flinch, Maxon sprinted in time to push Kimberly back against the white cinder block before she could make it far.
Kimberly gasped as her back hit the wall, but she still managed a glare as she curled her fingers into the front of his shirt. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to keep you from killing your mother, me or Sebastian," Maxon answered through gritted teeth, clearly trying hard to keep Kimberly from doing anything rash.
"I'm not going to hurt any of us." She spat, struggling to get away. "I'm just going to kill her. Now let me go."
Kimberly arched off the wall but Maxon pushed her back again. "No. You do that and you'll be spending the rest of your existence, miserable in a prison cell."
"Did you listen to what she just said?"
Kimberly once again slipped out of his grasp but Maxon seized her upper arm before she could get far. She had barely managed to gasp in protest when he whisked her towards the farther end, despite her trying to dig her heels into the ground, Maxon managed to get her far away from her mother as Sebastian followed us.
Maxon suddenly released his grip on her arm, causing her to stumble back, but Kimberly regained her balance a few moments later and started hunching towards Evelyn. Sebastian however was quick to block Kimberly's way.
And Evelyn slipped out the door in fear.
"Move," Kimberly demanded, shoving Sebastian's chest wall to the corner.
Neither Maxon nor Sebastian looked like they were even considering it. "Kimberly," Sebastian whispered.
"Move, damn it." This time her voice broke, little cracks evident in it. She was practically shaking with rage as she rushed at Maxon. Unfortunately, he was quick to grab her around the waist, keeping her from harming either one of them. Before she knew it, Maxon engulfed her into a bear hug.
She punched and struggled in his embrace as he whispered. "Knock it off, Kimberly." He grunted, using his weight in an attempt to keep her there.
Sebastian warmed them with his embosom over Kimberly and Maxon. "Everything will be alright." Sebastian's hands caressed the back of Kimberly's head, his whispers soothing her hunching anger. "We'll do damage control."
"Please don't leave me. Please." She found herself saying as she squirmed in their embrace.
Kimberly sobbed into Maxon's chest unceasingly, hands clutching at his jacket. He held her in silence, rocking her slowly as her tears soaked his Ralph Lauren chest. A tiny lapse let her pull away, blinking lashes heavy with tears, before she collapsed again, her howls of misery worsening. The pain must have come in waves, minutes of sobbing broken apart by short pauses for recovering breaths, before hurling her back into the outstretched arms of her friend.
"We're not going anywhere." They said in unison.
"I-I can't stay here. I can't be alone with my thoughts right now." Kimberly's breath stuttered in her lungs before she let it go, feeling the tension drain from her body.
"We're here for you," Maxon whispered, his chest rising and falling with the sedative qualities of a lullaby.
"No. I need to get away from here. I-I can't bear all of this today." A single tear wheeled down her eye as she broke apart from the group hug. "Take me someplace where I can forget about tonight. I need to take my mind off things."
The tears burst forth like water from a dam, spilling down her face. Kimberly felt the muscles of her chin tremble like a small child and she looked toward the window as if the light could soothe her. There was static in her head once more, the side effect of this constant fear, constant stress she lived with. She heard her own sobs, like a distressed child, raw from the inside. It took something out of her, she didn't know she had left to give.
"Kimberly." Sebastian initiated. "You can't ignore your relapse."
"Please." Kimberly's voice cleaved, again. "I don't want to talk about this tonight. Please."
Maxon sighed in defeat. There was no point in reasoning with her because she would go with or without them. "I know just the place." His blue eyes drifted to Sebastian's darker ones. A silent agreement between the two of them as Sebastian nodded and pulled his cellphone from his pocket.
Sebastian knew just where to take Kimberly. What, better place to forget your sorrows than free booze and loud music?
Maxon refused to unbrace Kimberly, clutching her like she was fragile like she would fall apart if he let go.
And it had some truth to it.
Sebastian's eyes fell on the snuggled duo - his heart constricting merely a little bit - just as a little spark of jealousy ignited, phone clutched to his ear as he huffed in exasperation thinking he couldn't do anything about his feeling anyways. "Ahren, hold the jet. We're coming."