Big bad Damsel

CHAPTER [15] - His family secrets.

Just like how the Knight's had their terrible family secret, so did the Princes.

At the time, Damsel was still young and didn't think much of it. His parents were very busy when they were younger and would send a chauffeur to pick him up from school, those times he was too rebellious and ran away after school. Each day, he felt like hating the world, while other kids had their parents to pick them up, he had to be taken home with a stranger, and the only thing that was waiting for him there were piano lessons and his tutor.

His other brothers were all at boarding schools outside of the country and his parents were always away on business trips, so the only home he ever knew as a child was an empty house

and Vincent.

He was closer to Vincent than his own brothers, maybe that was why he was always distant with them, because he didn't feel like they were truly siblings. They didn't grow up together, but every holiday, they spoiled Damsel with huge amounts of presents and unconditional love,

Damsel felt like it was their guilty conscience trying to make up for the lost time they couldn't be there for him; the love they gave him was bitter, he couldn't find himself believing it,

he knew if that he did believe in it and got lost in that familial bliss, he would be more disappointed when they packed their bags and left the next week.

What was the point in getting attached knowing that they would leave again anyway.

They say over-attention brings as much developmental harm as neglect, for the brain cannot form healthy patterns and bonding, yet one cannot help feel that emotional and physical neglect are worse.

But to Damsel, he was both neglected and over-fawned upon. He spent 11 months of the year alone, with nobody around and accompanied by the household's workers. That 1 month of the year, he felt suffocated, suffocated with people in the room that acted like he was the only reason they were living. 

It was like going the whole year eating dirt, and one day, you're faced with a buffet and eat everything placed in front of you. There were so many stages of pain, 

the pain of the neglect he had faced with nobody around him to praise his achievements, to ask him about his day, the maternal concern of his mother, or the look of pride on his father's face. He had little to no communication with his family, sometimes 4-minute phone calls a month was all the time he got to connect with them. He was so bitterly alone.

Then, that huge buffet was placed in front of him like all his prayers were heard and people finally faced him, saw him, and loved him. That euphoric feeling that itched in every cell of his, the warmth from his dear ones that he so desperately wished for.

And finally, the stage when he wakes up to be met with an empty house again, devoid of all the happiness he had just received.

With one step forward, he was forced to take 3 steps back. 

Like he was given a cookie to eat, and he barely managed to take one bite before it was pulled out of his hands.

Those 3 stages do so much to a young, growing boy.

When Damsel was still that young boy that was hiding out on the streets, running away every day so his parents would come home and give him some sort of attention, there was a day he sat waiting for people to find him; he had gotten lost.

 It was only the alleys and trash cans that he knew, the only decorations were the nail marks scratched across the walls, they were the proof that he was still trying to climb, climb up over that wall and land outside the pit. Despite the fact there was a sky and sun at the top, it felt like a million miles away