Interlude: Mother knows best!

Kath Lyst’s POV

The show was over and we were being led to some sort of reception. This was a custom to provide the opportunity to the guests and crew to network after the show.

But I wasn't interested in that. It seemed like that harlot was leading my daughter away. I still wanted to have a word with Anna, she needed to take up her responsibilities. She is the sole heir of the Lyst family, and she needed to understand that there is no running away from that. This farce had been going on for long enough. So I started to make my way to them. But suddenly my road was blocked by Ms. Lourdes, one of the other guests.

I wanted to tell her to get out of my way but she started talking first “I know we have freedom of speech in this country, but I hope you do agree that that freedom also comes with facing the consequences of what you have said. I cannot say anything about how you raised your own child, but this is for Lisa and Claire.”

Then everything went black for a second and I staggered back. That woman had hit me. I felt my cheek, she had hit me really hard. I tasted some blood on my lip. Some security guards had come to lead Ms. Lourdes away.

“You just made a really powerful enemy!” I shouted at her. “This will not be the end of this.”

Not only did she hit me, I had lost the chance to talk to my daughter. That was really the main reason I agreed to come to this damn talkshow.

“Let it go Kath, you had that one coming.” A pack of ice was being offered to me by a very familiar face. I looked into her eyes behind those cute thick glasses. Even if my face still hurt and I was still angry at her, I felt a smile form on my face. I could never stay angry for long at Cath no matter what she had done.

“What do you mean, Cath? She attacked me out of nowhere. Probably for some misplaced political ideals.”

“No, you practically called her best friend a whore and her best friend's daughter a harlot on national television. You had that one coming.”

It felt good to have Cath next to me. She could always bring things back into perspective for me. She had always been the only one that ever truly spoke her mind to me.

“Maybe you're right. I might have gone a little too far.”

“Good, now that that is out of the way, have you seen that brilliant Mirai X Kanade posted by Sinsin-sensei this morning?”

“Oh you still have your exquisite taste. It was godly. I get notifications each time Sinsin-sensei makes a new post.” I replied.

That made me giggle. Some things never changed, did they? I remembered the olden days and became a little sad. “Why did you join the yuri team? You are clearly still having fun with BL.”

“You know BL is great in 2D, but in 3D, I always was a supporter of the yuri team. I am sure you noticed, you just made your own choices. You explained them rather eloquently earlier. For me, feeling how I felt, having just a platonic friendship was just not possible anymore. I was hurting, and decided to take some distance.”

I thought of the choices I had made in my life. They weren't really choices, they were always made for me, I always was just asked to walk the road already paved before me. I‘d had some choices, but they would never take me far from the road that was already there. Anna was trying to take a different road. Maybe I should have done the same back then. I sighed and sat down.

“Why didn't you tell me that back then? Why tell me now? What possible good could it do now?”

“You had your future and dreams planned out. It wasn't up to me to interfere with them. You always talked like all your plans were what you really wanted to happen. I thought you would be happy that way. And right now, I am telling you because of what Claire said. I wanted to be true to myself, not to what I think would be best in the eyes of everyone around me.”

Again that Claire. She seemed to be quite the influencer. Even Polly had openly declared her homosexuality on national television because of her, and now even Cath had been charmed by her. One crazy thing after another and everyone seemed to be grateful to her for it. She was also strong. I never thought I'd see the day where I would lose a public debate to a sixteen year old.

I thought of what I needed to do to become true to myself. It sent a shiver down my spine. How far had I strayed? No matter how much I hated admitting it, that Claire girl was right. I should have been true to myself from the start. I would have a lot of work cut out for me. But now that I had seen it before me, it was impossible to unsee it. I had to change.

“If I try to change things around, will you be there for me? Will you wait for me?”

“I've been waiting all along Kath. Of course I will be there.” Cath offered me a glass of champagne.

I accepted the glass. Next to putting my own life in order I also had to take some steps to make sure that Anna would not screw up her chances with Claire. A powerful and rich influencer like her, would be an excellent match for Anna, and a great asset for the family. I had to make sure they got married as soon as Claire was out of high school, but I would need to do some careful planning. One wrong move and they would realize my plans and rebel against them. They had to think they came up with it themselves...

I needed to know a lot more about Claire, and make sure she would follow the direction that would benefit the Lyst family most. So I started by asking Cath: “That invention of yours, yuridium tell me more about that and the patent you submitted. It all sounds so very interesting.”