Obsession Runs in the Family

My cousin as blessed as she is with the ethereal Dubois beauty is also cursed with the family trait of obsession. The moment Elyce had lost her innocence to me; she traded her girlish whims for a voracious appetite for scandalous affairs, preferably with men belonging to other women. She adores the challenge of forbidden fruits and like me savors the destruction of another’s paradise as I have taught her well the meaning of Dubois power. While my darling Liselle, now removed to her ivory tower of remote lust, tends not to exercise the lethal combination of beauty, wealth and power that composes her heritage, she is just as tainted as the rest of us, her particular obsession being the lump of a wine baron whose testicles that are no doubt used as earrings by his transparent, dimwitted wife.

It came to my attention as every move of my family does, that Elyce is stalking the younger son of the wine baron and since I have already had enough of that family through Liselle and her persistent ill-fated romance I suggested that my cousin use her time more productively. Translation being, that she is to perform whatever task I set her as my interests are always paramount in our family, in my business, in this town. I knew that she would not dare to challenge me directly and as her eyes narrowed in thought or hate, either is interchangeable in our relationship, it was probable that Elyce would obey my strictures. However, she would not relinquish the object of her desire as readily as daring to thwart me openly is not her styles, her mode being far more clandestine and eventually I would hear of this matter again. I pointed her in the direction of a rival who had the ill manners to bid against me in a contract. His blowsy wife might have served him well for breeding many years ago but it has been a long time since she held any sexual delights for any man. I suggested that Elyce might enjoy watching the destruction of a dynasty for I knew the wife was insecure, the marriage had no prenuptial agreement and the sons were far too young to aid their father. A nasty divorce would be suitable punishment for his hubris and the ignorance he chose to embrace for only a fool would ignore of just how much own this world.

I consider myself to have left the family curse, the pursuit of obsessions unlike my late Uncle Axel with his fright of a wife, Liselle and her pathetic attempt at being mistress to a fool. I left this weakness far behind me once I was removed from the company of my sister and during my subsequent years at university I had only passing dalliances to occupy me. That was until I saw a rose, glowing, transparent with innocence for until then I believed myself immune to the Dubois curse. Now I find it invading the corners of my mind, filtering into my blood, stirring the heat of my loins, something a man such as myself shall never tolerate—to be hostage to emotion, so the rose must be wilted.

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