Declawing a Kitten

My sweet kitten of a cousin upon hearing of the elopement of her intended sharpened her angry claws on every being within her reach until she turned her green eyes icy with rage in my direction. She vented her fury on me, stating that I would have known of this before it happened and why had I not stopped it. I explained to her, as only a benevolent older cousin can, that while I was happy to endorse the union of our families it was only for as along as it vexed minxie and once she was not affected by our plans I saw no reason to continue their support. Elyce spat that I was obsessed by this little nobody and it was shameful how much power she held over me, her unacceptable display of vitriol was a direct opposite to the cool disdain of my sister who in her glacial wisdom have sealed her emotions and bided her time for revenge. Elyce however has the impatient ignorance of the very young and in turn required a little discipline so I suggested that some more time away might improve her manners, then called my assistant to arrange it. Elyce unwise to the bitter end, proceeded to tell me this entire affair was my fault as I had no control over anything in this town so I smiled at her youthful indiscretion and removed her from my office.

Elyce it seems requires a little reminding of who controls the Dubois empire and some third world plumbing will do the trick nicely so I ensured my assistant understood what type of vacation I was planning on her behalf. Liselle came to see me afterwards, commenting that Elyce appeared to be taking lessons from the Ladonna school of getting things done, all noise and threats but I told Liselle not to worry as I was taking our young protégé in hand. I watched my sister’s eyes freeze into such detachment it was as if her soul had vacated her body before realising this was a favorite phrase of our father’s when he had found various family members tiresome and dispatched them into oblivion. As he had done to Liselle when she was involved with one Jago Vanderhaven those many years ago. I wondered why it was the curse of our family to have lifelong obsessions with people that we wound up having to destroy in order to survive. She might have let Jago go for now but minxie was not going to escape her fate. She was mine to have and mine to destroy and I now choose the latter.

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