“I feel good”

Almost falling on her face as she walked past the butler, she sang off key at the top of her lungs, uncaring whether any glass ended up breaking or any ear drums ended up shattering. All she cared about was getting to her bedroom and falling face flat on her bed.

“Hey, what are you all doing in my house?”

Walking into the dinner meeting her father was having with prospective investors, she took a seat beside one of them who immediately got to his feet because of how much she reeked of alcohol.

“Give me that”

She snagged the drink of one of the men from the table and brought it to her lips as her father watched in trepidation. Not even realising how prominent the company her father had were, she drained the contents of the glass and reached for the bottle that was on the table.

It was at that point that the spell that held them mute was broken and her father shot to his feet, pressing the button on the table over and over again. In seconds, there were maids standing at the door, waiting for orders.

“Get her away from here. Get her out of my sight”

Moving like robots being controlled, they got to where Sonia was and hauled her up, whisking her away from sight though her awful singing voice could still be heard from a mile away.

In less than an hour, all 6 prospective investors had made up excuses to leave and the almighty Mr Don villa del Ella was left alone in his study, licking his wounds as he nursed a glass of brandy as he wondered if the deals he was chasing with those men were even going to pull through after the debacle with his daughter earlier.

It was in that state his wife met him when she barged into the study, eyes blazing and glare directed solely at him.

“How could you do that? How could you disgrace our only daughter in such manner? Do you not realise that she’s the heir to all you have and you ridicule her before those old fools?”

Not exactly shocked at what he was hearing from his wife, he took a sip of his drink and allowed her to finish venting.

“It was bad enough that you couldn’t attend to them in that office of yours and had to bring business home for me to entertain them but you somehow, had to drag our daughter into it. What has she done to you? What did she ever do to you to make you hate her that much?”

As much as he wanted to ignore her, he soon found that he couldn’t because with every word she spoke, she sounded more and more out of tune with reality.

“You think I hate Sonia, my own daughter?”

Rihanna didn’t waste anytime in nodding.

“Yes, I think that you hate her and I don’t know why”

“I don’t hate my daughter. I could never hate my own blood. What I hate is her lifestyle; the frequent partying, the drinking, the smoking, the truancy, the rudeness, the flippant attitude. That’s what I hate and not her”

Instead of seeing eye to eye with her husband, Rihanna rolled her eyes.

“You’re being overly dramatic. All of that is youthful exuberance. She’s just enjoying her youth. Soon, she’ll grow out of all of it”

He blinked at her. Though he knew that his wife enabled their daughter by not being hard on her with all her bad attitudes, he didn’t think that she was delusional and oblivious to the gravity of it all.

“You call drinking until the doctor has to be called in to flush her system, smoking until she’s almost a furnace, firing people at will for the littlest of things, bullying others youthful exuberance and a way that she’s enjoying her youth? Is that really what you think?”

Walking over to the bar, Rihanna poured herself a glass of wine which she held by the stem and sipped from slowly, her floor length gown grazing the tips of her stiletto heels.

“You worry too much. The girl is fine. She’s too young to have responsibilities like you want her to”

“This is the problem. You pamper her too much which is why she’s a spoilt brat. Whatever I do, you counter it by doing the direct opposite. I’m trying to train her into being a respectable member of society and all you want is to indulge her stupidity”

Rihanna slammed the glass on the countertop and turned towards the man she called her husband.

“Are you in any way questioning my parenting? Is this you calling me a mediocre parent or am I hearing things?”

Crossing his legs and leaning back into his chair, he wondered how he married a woman like her who couldn’t even raise a child right.

“If the shoe fits, who am I to argue?”

Rihanna was irritated at his words. She didn’t know how someone like him who barely had time for anything or anyone could be questioning the way she chose to raise her only daughter.

“You’re definitely not a better parent than me so get off your high horse”

She rose to her feet and made to walk out of the study but stopped just shy of the door.

“If you think you’re so good a parent, why don’t you take a trip to say, Italy or Mexico and take Sonia with you? I’ll give you one year and see how great she would have become by then”

In that moment, all he could think of was how he ended up with a woman who wanted to make a wager with the life and future of her daughter just to prove a point to him. When he stayed quiet, she chuckled.

“I should have known that you wouldn’t agree to it. You’re far too much of a business man to give her your time”

He wasn’t going to let that slide.

“What if I take you up on your offer by taking custody of my daughter after the divorce that we will be getting if there are no changes in her lifestyle in the next 2 months?”