Chapter 6 - The Starving Matriarch
Arthur carefully bypassed the trembling maid to reach his mother. The elderly woman’s thin white hair was a chaotic halo around her pale, tear-streaked face. She was weeping with a profound, full-bodied devastation, her small, frail hands clutching at Arthur’s dark suit jacket with a desperate, white-knuckled intensity. She wasn't just crying from the shock of the near-assault; she was drowning in a deep, prolonged despair that had finally found a desperate outlet. Arthur wrapped his strong arms around her frail shoulders, his own eyes burning with unshed tears of rage and guilt. She looked up at him, her chest heaving, and delivered a confession that struck him with the concussive force of an explosion. "The second you leave the house," she sobbed, her voice cracking with profound agony and lingering terror, "she locks me up and starves me!" The horrific words echoed off the pristine white walls, utterly destroying the false utopia of their luxurious lifestyle.
