All week long Micheal set across from his wife at the breakfast table and silently stared at the untouched plate sitting in front of his daughter's chair. He wished Katarina would come down the stairs and have breakfast with them his last morning at home for the next two weeks, but assumed she was ignoring him. He was too stubborn to go upstairs and ask her to come down and join them.
Yet every morning they set a place for her at the table. He didn't want to give her the opportunity to sweet talk her way out of her punishment for her latest stunt. Micheal only had two body guards now to protect his family when he was use to four. Two men that had worked for him for years were fired and, along with Zeek's help, beat with in an inch of their life for allowing Katarina to drink, drive, and get arrested.
He had said some pretty mean things to his intoxicated daughter when he got her home from jail. Her blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit. He knew his daughter didn't use good judgement when it came to a lot of things but he didn't know she was drinking alcohol. He was mad at himself for not seeing the signs. 
He was mad at himself for hiring people who didn't understand that their job was to make sure his family was safe and that meant keeping them from doing stupid things. He should have been notified the first time Katarina picked up a drink. Now he had his lawyers making this arrest disappear and his daughter mad at him because he had taken her car keys and gave her no indication of when or if she would get her car back.
"I'll talk to her while you're gone, don't worry." Aunya said reading the far away look in her husbands eyes as concern for their daughter. "Micheal did you hear me?'"What was that?" Micheal replied the sound of his wife's voice snapping him back to reality. "I'm sorry Honey, I have a million things on my mind."
"Is Katarina at the top of that list?"
"Isn't she always? This is the last resort I promise. If she's after my attention she has it.""Micheal, she's going away to college in a few months, you're going to quit doing what you love, to do what, sit in her dorm room? You have to let go and let her make her own mistakes."
"She's making plenty.""But she hasn't paid for any of them."
"You want me to let her have this DUI on her record, lose her license, community service?""I'm not saying that but if she still had the three speeding tickets or the hundred of parking tickets on her record then she wouldn't have had her car to get the DUI."
"So now its my fault she was drinking and driving?" Micheal stood up from the table not waiting on a response and headed for the door."Micheal." Aunya tried to no avail to get her husband to stop and listen to her.
"I have a flight to catch, I'll call you when I get there." he threw over his shoulder as his wife followed after him.
"Micheal!" He slammed the door and left. One thing Micheal hated more than anything was admitting he had made the wrong decision."He'll calm down, he knows you're right." A familiar voice stopped Aunya from staring at her husband as he stomped down the drive towards his car.
"You've got to quit listening in on private conversations." Aunya saying turning to find the man her husband trusted more than any one. 
"I heard him yell at you I was concerned." Zeek responded as she closed the gap between them.
"Don't be Zeek, he wouldn't hurt me but he would you if he found out how you felt." Aunya left Zeek feeling ashamed and embarrassed. Zeek has known Aunya for as long as she'd known Micheal. They've spent a lot of time together over the years and he had developed such strong feelings for her. He had never acted on them and was bewildered at how Aunya knew. If it was that obvious to her could Micheal see it as well?