"Mother you can't be serious!"
"Yes Daphne, yes I am deadly serious, I don't want my daughter running around with a bunch of...delinquents."
Daphne scowled, she hated her mother referring to her friends like that. "Mother," she began through gritted teeth, "How many times do I have to tell you, they are my friends, not some kind of criminals like the people we stop and save this town from."
"I just don't want you to get hurt." Her mother protested.
"Well I won't, I'm perfectly safe with three people my own age and a huge Great Dane!"
Her Mother's eyes narrowed into slits, so thin that Daphne wasn't even sure if she could see through them. "Oh yes Daphne," her voice was cold, reducing Daphne to a timid trembling child with a simple change of tone, "That's why you've ended up in hospital so many times, from falling down trapdoors or getting yourself kidnapped."
"Well I...I..." Daphne stuttered nervously, her mother's gaze ripping her into pieces.
"Your Mother is right Daphne." Came a firm voce from the hall. Daphne's Father stepped into the living room, a stern expression etched on his face as he looked at the two bickering women. "This has been going on for far too long Daphne and I don't want it to carry on any further." Daphne felt sick. She had always feared her Father, with her not seeing him that much and him only talking to her on the phone, she found it overwhelmingly daunting when speaking to him in person.
"D-daddy..." Daphne whispered, backing away a little.
"I called him Daphne; he took a flight home to have a world with you about all of this. We're worried about you Daphne" Her head shot round, glaring at her Mother for this act of betrayal.
"I'm fine." She growled stubbornly.
An ominous silence engulfed the room as Daphne sat down on the sofa and looked from her Mother to her Father, who were obviously planning something. Her heart began pounding so hard she swore they could both hear it as her father began to approach her, stopping only a few feet away.
"Daphne, your Mother and I have decided that it's in your best interest that you no longer see those 'friends' who you always seem to be with." Her mouth fell agape, her mind refusing to register what had been said, but she knew what they said, she just didn't want to believe it.
"You, you what?" She practically whispered, unsure of what was actually happening.
"You are no longer allowed to see them, speak to them nor have any contact with them from this point onwards, do you understand?" Her father said sternly.
Daphne's mouth remained open, in a state of shock, she couldn't think of anything to say. At a loss for words she simply looked up at them, tears brimming.
"Daphne dear," Her mother said soothingly as she sat down next to her and gently rubbed her shoulders, "I know this may seem a little drastic, but we just want what best for you, you deserve a rewarding career like your sisters have."
"What?" Daphne hissed, "You want me to be like one of them?" Her blood boiled, she had never been able to live up to the expectations set by her four older sisters, they were all so perfect in their parent's eyes.
"Daphne don't say it like that, I mean come on, we have a soldier in the family, a doctor-"
"And what else?" Daphne said coldly, her head shooting up and tears beginning to spill. "A model? Oh yes mother, that's what I want to be, a mindless woman who has to rely on her looks to make it in life, striving to be thin and beautiful and to do that I'll become anorexic or bulimic." She hissed, as she remembered the sister she despised, the one who always tried her very best to make Daphne's life a misery, she was delighted when she went off to Rome for a job.
"Don't you dare talk about you sister like that young lady!" Her Father grunted.
"I could have been talking about models in general, but thanks for backing up my point about them dad; mindless, egocentric bitches." Daphne replied, her voice now shaking. "I'd rather make a it as something useful, which is precisely why I'm solving these mysteries with my friends, so I don't end up like the very people I can't stand."
Her Father erupted. "Well I'd rather have a model as a daughter than a silly little girl who thinks she has what it takes to be a detective, when all she can do is fall into traps and get kidnapped; what would you do Daphne, what will you do when one of these criminals decides to do more than just tie you up and hide you in a closet?"
She winced, she had often thought of what could happen if she didn't get rescued, if the gang failed and she was left at the mercy of the latest crazed villain.
"But you don't. " He continued "You just don't think do you, well then again that's not your job is it? Velma does the brainwork, and you just sit back and try and make yourself feel like your important to them, when you're really only there so that they can use your money and that blonde kid can ogle you."
Daphne couldn't tale this verbal abuse, she bolted for the door, tears now streaming down her face due to the cruel truth her Father had just made all too clear for the aspiring detective. As she reached the door she reached out, only to have her Father grip her wrist like a vice. Looking u she could see how serious he was, he really meant what he said.
"I've hired security for around the house, we've phoned the school and you will now be picked up and collected from school the moment the bell rings. You are not to see those people again, if you do, there will be grave consequences" He hissed at her.
She gasped as his grip suddenly tightened while he uttered his last sentence and then let go, acting like nothing had even happened. She pulled the door open and darted up the stairs, a mixture despair, disappointment and fear ran through her veins.
"Oh and Daphne," She heard her Fathers voice, a slightly amused tone in his voice, "We've cut off your internet and Phone, so you can't try to call them." He paused, waiting to see if she had anything to say back, with no reply he simply called up "Goodnight sweetie!" before he grinned and took a seat next to his wife, leaving his daughter to wallow in grief.