"Are you actually serious right now?" Veroncia asked in a hard voice as she stared down the table to where her father was sitting.
Hiram wiped his mouth with his napkin. "Quite." He eyed his only daughter with hardness. "Now enough of this."
"Hiram!" Hermione's shocked voice sounded at the other end of the table.
"I expect you to obey me Veronica." Hiram didn't even bother to look at his enstaged wife. "I have to get to the office." He calmly pushed his chair back; and stood to his feet. "I expect to see you both at the restuatant at 7 sharp." He eyed his daughter with a hard eye. Then he finally looked at his angry wife. He lifted a slow calm right eye brow. "Ladies." He nodded his head before walking away.
Veronica waited until she hard the door shut. "He can't really be this cruel can he?" Her eyes finally left the empty space where her father had been sitting at; turning to look at her mother.
Hermione took a deep breath. "You know your father Ronnie." She spoke as her palms curled inwardly. "But we don't have to obey his orders. Not any more." She was more set on finally filing for a divorce from Hiarm Lodge. This latest hurtful thing has just proven that Hiram truly didn't care one wit for them at all.
Veronica stood to her feet. Kneeling at the side of her mother's chair. "Mama ..." She whispered as she placed a gentle hand on her mother's tightly closed fist. She watched as one tear rolled down her mother's cheek; another one following.
Hermione couldn't breath. It hurt to breath. Her eyes squeezed shut as she allowed the heartbreak to finally over wash her. She felt firm arms pull her into a chest. She managed to unclench her fists; as her arms wrapped around the thin body of her beloved child. Her head nuzzled into her child's check as heartbreaking sobs burst through her chest.
I will always be there for you 'Mione.
Hermione broke even more as Fred's voice sounded through her soul. Her hold on her daughter tightened over the loss of a dear, dear friend.
Veroncia held her mother to her; as she simply cried for the loss of a father. A father of a dear friend of her's. A father much better than her father ever was. She felt Archie's deep loss of his parent. But her place wasn't with him righ tnow. No he had his suppport in Betty, and Jughead. Her place was at her mother's side ... her mother whom had just lost one of her own childhood best friend's. She didn't know how she would feel if she lost Betty, Archie or even Jughead. She held her weaping mother tighter as she felt her mother's grief in the core of her heart.