15 February, 7.45 pm

Matthias Adler sits at the head of the dinner table, idly poking at his food with his fork whilst gazing at the chair to his right – the one Max used to sit in when he was a child.

He sighed wistfully, put down his fork, clasped his hands together and rested his chin on them as he thought

His train of thought was interrupted by the voice of his wife, Hannah.

“Darling, what do you think?”

He turned to her and saw that she was wearing a short, bright red evening dress with the left shoulder bare. She was smiling as she presented herself.

“It’s lovely, isn’t it?”

He smiled at her, nodded and said,

“Yes, it’s very beautiful…”

He didn’t know why, but this dress reminded him of Karen… back when everything was fine.

“Matthias, darling? What’s the matter?”

He turned his attention to her.

“Huh? Nothing, really. I was just lost in thought… thinking about how beautiful you are.”

She felt flushed by his words and moved closer to him, kissing him with burning passion.

“You never stop making me happy.”

She held him tightly, planting kisses on him every now and then.

“Right, darling… …I think we should take this to bed, don’t you?”

He said this as he gently tried to push her away from him.

“Yes, that’s a good idea. We’ll have more space and be more comfortable.”

She took his hand and pulled him towards their bedroom; their desire to have sex was clear, simply because they could.

9.00 pm

Matthias emerged from his bedroom with heavy steps, a dressing gown draped over his naked body. He entered Max’s room and switched on the light. He looked around; there were posters of bands on the walls. Matthias walked over to examine them and suddenly remembered something……

“This music will make you a failure! It’ll make you a tramp!”

Paul Adler was shouting at his young son because he’d failed his final exam.

“Why do you care about a bunch of idiots who dance and sing? They won’t pay for what you eat or what you wear,”

He said this as he tore his son’s posters off the wall and threw them on the floor. 

“Listen carefully, Matthias: don’t call yourself my son unless you become a man! I brought you into this world to be a man, not a failure who wastes his time listening to music. Do you understand?”

Matthias snapped back to reality. He looked at his hand touching the poster and then at the poster itself; he furrowed his brow deeply, clenched his teeth and tore the poster off the wall with force.

“I won’t let this happen!”

He crumpled up the poster and threw it in the bin, then went over and ripped another poster off the wall, tearing it violently to shreds.

“My son Max won’t be a failure! My son Max is a man!”

He got rid of the posters, then turned to the bookshelf and began throwing the novels onto the floor.

“Max needs to learn the basics of economics and investment, not read this rubbish!....”

“She’ll definitely do that… She hates me so much… I won’t let her ruin my son.”

Matthias opened his phone and sent a message to Max

“Max, come back to the mansion. There’s something important I want you to know.”

Then he closed his phone and went back to staring at the road

To be continued…