— Well, let her mind her own business, and I mind mine! replied Isolde.
Ida took a step forward, almost pleading.
— Isolde… why can't you understand that someone cares about you?
We just want—
— My departure?
Or my death, perhaps?
Silence fell abruptly.
— ISOLDE! Orne shouted.
She burst.
— BUT WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME IN THE END?
Her voice shook, but she didn't flinch.
—I asked you to find an apartment for me.
I wanted to leave, leave you and your perfect family alone.
But no. You insisted that I stay here.
She gestured broadly to the room.
—I asked you...
I begged you to leave me alone.
But even that was too much to ask, right?
Nobody answered.
"Don't worry," she continued in a calmer, but icy, voice.
As soon as I graduate, I will leave.
Far. Very far away.
As far away from you as possible.
She turned around and placed her foot on the first step of the stairs.
— Isolde.
She stopped.
Turned around slowly.
Orne had approached, only a few steps away.
—I am your father.
You owe me respect.
Don't forget that if you exist, it's because of me.
I gave you a very big gift.
Isolde stared at him, incredulous.
—A gift?
She burst into joyless laughter.
—A gift, you say?
His gaze clouded over.
"So let me tell you something.
I would have done without your gift.
She breathed in, deeply.
—Because what you gave me...
This is not a gift.
She went up a step.
—It's poison.
Then she turned her back definitively, went up the stairs without looking back, leaving behind a frozen family... and a silence heavier than all the cries.