Chapter 3 - Violet's childhood (Part 1)

As far as Violet could remember, her family only had a father and herself. She does not have any memories of seeing any other relatives visiting their home or joining them in celebrations at any point in time. Her family, the Carlsen family, have always had few members in each generation. Her grandfather's generation, that of her father's and now her has one thing in common. Each generation only has one child to inherit the family legacy and pass it on to the next.

Another trait of the men of the Carlsen family is their unconditional loyalty to their chosen spouse so they never remarry even after they become a widow, keep mistresses outside to get more children like others do nor believe in the concept of divorce. For some reason, every generation only has the father figure left to live a long life while the mother figure dies of sickness or old age. It was kind of broken in Violet's generation since she was born a woman but it does not change the fact that she is the only heir.

Just like any other child that grew up in a single parent household, when Violet was about 8 years old, she started asking his father why other children have a mother while she never saw or met hers. She also asked why there was always just the two of them while other children have more members in their families. Her father at first did not know how to answer such a direct question.

After seemingly weighing which are the right words to use so that his daughter can better understand their situation, he said at that time that her mother died when Violet was about two years old, a time that she obviously had no memories of. As for Violet's grandparents, he said that they were gone even before she was born so it was really just her father and her right now. He also explained that he is the only son of Violet's grandfather and her grandparents also do not have any siblings so there were no grandparents, aunts, uncles or any cousins around. 

Violet being a very inquisitive child who wants to know every single detail about the things she is interested about, decided to one day ask her father again. This time the questions aim for more specific information about the mother she has never met. For a young child, she never asked for much and have very realistic expectations on getting the usual information like her name, where she used to live, her job when she was still alive or the existence of grandparents from the maternal side of her family,

Her father being through this hurdle once in front of his smart daughter was better prepared this time. Banking on the fact that he was a man of few words, decided to just give his daughter some perfunctory answers that day. He gave some vague answers like "she lived nearby" or "I met her at work". Too bad this didn't work in satiating his daughter's curiosity. 

He had no choice but to think of something more substantial to give her. He then continued by saying that she used to work as independent ruin raider which was how they met. He then went on and added that he met her when he was only 19 years old and that it was love at first sight for him.

Sharing about his and his wife's love story backfired as it brought about more questions from this gossipy daughter of his. He had no choice but to continue the stories from his youth and provide a few more bits and pieces of information. He is also quite happy that his daughter at least shows a bit interest about her mother when others tend to hate their absentee parents. 

He did not notice that his eyes shown happiness as he reminisced the time when he was young and is still with his wife. This did not escape the eyes of Violet though and she thought that her father really loved her mother dearly even after all these years.

Her father continued the story about their relationship and as expected, it went on the usual route as the couple eventually started dating and then had a child. He shared that one thing he was regretful about was that he never had the chance to meet his in-laws, her wife's parents.

When Violet asked for any relatives from her mother's side of the family, her father conveniently said that as far as he knows, she had no one since she was an orphan. As to an existence of a possible adoptive family for his wife, he had no information about it and she never mentioned anything about them if ever she had one or maybe, their relationship was less than ideal to be worth mentioning. 

Violet simply nodded and ended the subject at that since it was better to have a bit of information than nothing at all. At that point, she honestly doubted as to how much of what her father said was the truth and which ones are convenient lies or embellished love stories of his youth. She knows that he try to answer her questions less perfunctory than the first time just to stop her from asking further.

After that time, Violet never asked about her mother again. She simply learned how to look at everything on a positive light instead. She thought that at the very least, she had a few pictures of her paternal grandparents, a few pictures from the time when his father was younger and her own pictures throughout her childhood till the present. As expected, there were really no pictures of her mother no matter how hard she looked around the house.

Violet always felt that something was amiss about the stories that her father have been sharing to her about her mother but she never asked further. If there were any secrets about her mother's identity, her father must not have wanted to tell her about it as of now. She saw that there was no point in talking about it at all if the other party was unwilling to talk about it further. She simply thought that she'd rather be told nothing at all than to be fed with a mix of truth and lies again.

Violet simply thought that she doesn't have anything to complain about even if she did not have a mother. She never felt she lacked in anything while growing up. In fact, at times, she felt that she had everything, even too much of some of it more often than not.

Her father made sure that she got into the best schools, got the best tutors, had the finest food options, the highest quality and trendiest clothes and a secure and larger than life house full of attendants that will assist her in everything she may ever need. They never lacked money and his father though busy, tried to give her as much of his time as he can.

To be able to give time to his daughter, the young CEO efficiently delegated his tasks to people he trusted. As for the free time he was able to get for himself, he used it for his only daughter to train her to be the next CEO of ArchEx.

During the times that a child is supposed to be playing, he opted to train Violet on leadership, investment knowledge, business management principles and how to manage her assets better. Since Violet will be inheriting ArchEx, he also found the need to train her on archaeology, how to read old scriptures in different ancient languages, identifying and disabling traps commonly found in ruins, different forms of martial arts and the use of different weapons to prepare her for the future.

After a few years of hard training, at the age of 12, Violet started to question what all these required extra classes were for beside torturing her, making her dead tired at the end of every single day. Many years in the future, she eventually understood that her father did everything not only to secure her position as the heir of the family empire but also so that his little girl won't be bullied just by anyone and that she can keep herself alive even when he was no longer around.

From all these information, we can say that Violet's childhood was nothing but normal. She had to mature early, be tough mentally and physically and also be smart enough to avoid schemes of others around her. To sum it all up, just to stay alive and well until she comes of age.

Being the only child of the owner of the richest company in the planet, you may think that she had it easy, getting all the things she needed with a flick of her fingers and being praised endlessly by others, but you are dead wrong. Violet remembered when she was young that everybody used to call her "adorable" or "cute" with a particularly sarcastic and mocking tone. At the very young age, she understood that she was not the pretty child they expected her to be given her father's outstanding visuals.

She grew up being ridiculed about her looks and being teased that she must have gotten her looks from her mother, clearly insinuating that she must have been ugly. Her father has always defended her mother by saying that she was the most beautiful woman he has ever met. But with this comment from her father, where does that put her?