It was exactly 6:00 pm when he walked through the door of his apartment, his work shirt still on, a smile on his face. As he expected, his wife was lying on the sofa, legs crossed, she was focused on her tablet, she had headphones on, she didn't notice him. He started undressing and hung his shirt before heading towards her, he kissed the top of her head. She greeted him with a slight groan finally losing interest in her series and giving him a genuine welcoming smile. It was about time. Satisfied, Thomas sat down next to her and turned on the in front of them. He tuned in to a news channel. As always, it was just starting. He stayed in front for an hour, almost falling asleep. When the door at the end of the corridor opened, a young girl came out. About ten years old, heavy bags underlined her fatigue-plagued squinted eyes. She sat down on the chair opposite her father, who greeted her with a smile."Good morning, big girl! Sleep well? I'm sorry for waking you up; Dad had a busy day and needs to relax a bit."She didn't reply and just stared at the news with tired eyes. Thomas didn't mind this time. Little Elodie had always been very withdrawn. Even as she approached the end of primary school, her parents had not yet met any of her classmates, and she received invitations only on very rare occasions. Perhaps the child in question felt too bad to leave her out. Thomas had tried to talk to her multiple times, but unfortunately, she didn't speak to him any more than to anyone else. Maybe her mother, who visited her in her room when she refused to have dinner on certain evenings.Speaking of dinner, Lelland was starting to get hungry. He turned up the volume of the TV and went to prepare the meal. He began to chop onions, noting from the corner of his eye that his daughter was staring at him. In fact, it didn't take long for her to come and sit with her parents, staring at them. It has become a habit. However, when it came to Thomas, she might spend an entire hour watching him, as if looking for something she had not yet found in him. These long minutes of feeling observed weighed on the shoulders of the fifty-year-old, who continued to ignore her, focusing on his vegetables. At exactly 7:00 pm, the trio was in front of their plates. They ate in silence. Thomas, still watching the TV, grunted, shaking his head in frustration."Several investigations have been carried out, revealing more than troubling results about the working conditions of employees at Stardis Pharmaceutical Company. According to the investigations, the safety standards outlined in Article L4121-1 to L4121-5 of the employment code are not being respected...""Give us a break already! These journalists, always looking for the smallest flaw to make us look like the devil incarnate!""They didn't have to look far this time," Marianne Lelland retorted in a slightly faded voice.Her husband turned to her with an offended air, as if she had just uttered the worst insult."You don't know how it works, managing a business, neither them nor you. Even today, my employees broke the pouring tank. It won't be usable for a while. I'll have to work hard to find a way to fix it...""Calm down, I was just saying."She replied, raising her eyebrows in annoyance."I'm just saying that between that and the scandal over the meds from last time, it's starting to add up...""So, you don't trust me anymore?""It's not about that!"Marianne retorted, annoyed. She continued."And I don't see why you insist so much on protecting this company, even if you work there. You are the first to acknowledge that there are major shortcomings in the standards when you are sent to inspect the premises. I remember hearing you rant for a good half-hour about the fact that they didn't even give you equipment for, I quote, 'successfully completing such a risky task.'"She added, half-smiling.Elodie also chuckled, exchanging a complicit look with her mother. Thomas, who hated being the odd one out, closed the subject by waving away the argument. The meal ended on a more joyful note, with Elodie recounting her day. Thomas, trying to listen to the news, occasionally nodded in approval or congratulated his daughter when he learned that she had scored 17 in text analysis. Indeed, if Elodie was not very sociable, her academic performance was well above that of her peers. Thomas was pleased to see that the growth in her results coincided more or less with the period when Elodie started her treatment. This further strengthened his argument about the proper functioning of his business. This remark had put him in a good mood. He waited politely for his daughter to finish her story to end the meal. Marianne cleared the table while Thomas followed little Elodie into the bathroom for teeth brushing. He grabbed the small box with the star logo on the shelf and handed it to his daughter with a wink. She paid no attention and swallowed the little white pill in one go. Her father kissed her warmly. She went to her room, locking the door. When the young girl had decided that she wanted to be alone, it was impossible to force her to let anyone in. The man was about to settle in front of the sofa, while Marianne, she, had already disappeared behind the door of Elodie's room to put her to bed.Around 9:50 pm, Thomas was absorbed in a B-movie science-fiction-horror film. The main character was on a crusade against monsters straight out of another world trying to take control of Earth. Tired, Thomas heard a slight noise coming from the hallway. His attention was immediately drawn to the source of the disturbance. He jumped up suddenly! From the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a small deformed being with scarlet skin. Instead, he found himself standing slightly trembling in front of his daughter, who looked at him with incomprehension. A strange smile stretched her lips. Without even caring about what was happening to her father, she locked herself again in her room. Lelland let himself fall a bit embarrassed to have been fooled by such a bad movie. He looked at the time: 10:10 pm. The day had been long, and fatigue was starting to close his eyelids. He took out a small box very similar to his daughter's, with the same pentacle drawing on it, and took another small white pill in one go before going to bed.