“I’m still not sure,” Mrs Capulet replied.  “I know she’s been rather wayward the last few years but locking her away seems so extreme.”

“I wouldn’t think of it as being locked away,” the Governor said.  “More as an alternative home.”

“We’ll do it,” Senator Capulet said, ignoring his wife’s worried expression.  “I cannot allow Juliet to cause any more scandal.  Montague wouldn’t hesitate to use anything she does to level his taunts at me: ‘How can he possibly run a city state when he cannot even control his own daughter?’  No, if I have any thought of succeeding to the role of supreme ruler when our current ruler retires, I cannot afford any further scandal.”

---

Juliet screamed when they came to take her away.  Her mother shut herself in her rooms where she couldn’t hear her daughter’s desperate cries for help.  Her father watched grimly, nodding to himself in satisfaction at having made the right decision.

***

“It’s a very wise decision,” the Governor of the Verona Institute said.  “Let Romeo spend some time with us and I’m sure you’ll find his views will have matured.  Up to now, if you don’t mind me saying, I think he’s been rather isolated from what might be termed the real word.  With us he will be able to experience it in a safe and supportive way.”

“He certainly needs it,” Mrs Montague replied.  “When he was younger, we tolerated his idealistic views, but they are not suitable for expressing to the public, and lately certain sections of the press having been courting his opinion, something we cannot have.”

“Quite,” the Governor said.  “I believe there was mention of you making a donation to the work of the Institute?”

“Here,” Senator Montague said, writing a cheque.  “I believe that should ensure our son has no contact with the outside world.”

---

Romeo accepted his parents’ decision that he enter the Verona Institute, naively believing all he had heard about it.  He had yet to learn that often what is not said is as important as what is said.

***

The papers were full of it: 

CHILDREN OF VERONA SENATORS FOUND DEAD AT VERONA INSTITUTE
Double suicide pact suspected

There was talk of a cover up by the authorities within the Institute.  Governor Escalus was unavailable for comment and the rest of the staff remained tight lipped.

When Senators Capulet and Montague were asked how their children had seemed when they last saw them, it quickly emerged that neither had seen, nor even spoken to, their child for months.

People began to ask how, if the senators cared so little for their own children, they would care for the population as a whole.