Oi! Sorry this took so very long to update; I was having a hard time writing… believe me, I'd stay up a lot just thinking about the plot, it was the writing it out that was keeping me away. So! Without any further ado, here is an update for those of you still interested enough to read!

Chapter 4

"Let go of me!" I hissed, trying to sound aggravated.

"Why would I do that?" he asked, letting go with one arm to caress my cheek with his hand. "I like it when you're this close… it really takes me back."

"What we did will never, ever happen again, you got that? There's no reason for me to stay here! I don't even know why my mom thought she could make me!" Surprisingly, he let go of me fully when I pushed against him again. I straightened my suit and folded my arms, glaring at him. I suppose I was waiting for a response, some sort of reaction, but not like the one he was giving me. He looked like he was on the verge of laughing.

"I told her I would find a way to make you stay; I'm not about to break that vow," he sneered.

"Spoken like a good Boy Scout. This is doing nothing but wasting my time." I turned around and went to the door, my hand shaking with anger as I reached out for the brass handle. His arms somehow snaked around my middle again, and he pulled me back into him.

"You can't say you didn't enjoy our last encounter even a little bit," he murmured into my ear.

"Like hell I did."

"Oh, that's right, it hurt too much for the little masochist." He ran his hand down my stomach and pressed it in between my legs, getting an involuntary moan out of me.

"Stop it," I said forcefully. "What do you think I am, some screw toy?"

"Oh, come now, you don't give yourself enough credit." Somehow he tilted my head back and angled enough to kiss me, his hand a forceful vice around my throat. I nearly gagged at how deep his tongue went, swirling around my mouth like it was his own. I bit down hard on it, and I felt his whole body wince as I tasted blood.

He shoved me away, wiping his mouth slightly. "Don't think your stubbornness get you out of here," he hissed. "Your coming here only sealed your fate."

"Bullshit." I had had enough, so I stomped towards the door, grimacing at the thought that the blood from his damn invasive tongue was in my mouth. What the hell my mom was thinking, I didn't know, nor did I care; all I wanted was to put as much distance between myself and that bastard.

"I know about Jack."

My breath caught in my throat. I reacted fast, hoping to Kami that he didn't notice anything. "I don't know who you're talking about," I stated, not moving at all.

He chuckled darkly. "Surely, you must remember your one and only stepfather; I don't think you're that stupid."

Bastard, I thought bitterly. I could picture his expression perfectly in my mind… that stupid, cocky arrogance of his pissed me off even when I had my back to him. "Alright, so you know about my stepdad. Everyone involved even a little bit in business remembers when my mom did that huge marriage and divorce. I don't give a damn."

"Quite frankly, the 'Jack Affair' did not matter to me whatsoever, no matter how many times the stock market reporters blew that name up on the front page," he replied smoothly. "When your mother came to me, she sparked my interest."

"You still haven't made me want to stay here," I growled. He was bringing back a helluva lot of bad memories, stuff I wanted to lock away and never think about again; I had trained myself to hide my emotions, whatever I felt, but I felt a great deal of unease rising in the pit of my stomach.

"You don't have to want to; I already have you in my grasp."

"Cut the crap!" I yelled. Even if he knew about whatever happened between my mother and Jack, he wouldn't know about my part. I reached again for the door out of that hellhole.

"I wasn't your first time, was I?"

An immeasurable length of silence followed his quiet inquiry, my heart pounding so hard I swear he could hear it. My fingers slowly curled as I drew my hand away from the handle; not turning to face him. Not now.

"Looks like I hit a sore spot." I felt him come up behind me again, his hand trailing along my shoulders as he whispered into my ear. "I could tell by the way you moved that you had done it many times before, but obviously with someone less efficient."

"Shut up!" I shouted, shoving him backwards. Before I could do anything else, he threw his arm into my chest, slamming me against the door and pinning me. I winced as the back of my head collided with the hard wood, but the tears that had surfaced were coming out of their own accord, and I could not stop them.

"You slept with him, Iduke," he whispered, his whole body holding mine to the door. He had found a vital weakness in me, and he knew it; I cursed at myself. "It was all for a bit of fun… to spite your mother, wasn't it? You were jealous of all the time they were spending together; you wanted attention from your only parent, and he was young and handsome enough for you to easily seduce him. Slutty, yet sad at the same time."

"How could you know this?" I asked in a hushed whisper. "Did she tell you?"

"Any way you look at it, she's just as clueless about that as she is about what we did; she could easily find out, if a certain someone isn't willing to work for me," he murmured seductively, tilting my chin up.

"She won't believe you," I said, even though I sure as hell knew I was wrong.

"She already has her suspicions, Iduke. She just needs an outsider's opinion to make them concrete; you basically just told me that you did have an affair with him."

"What was she suspicious about? Why was she even telling you any of this?" Now that the cat was out of the bag, I didn't feel any restraint in my anguished curiosity.

He chuckled. "We had a little cup of coffee, she and I. She wanted me to hire you, and was willing to tell me anything to make me agree; I asked what kind of a house you were brought up in, and she told me. Sad what happened to your father; with something like that in your past, it's no wonder you grew up to be such a little bitch."

"I was in kindergarten! That has nothing to do with who I am!" I yelled.

He blinked, his blue eyes boring into mine like ice; my will was shattering beneath me as his barrage of remarks slashed open the memories I had suppressed years ago. "She didn't speak much of him; she spent more time talking about Jack than anything else. She talked about the marriage that was supposed to be the biggest business move in history, how it was all working out fantastically… you and him started acting funny. She couldn't explain it at all, but your demeanors changed right around the same time, and not long after, he left her. It was because you were having a secret relationship, wasn't it?"

"But she still doesn't know…" I whispered, somewhat asking, imploring him to reassure me of my mother's ignorance.

"As I said… all she knows is that something might have happened, but she has no proof."

"Who told you, then?"

"Jack, of course. He wasn't difficult to find, considering his business is still high ranking in the market; let me tell you, he came off as someone who's backstabbed before, and he had no trouble agreeing to do it to you."

"What the hell kind of arrangement did you make?" I could feel my fists clenching tightly, though my voice was still shaking as I tried to steady it.

"Simple," he smirked. "If you refuse this job, I tell Jack, who then goes to your mother, begging for forgiveness, telling her that he still loves her… that he only wanted to leave because you kept trying to get into bed with him, and he didn't want to risk being unfaithful. Your mother finally gets a reason to throw you out, as she's always wanted to do, without ruining her public image; you go live with your poor, obscure relatives, and she and Jack get back together, happy now that the treacherous, whore of a daughter is gone."

My eyes went wide; I couldn't believe how easily he let the words slide out, like he had been doing this all his life. But I felt betrayed, something completely new to me; I was betrayed by… Jack. "Y-you—you son of a—" I sobbed, tears now streaming down my face. "No… this… no…" I felt my knees buckle, and the bastard wrapped his arms around me, keeping me standing. "… that asshole took advantage of me! I was only fifteen; how the fuck was I supposed to know what I was doing? That… that stupid…"

"There, there," he said mockingly, slightly licking my ear. "I'll take good care of you, don't you worry…"

I couldn't summon the strength to fight back; I merely cried into his shoulder as he clasped me to him in the dark office that was now my prison.