Cruel, much?

Violet

He’s gazing at my ID to find my name on it.

“No, you don’t, sir. I was distracted.” The lie palls the tension hanging over us, breaking the dense, overstretched silence. My heart keeps racing—I’m hoping he doesn’t recognize me, or realize that I lied, which can worsen everything.

Letting go of my hand, he strides towards the suit mannequin in a glass case, tossing the handkerchief in the trashcan en route. My eyes trail him attentively. I regret my mistakes.

“There are rumors about me being cold and scary.” He takes off his suit jacket. “Cold, I can take that. But, scary?” He slips the jacket on the mannequin and walks to the desk in slow steps. “If you’re not scared of me…”

On his feet, he leans down and analyzes the condition of the documents with his fingers.

“Then that explains the heavy makeup you’re wearing.”

I risk him a glance, trying to grasp what he’s saying.

“Women are either afraid of me, or… they’re trying to seduce me.”

My brow arches in disbelief and irritation as I fix my eyes on him, his on me. “I have no intention—”

“Isn’t that what you do best, Violet!” His eyes darken and his face scrunches, the rage in his voice sending a blast of terror through me, making me cower.

My breath hitches, my heart pounding hard against my ribcage—I can’t keep from shivering as I gaze at him. Ethan recognizes me.

“Ethan, the fat pig, has become a billionaire, and I finally made up my mind to crawl back into his life and leech a few million from him.”

“It's not true, Ethan. Let me explain—”

“Explain what? How you lied about Nate kissing you? Or how you treated me like your slave while I was drying to be with you, and then telling me it was over after everything?” He cocks his head to the side, giving me what looks more like a questioning glare.

His words bring tears to my eyes as I croak out, “There's a logical explanation—”

“Logical explanation, my ass!”

I see the dark intention in his eyes and feel the sinister in his vibe like fire on my skin as he stalks towards me. My blood runs cold and adrenaline enfolds me, my legs wobbly with the urgency to run. But that urge to tell him what really happened confines me to my position.

His lips curl with disgust and anger as he says, “You cheap whore. You broke up with me, just to spread your legs for that bastard—”

“I’m not a whore, and I didn’t fuck Nate. What you saw wasn’t even what ha—”

“Here’s what happened. Your boyfriend was fat and poor, so you took the rich boy and fucked him behind his back—”

Sadness and fury overcome me and I yell, unable to control my tears, “You’re accusing me!”

“Accusing you?” he yells back, making me jump.

Overwhelmed with fear, my breath shaky and erratic as he inches closer to invade my space, and I instinctively recoil.

“You walk into my office wearing not just heavy makeup but a thigh-high skirt so short that I, as well as other men, can see your thighs. Maybe you’re here to seduce every man in Aion Soft. Myself included. But don’t worry, little whore, I’ll give you what you came for.”

At his bloodcurdling words, I surrender to instinct and rush to the door, clicking the biometric button, but the door won’t open. Panic razes me, tears flowing freely. Surrendering to panic, I bang on the door.

“Somebody, help.”

The heat of his proximity sparks my awareness, and I try to turn and run, but his solid frame presses against my back, seizing me on the door. One of his hands curls around me, holding me closer to him.

“Scream all you want.” The rage in his voice tapers a bit, giving way to an inflection thickened with hunger. Not just a hunger for lust, but a hunger for harm. “No one can hear you.”

I moan with discomfort as he nibbles on my earlobe. “Don’t do this, Ethan. I have a fiance.” That's the truth I can tell, where I can't tell him I have a trauma.

“Does he fuck you as well as I’m about to fuck you right now, you ditzy slut?”

He palms my breast firmly, which spurs my courage to fight him, but my slender frame is no match for his strength.

“How many men except for me have touched this filthy breast?”

“Let me go, Ethan,” I scream as his hand goes under my shirt to reach for my bare breast. I retire to banging on the door, hoping a hero comes to my rescue, but then he pulls me far away from the door.

He recoils, pulling me along with his hand wrapped around me. My steps falter, my heels nearly pulling me down as he shoves me carelessly into one couch in the center of the office.

My attempt to roll out of the couch fetters when he climbs over me, grabs my shoulder, and flips me onto my back.

“Don’t do this, Ethan, please,” I sob in panic, hyperventilating.

“You don’t want to be a slut anymore? Tsk, I don’t think so.” He grips my shirt from the top, ripping it open, but the buttons seem not to pull out.

Shame swallows me whole, my hands going up to cover my breasts, which are still covered in my bra.

“Thought you came here to get fucked, Vio?”

His perception of me has gone completely wrong to the point he even thinks I wore the makeup to seduce him. I’ve never been a whore, and I’ll never be. I don’t even deserve the humiliation. Tears well up in my eyes and I can’t keep from sobbing as I watch him undoing his belt.

“Sir,” a collected voice calls from the doorway, wrenching our attention.

We are too caught up in the moment we haven’t realized when the stocky man opened the door. Shame and fear claim me as I stare at the man, knowing I’ve sealed my fate.

“It’s time for the extraordinary meeting, sir.”

Seizing the opportunity, I scramble backward and pull my blazer close to cover my opened shirt as I bolt out of the office.

Getting back to the office, I find a barrage of missed calls and texts from Pete, asking me to come to the lot. I could use his company right now. I hustle to the lot and quickly get into his car.

“I brought you lunch, sweet—”

Closing the door, I grab the takeout from his hand, hurl it at the dash, and straddle him, kissing him wildly, my shaky hands hastily undoing his belt. Pete's like the solution to all my problems.

“Violet.” He repeats my name three more times, having realized I’m not being myself, but doesn’t stop kissing me. “Hey.” He grabs my hands to stop me, breaking the kiss. “You don’t seem okay, babe. What happened?”

A maelstrom of emotions surges through me, throwing me into body-heaving sobs. Peter cradles my face in his hands, rage crossing his eyes.

“Did someone hurt you?”

I tell him everything that happened between me and Ethan, which leaves him in both anger and frustration. “Quit the job, Violet. You have the qualifications and you can get a job elsewhere. Okay?”

I nod. He pulls me closer, gently. “It’s okay.” He kisses me soothingly.

Just when I think I’ll make good on my and my family’s debts, I find myself heading toward Greg’s office to notify him of my resignation after so many hours of contemplation. Greg finds my early resignation a little disappointing but accepts it since my reasons are good. Family matters.

Going home on time will increase my chances of having a run-in with my landlord, who’s likely to throw me in jail once he sees me. So I hang around Aion Soft premises. I’m not the social type, but I made a friend, Avra, who kept me company until eight in the evening.

I get on the elevator, heading to the last floor but the elevator stops halfway and the doors slide open.

My heart kicks into overdrive and with a gasp, I reel back from where I’m standing. Ethan’s standing in the doorway with a paper in hand. His jaw clenches, rage and animosity tinge his eyes, his countenance taking a frightening dive as he steps into the elevator and the doors slide shut.

A grim silence settles among us, my heart ticking like a clock, and I ball my fists to ease the tension.

“Going home at eight. Which man kept you busy until this time?” 

I feel his caustic gaze branding my skin. Irritation crosses me but I stifle it and swallow, allowing myself to say, “I was working.”

“Working!” he snarls, making me shudder, and my head snaps up, my eyes connecting with his.

He stands in front of me, his vibe, his frame, intimidating. “You lying slut?” He raises the paper to my face, every word on it sticking out plainly.

My eyes go agape in shock. That’s my resignation letter.

“You dare lie again, which only means you’ve been lying all along.” He rips the papers, wads the scraps of paper and closes in to shove them into my purse. “It’s all yours.”

“You can’t do this, Ethan, it’s my right.”

“One more attempt to quit the job and I’ll make sure you quit breathing altogether. I’ll make sure you don’t get a job elsewhere, you lying whore.”

He’s an elite of the Upper Echelon — job-blocking me is a web he can weave perfectly.

My eyes burn with unshed tears, fear and pain enfold me. Can he hear me out at least once?

“I didn’t lie to you back then. Nate and I—”

He pummels his fist into the surface behind me, making me shudder. “Don’t fucking say his name.” 

His hand abruptly closes tightly around my neck, his face hovering over mine; now, the rage in his eyes mixes with lust.

I surrender to instinct, clawing and grasping, but he’s good at sidestepping my efforts, and his grip tightens the more I struggle.

“Look at you, Kitten. Look how ravishing you’ve become. You’re sexier when you fight like that.”

“Leave me alone,” I say as much as his grip allows, my voice strained.

He hikes my leg up and latches it around his waist, and the second his finger ventures into my underwear, the elevator pings, pulling us apart.

The tension in the air slightly wanes as the middle-aged lady walks in, but my heart doesn’t stop racing, tears stinging my eyes but I keep them back. 

Thinking the humiliation will continue after the lady alights, it turns out the lady and I are heading in the same direction.