Chapter 4: ‘Was he crazy?’

“Please wait here, Alp-, I mean Mr. Tynen will be back in a few minutes.”

That was the instruction given to Vevina without a single care about her own wishes. As she had said before she had fallen asleep in the vehicle having a sweet dream for the first time in a long while.

Still groggy from her sleep she hadn’t been able to grasp her sense of surroundings and by the time she realized where she had been she found herself all alone in a big office overlooking the cityscape glittering from the numerous lights shrouding the busy night.

She vaguely remembered Alastor informing her that he had to stop by his office to do some work before he would take her to her new home but she wasn’t very sure. Deciding to snoop around she walked forward to the gigantic table sat in the middle of the room and her attention was at once attracted to the black name plate kept on it.

‘CEO ALASTOR TYNEN’

The words were written in gold italics carved beautifully into its black background making it stand out. The richness and lure it held seemed to be laughing in her face as the reality of the man who had come to help her finally made sense to her.

This was no ordinary man that she met. People would have killed to have a chance to even talk to the young Billionaire who had led his father’s Event management company to the pinnacles of success in the business world along with conquering and expanding his name into many different fields such as cosmetics, clothes and jewelry.

He was a genius in the world of economics and was someone that her teacher from school would always bring up to a level of borderline obsession. The degrees lining the wall behind his chair along with a whole cabinet full of trophies on the other side of the room was a clear show of his wisdom and wealth.

To anyone else these things would have brought a sense of admiration and inspiration but to Vevina it had only been a moment of realization.

She had fallen out of the grasp of one rich man into being the puppet of another.

The kiss that she had been punished with flashed in her mind and feeling bile rise into her throat at the thought of submitting to money like her mother had to her father she pressed a hand to her mouth. A flush passed through her body making her stagger and catch hold of the desk.

She needed to do something or find a way out of there to stop the destructive images of her mother smiling at her while calling her, her daughter.

‘You are just like me, Vevina. You understand now the power of money, don’t you?’ the voice mocked her in her head and moving her hands away from her mouth and to her ears she shouted, “Shut up!”

But the voice didn’t stop as it repeated itself and realizing that this had all been Alastor’s fault she stared at his name plate. Snatching it she noticed the edge to be sharp, the metal winked at her telling her to do it. To use it to commit something that would hurt Alastor for having hurt her.

She needed to show him that just because he was someone who had money didn’t mean that he had the power to control her. The more she thought in that manner the more she realized that he had only been toying with her from the beginning.

Who was he to take a test of her?

Why did she need to prove anything to him?

She knew that every move that Alastor had played till now had been to demonstrate his power and influence to her. To scare her and make her docile to his will. It took her some time but she recognized the human behind the mask that he was wearing and she wasn’t going to be scared.

Not anymore.

The nameplate was the size of her forearm and holding one end of it she stared at the certificates lining his wall and standing in front of his college degree she laughed. Her parents hadn’t even cared when she had said that she wouldn’t go to college. Her father wouldn’t even stop to listen to the full news and her mother had laughed and said that she had expected exactly this from a disappointment like her.

Vevina then had been struggling to find courage to go to another educational facility where she might get bullied the same way as she had been in high school. She had wished and prayed to her mother to show some interest in her then and to help her take this step that was important in every child’s life but when she had done nothing Vevina had fallen deeper down the spiral of depression.

Therefore Alastor’s college degree looked like it had been making fun of her.

“You think you are smarter than me just because of these? I have already figured you out,” she muttered, swinging back the nameplate and smashing the frame containing his certificate. The glass shattered and flew around her, glittering in the light and finding the spectacle to be pretty she didn’t wait for even a second and smashing and kicking off the rest of the hanging degrees and diplomas she couldn’t help but giggle.

The fun was only short lived and now that she was done with it, the anger started filling her up again.

She needed to do something more.

This much destruction wasn’t enough, the office still looked too prim and proper.

Eyeing the trophies in the corner placed inside a glass cabinet she felt giddy at more shards raining and glittering like small iridescent gemstones from the white light falling on it. Deciding to make it scatter iridescence as much as she could she readied herself and then with quick shattering strikes into the cabinet she laughed as the glass flew all around her shining brightly in her eyes. A few pieces sliced and scratched at her skin but she didn’t care about them. They would heal up; she had already been used to them anyway.

With blood dripping from her open wounds and falling down on the strewn shards she noted that some glass pieces looked like rubies and grinning at her creation she picked up a particularly bigger piece leaving behind her previous weapon now that she had found a better one.

Frolicking to the couch she stood up on it, staring at the painting of Alastor. She stretched out her hand to the further corner that she could reach and grinning she scratched right through the top and carved a cross on his face.

‘I hope he will like this.’

She thought giggling as she scratched a few more lines across the same lips that had kissed her a while ago.

Getting down she then worked at destroying the couch, tearing open the leather and toppling the coffee table she dashed to the bookshelf on the other corner and threw out most of the books making them flutter and clutter at her feet. Stamping over them she looked around but there was nothing more she could destroy and finally decided to go back to Alastor’s untouched work table.

She was about to throw everything off it when she heard the door to his office open and looking back she found Alastor standing there staring at the scene before him.

Her anger had almost calmed by then but it gushed again at his appearance and smirking she said, “Did you think that I would keep quiet after the stunts you pulled on me? You should know by now that I am not ‘normal’ like the others. This is what you get in return for the test that you made me go through and the kiss.”

She watched him carefully, waiting with anticipation to laugh inside when he would burst out in anger at her. She wanted to watch his veins bulge to the limit where he might just pop open one but to her disappointment that didn’t happen. Instead of getting angry Alastor smiled and stepping in he closed the door behind him and laughed, “This is exactly why I like you.”

He said, making her suppress a gasp.

‘Was he crazy?’

 The thought huddled in her mind at the jolly expression he had. She couldn’t fathom such a reaction and what did he just say- that he ‘liked’ her? Did the power of money make him go insane?

“Are you blind, I just trashed your office and that is what you say?” she asked, wondering what this unpredictable man had in his mind.

“The only time I might get angry at you is when you refuse to listen to me or disobey me. Since I never said that you couldn’t trash my office, I don’t see why I should scold you. Besides I had this coming my way after the test but the kiss was perfectly logical,” he explained, sounding like the proclaimed wise man he was.

Not getting the results that Vevina had wanted irked her and shouting she alleged, “Don’t think that just because you have money you can do anything that you want with me! I am not going to fall prey to rich scum like you.”

“But when did I try to overpower you with my money? I only offered you a job that you accepted. Moreover I would never show off my money to get you to do something I don’t need those things. I like it when you take charge of a situation and act out; subduing that chaotic beauty would be a sin.”

He said, making her think back and for a second she wondered if her thoughts had been distorted because of her mother’s voice in her head. He had been the one to come save her after all.

“Ah but there is one mistake that you made,” Alastor sighed, making her look into the direction of his gaze, “That painting had actually cost me a lot and was one of my favorites. Your destroying my image is a direct show of your hatred and defiance towards me. I can’t have you harming the employer, I can’t have you hurting me.” As he said this he took a few steps towards her and although Vevina stood her ground she felt something weird bubble in her stomach at his smoldering gaze.

Was it excitement?

Catching hold of her chin between his rough fingers he gazed at her lovely face, slightly unnerving her with his piercing blue eyes, “You can have anyone trampled below your feet, except for me. We work together or you stay a step below me, the choice is yours but never are you to stand against me. We have been in this together, Vevina, for a very long time now.”

His words surged a power through her and she realized that it wasn’t his money that she submitted before but his aura. There was something strange about his aura, his touch, his voice; that no matter what Vevina tried she couldn’t seem to escape it.

Feeling his hands slide from her chin to the side of her neck and finally to the strap of her dress she anticipated his next move as she heard him say, “That being said I hope you are ready for your punishment. It is necessary to remind you of never committing this mistake again.”