ANDREW

A daughter? I had a daughter and Rebecca didn't think that she should tell me about her. I was her father and I didn't even know that she existed.

When I was with Rebecca, I would always imagine a little girl running around our house. A little girl I could spend my money on and make sure she had nothing but the best. I would show her how much I loved her and I wouldn't ever let anyone hurt her. Even if it was the last thing I did, I would make sure to keep her safe.

"How do you know Rebecca?" I finally find the power to ask the question. When I met the glare of Alyssa, she looked like a rabbit who had been caught in the headlights.

"I do believe you have already worked that out. So why bother asking?" Alyssa replied. It was pissing me off that she still had the audacity to act like a total freakin' bitch given that she had just told me about my daughter.

"Don't play games with me. How the fuck do you know Alyssa?" I snapped, standing up from my chair and walking over to where Alyssa was standing. I pulled her back into my office and slammed the door closed, locking it at the same time to make sure no one intentionally walked in while I was squeezing her for every piece of information possible.

"Careful Collins. People might think you're about to fuck me," Alyssa said. Her tone was harsh and her expression was one of anger, even though she had nothing to be angry about.

I was the one who should be pissed, not the other way round. The Board had definitely done this on purpose because they knew that Rebecca leaving was my greatest weakness. It was the only thing to have ever broken me and, if they could break me again, they would finally be able to remove me as their CEO and give the position to my older brother.

When we were younger, Ben and I had been inseparable, but when our father unexpectedly died and I was announced as the CEO of the company, the two of us drifted away from each other. We still saw and spoke to each other but our relationship hadn't been the same since I gained the company and Ben was forgotten about.

"I thought I told you not to play games with me?" I repeatedly. I didn't usually repeat myself so I sure as hell wasn't going to do it for a second time.

"I was merely stating the dangers of you dragging me into your office and locking the door behind you," she shrugged. I noticed that she was looking around at the things I had in my office but the only thing she really stopped to look at was the picture of my daughter which was sitting on my desk.

It was the only picture I had of my daughter and I accumulated it after Rebecca's second scan. When she walked out on me, I put it in a frame and made sure to put it on my desk, just so I could remind myself that everything was real and not some figment of my imagination. I needed to know that I really did have a child out there somewhere and that I was actually a father.

"Stop messing with me. How do you know the bitch?" I hissed coldly. It was more demanding and threatening, a tone I hadn't used with a woman before, but the Alyssa was no ordinary woman.

She seemed to think she had the right to push my buttons and actually get away with it. It was clear that she enjoyed challenging me and showing me that I wasn't the one in control of this situation. It would seem there was someone other than Robert who was willing to stand up to me and tell me what she thought of me.

"Wonderful term of endearment for the woman you once loved."

"It's past tense for a fucking reason. She walked out on me and took my child with her," I paused as I took a step closer to her, my eyes boring into hers as I spoke again. "I feel nothing but pure unadulterated hate for her and, if I was to see her again, I would tear her fake hair from her head and take a pin to those things she calls a pair of tits."

"Jeeze. You sure know how to respect women. It amazes me that you are still single," Alyssa said sarcastically. I would have to be an idiot not to realise that she was seeing just how far she could push me before I reached my limit. She wanted to see just how much it would take before I snapped and, if she continued talking to me like she was, it wouldn't be too long before my true colours made their appearance.

"I am tired of your games. Tell me how the fuck you know Rebecca," I shouted. The space between the two of us was now so small that an ant may have been able to crawl in the middle of us and make itself at home. My eyes never left hers and I could feel the tension taking over my muscles as the anger coursed through my veins.

"Surprised you haven't already figured it out. You must be getting slow in your old age."

"What did I tell you about respect?"

"Says the man who told me I was ugly, intimidated me and has sworn at me multiple times since I stepped foot in this room," Alyssa laughed and I could feel my patience deserting me at that moment. There were no number of words which would make her understand that I really wasn't a person she wanted to piss off and neither was I a man who she wanted to get on the wrong side of.

"As long as my name is on this desk, I will continue to do whatever the fuck I like. Now, be a good little employee and tell me how you know Rebecca."

"I'm not a dog," Alyssa muttered and I couldn't help but smirk to myself as I realised that comment had gotten to her more than anything I had said to her so far. It was enough to make her shut up for longer than thirty seconds and that was good enough for me.

"No. You're right. That's an insult to dogs. I would consider you more of a warthog," I chuckled as I walked over to the cabinet where I kept my alcohol. I didn't really care for the time of day, I just knew that I needed to a drink to be able to continue this conversation with Alyssa.

I poured the whiskey into a glass and downed it in one, the drink didn't even have the chance to touch the side of my mouth.

"Asshole," Alyssa muttered. She took a seat on the edge of my desk and folded her arms across her chest as she stared at me with a scowl on her face.

"Like I said sweetcheeks, I've been called worse. Good effort though," I teased as I sat back down behind my desk with another whiskey in one hand and pulled a cigarette from my pocket with the other.

"That's disgusting," Alyssa frowned.

"Only killing myself. Perhaps I could drop dead right here and have everyone thinking you did something to me," I laughed. I tried to act surprised about the tone she had taken with me but it didn't really bother me and it certainly didn't surprise me. I'd had enough people telling me about my habits to not care what people think anymore.

I certainly didn't need someone who didn't even know me, judging me and sharing her disapproval at my lifestyle. It was, after all, my life and if I wanted to drink myself into a drunken oblivion while filling my lungs with tar at nine in the morning, then that's what I was going to do. I wasn't going to let anyone tell me otherwise.

"Now, are you deliberately trying to provoke a reaction you won't like from myself or are just going to answer the damn question?"

"I would love to see what you would do to me," Alyssa smirked and, despite not being her biggest fan, I was impressed with the way confidence radiating from her every word as she tried to assert her dominance over me.

"Trust me darling, you won't lime me when I'm angry," I chuckled. It was taking everything I had not to stand up and walk over to her, demanding that she answer the question because I was tired of her games now. I hated it when people used sarcasm with me and I especially hated it when they were using it to wind me up for their own amusement.

"Hm. Are you going to turn into a green monster who destroys everything in his path?" Alyssa replied.

"I swear. You need to stop fucking messing around and answer the fucking question."

"Touched a nerve, have I?" Alyssa laughed. I didn't have the capability to keep up with her now and I knew she was doing this on purpose, the way she smirked at me and held her arms across her chest told me that one.

"Really beginning to piss me off now."

"Only beginning to? Damn. I really must try harder," Alyssa said and the sarcasm she used could have blown away an army of stupid people.

"Oh. Grow up. You're what? Twenty-five and you act like a fucking child," I seethed, the anger in my voice actually making her jump a little, like she knew that she had pushed it too far and needed to stop before she encountered the side of me she wouldn't be forgetting in a hurry. "Now, get the fuck out of my office and don't bother coming back until you're ready to act like a mature adult."

"You are every bit the asshole Rebecca told me you were."

"Oh. I'm the asshole? Let's see about that shall we," I paused for a moment as I stood up from my chair and walked over to where Alyssa was still leaning against my desk. I grabbed hold of her wrist and looking menacingly into her eyes so she knew that she had better not move. She could scream if she wanted to but I knew she wouldn't dare because I held a power over her which terrified her.

"You're hurting me," Alyssa mumbled and I could see the tears in her eyes but that didn't stop me. She had wanted this and now she was getting it.

"I did nothing but the best for her and she walked out on me. She took my child and walked out on me and, three years' later, you turn up here and act like you're better than me. Well, surprise, you're no better than that fucked-up excuse of a sister," I said as I continued to ignore her silent pleas for me to loosen my grip on her wrist. "If, for one moment, you think you are going to come into my office and act like you're the one in charge of me, then you are sadly mistaken. You are nothing more than a pathetic little girl and you will do well to remember that."

I hadn't always been like this but, when Rebecca walked out on me, I had to protect myself and this was the only way I knew how to protect myself. That included shutting everyone out, including pretty much every single member of my family, of my life and treating woman like total shit – just so they would never be able to hold the same power over me which Rebecca had.

"Got it?" I pretty much shouted in her face when she didn't reply or make some smartass comment back to me.

"Yes Mr Collins," her voice was barely a whisper and the confidence which she held earlier had all but disappeared and she showed herself to be the weak woman I knew she was.

"Good. Now get the fuck out of here. I expect you here at six thirty tomorrow morning in something more appropriate," I said through gritted teeth as I finally relinquished my hold on her wrist and pushed her in the direction of the door before I walked back over to my desk, downing the remainder of the whiskey from the glass. My attention now on the outside world where I didn't have anything to worry about and I could stay in my perfect little bubble.

The bubble where my life wasn't so fucked-up that I took to using violence around a woman, just to make her shut the hell up and leave me alone. It was a place where I was living the happy life I should always have been able to live with my wife and my child. A place where all the wrongs of the world had been made right and I didn't have a single care in the world.

I loved that world and I preferred the person I was in that world to the person I was in reality.

"Andrew?" I turned at the sound of my name to see Jenni standing there with shock on her face and I would assume that she had been listening to what happened and had therefore heard everything I said to Alyssa before she walked out of here.

"Yes?"

"I just wondered if everything was alright. Alyssa walked out in tears," her voice was soft but I didn't need her concern right now, I just needed her – and everyone else – to leave me the hell alone.

"Everything is fine. Get back to work and ensure I am not disturbed for the rest of the day," I said as I lit up my cigarette and took a puff without bothering to take a second look at Jenni. I knew that she didn't need to be told twice and that she would leave the room without further comment.

She left me with nothing but the silence and my thoughts. And that was just how I liked it.

© 2015 Emma Norman. All Rights Reserved.