Casey
"I was not crying!" I shouted out at him, my defences rising.
I hated the fact that he realized I was crying. He noticed that I had been crying while I had been practising to come out here and be a strong, independent woman who stood in front of him and demanded what I wanted.
He smiled.
Not taking my bait, or whatever it was, and I hated that he smiled at me like that. Meanwhile, I was trying to act serious and composed before I laid out my demands.
The two of us just stood there staring at each other—me with anger, and him with a smile, as if he was watching something cute like a puppy or something cute—and that grated on my nerves and made my scowl deepen.
And then he finally decided to kill the silence.
"I just came to tell you that the little guy is asleep and to also say goodbye. I'm gonna head out now."
I took a deep breath. "Um, okay, it's good that you came to say goodbye because I also had something to tell you."
He got more interested as he poured over his hands in front of his chest and looked at me, trying to act serious.
"Okay, what is it? I'm listening." there was a hint of curiosity in his voice.
"You're going to hire me." I blurted out.
He raised one eyebrow as if he thought what I had said was stupid, funny, crazy—somewhere in between, I guess.
"Hire you?" He asked as if he hadn't heard me, but I was standing my ground today.
"Yes, you are going to hire me," I answered with a confidence I didn't have.
He started chuckling, and that just motivated me on. Made me more eager to prove myself to him.
"I don't care if I'm your PA. I do not even want to be your PA. Just the idea of being with you at least 12 hours a day—I can't do it. I just can't. But I'm sure there are a lot of positions you can give me at the company, and I want one."
He looked at me and then shook his head as he asked, "Wait.... you want one?"
He smiled in a way that an adult would do to a baby who wanted to play with fire, but the adult knew that he couldn't let the child have the fire.
But I did not let that look deter me.
"Yes, I want a job and you're going to give it to me."
He started chuckling again. He looked up at the ceiling before he looked back at me, and then he said his voice suddenly cold,
"I don't know what you think is going on here. I don't know what you think your mother marrying my dad means, but I'll make some things perfectly clear for you.
"My father is no longer the CEO. He cannot tell me what to do. All he can do is sit his ass down in retirement and watch me perform. And if by the end of the day, he doesn't like the performance of the company, then we can renegotiate our contract. But as it stands right now, he can't tell me shit."
And then he got himself comfortable, straightening and removing dust that was not there on his jacket.
And he whispered under his breath,
"I can't believe this shit."
I didn't know what the hell was in his mind. I didn't care. I just stood there because, at the end of the day, my goal was to get that job.
"I don't care," I told him. "I don't care. You're still going to hire me."
"And why the hell would I do that?"
"Why? I don't know. Maybe because you owe me. Maybe because I'm your stepsister. Maybe because we're a family now. Whichever one you want to choose, I really don't care as long as you hire me."
He looked at me. He smiled. But his smile this time was not the great smile he had been giving me the whole day. This was a new smile.
"Are you threatening me? You think you can threaten me because what? I fucked you five years ago?"
I don't know why, but the way he said it, I found myself flinching. We hadn't said anything about what happened five years ago. And I thought this was kind of a topic that neither of us was going to bring up. And for him to bring it up that way...
Cesar continued, his voice laced with a false that grated on my nerves.
"I have been quiet about what happened between us for you, for your sake, because I was trying to be a gentleman."
A bitter laugh escaped me. "Being a gentleman, you, Caesar,? please." I waved my hand dismissively.
He leaned in a cruel glint in his eyes. "I don't care if my dad knows that I fucked his slutty stepdaughter. I don't care if it comes out that his future wife might actually be a whore just like her daughter, and that I was banging the daughter while he was banging the mom."
The words hit me like a physical blow. My hand instinctively shot out, intending to deliver a sharp slap across his stupid face, but he was too quick. He caught my wrist, my hand suspended uselessly in the air. Fury surged through me, and I raised my other hand, aiming for the other cheek. Again, he intercepted me, his grip surprisingly strong.
Then, he did something unexpected. He pulled me close, so close that my chest pressed against his solid frame. He looked down at me, a smirk playing on his lips, the height difference making me feel small and vulnerable. My head rested just below his on his neck.
"Cesar..."
"I want you to tell them," he murmured, his breath warm against my ear. "I don't care! You think you have some kind of power over me because what? You'll go crying to mommy, mommy will cry to stepdaddy, and what, daddy will come and do what?" He straightened slightly, holding my gaze.
"You heard what happened at the dinner table. I'm not hiring you, Casey. Forget about ever working at Blackwell."
The shock held me captive, paralysis spreading through my body. I was still reeling from his vile revelations, the cruelty in his voice, when he pushed me away. I found myself stumbling backwards.
I straightened up, trying to regain some semblance of composure. He then repeated words that felt hollow, "I can't believe this shit."
He simply turned and walked towards the door, his footsteps echoing down the hallway and then fading as he descended the stairs. I remained rooted to the spot, stunned with disbelief and humiliation.
What kind of an utter idiot had I been?
And then, a strange, hysterical sound bubbled up from my chest. I found myself laughing, tears streaming down my face at the same time, the sound echoing in the empty room, sounding utterly deranged even to my own ears.
So I went towards the window and watched Caesar's car as it left the premises, watching the lights as they disappeared into the night. But as long as I knew I didn't want to see him for now, I had to see him again. Seeing him with Victor, the two of us being in the same room, just being with him in the same room—it's too much.
So you know what? I thought I was for sure going to get a job today. I know it now, that it was stupid of me to think that he was going to give me a job. I didn't have anything that would make him listen to me... I wasn't even going to threaten him. I thought he would feel guilty for something that he didn't know about, which is crazy right now coming to think about it.
Is he still guilty? Yes.
Does he feel guilty? No.
But He should.
And then I got another idea. Maybe I should feel good now. I should feel better that I have this secret and that he has no idea it even exists. That's when I found myself laughing hysterically again.
If he ever finds out, how stupid would he think of himself? How much would it hurt? After all, thinking that his own son was his brother.
How can he not see how the two of them are identical? And if he was actually a good son to his father, and had any kind of relationship with his father, he would have found out the truth already. The two of them would have talked. And his dad would have told him that he wasn't really Victor's biological dad. And everything would have been exposed.
But because he's such an asshole to his family and his dad and me, the mother of his child..... this is what he gets. Maybe every time the three of us are in a room, I should have some kind of satisfaction. Seeing him acting like such a fool in front of his son.....