ANDREW

Two months. That's how long it had been since I was a complete asshole, two fucking months, and she still hadn't managed to get over herself. She was even refusing to come anywhere near me and, every single time I did want to speak with her, she cleverly managed to avoid me and I had to go looking for her just to tell her what it was that I wanted her to know.

I had wanted to apologise properly to her, inform her that she was right about everything she said about me that night, but she wouldn't even listen to me for those sixty seconds. She would simply tell me that she had something else to be doing or that she had somewhere else which she needed to be, even though I knew she was lying and she was only saying that so that she didn't have to speak to me, and it hurt like a bitch knowing that I had pushed away the one person who had actually bothered to make an effort with me—even if she was asked to by both my mother and my brother—and she tried to help me. But I was stubborn and didn't want to take what she was offering to me.

I had to find out from my mother that she was fucking my half-brother, had been since we returned from Chicago, and she had fooled herself into assuming that they were in some kind of exclusive relationship with each other. But I knew Darren and I knew that he was never likely to change his womanizing ways, just because there was woman who had actually captured his attention for a change, and she had even been the woman who told him no, which was something Darren had never had the fortune of experiencing before.

I didn't need to be intelligent to know that she went on a date with him last night, rather than coming to see my mother with me, which left me to deal with the onslaught of questions from my mother—obviously relating to Alyssa and our relationship—the moment I walked into her flat and I didn't know what I was supposed to tell her. I suppose the truth would have been a good place to start, but I couldn't bring myself to admit to my own mother what a twat I had been that night, and I also didn't want to destroy the relationship which we had now built with each other.

But, even if Alyssa wasn't going to speak to me, she could at least speak with my mother because she wasn't the one who had treated her like shit and made her feel that she did that night. It wasn't my mother who had refused to treat her like a person when others were around and neither did she act like she cared when it was only the two of them, alone, in the same room with each other.

That was all me and, the sad reality of the entire thing, is that I wasn't actually pretending. I did genuinely care about Alyssa, though I am still unsure myself as to the reason for the concern which I held towards her, and I didn't want to see her hurt at the hands of another male. I didn't want to see someone else disrespect her in the manner as I had done, I just wanted her to be happy and to be able to live her life, two things I knew were never going to happen if she was to remain with Darren any longer than she needed to.

I checked the time on the clock which hung from my wall beside the door and sighed when I saw that it had barely hit eight in the morning, and I was sitting in my office with a glass of whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other, two habits which I had managed to put a stop to after Alyssa expressed her severe dislike of me in front of several of my most important clients, but today was a special occasion and it would have been rude to miss the opportunity which was being so freely presented to me—I wished to forget that I had a meeting with my delightful younger brother in which he told me there was something of importance which he needed to discuss with me.

"Drinking already, Andrew," Darren's smug voice filled the room the moment the clock struck eight and he took the seat opposite me.

"Little underdressed for New York weather. Aren't you?" I noticed the shorts and button-down shirt he was wearing, and I also didn't miss the sunglasses which sat atop his head, or the sun cream on the side of his face which he had failed to rub in properly.

"Alyssa and I are going to Spain for the weekend. She wanted to surprise her parents, visit them for the first time since she moved over here, and I thought I would make that happen for her," Darren shrugged. He had always known how to keep the females in his bed and, taking Alyssa back to see her parents, that was a sure fire way to make sure she remained in his bed for a couple more months at least.

"Was that the only reason I was out of bed at half five this morning? For you to tell me that you are taking Alyssa to Spain for the weekend?" I wanted to kick him from my office and not to have to see him again for as long as I was alive, but Darren had a purpose to everything he did, and I am sure there was more to this meeting than initially meets the eye—it wouldn't even be as bad but he had to be smug prick and he felt the need to always make a comment about my mother, even though his mother is the reason that my mother ended up single with three kids to deal with and a father who didn't give a fuck.

I may have been able to accept that he was my father's bastard love child if he wasn't for those two factors. I know I wasn't in line for son of the year award anytime soon, but that didn't mean I loved my mother any less than I did when I was child, and that was the thing which got to me more than anything else he did; that was the one thing which made me want to punch him in the face and remind him which of us was the strongest.

"No. I also wanted to tell you that I would like you to stay the hell away from her," Darren smirked.

"You called a meeting, to tell me something, which I have already spent the last two months doing?" I would have laughed any other time but, at this time of the morning on a Saturday, I would have preferred to be in bed asleep rather than contemplating just how much of an idiot my younger brother was. I didn't need him to tell me stay away from Alyssa because I had been doing that pretty damn well for the last two months without so much as a warning from him.

"Well, I know the two of you haven't been speaking, and I also know that she is avoiding you at all costs, but I want you to go that extra mile and fire her."

"And why the hell would I do that?" I was never going to do anything he told me to do, and I sure as hell wasn't going to fire my own personal assistant because her boyfriend asked me to do it, but I couldn't fire her if I wanted to because I wasn't the one who employed her in the first place. The Board were the only ones who could terminate Alyssa's employment with the company, and they were so intent on bringing me down, that I couldn't see them doing that anytime soon—Darren didn't need to know that though and he could continue to believe that I had power over all the people who worked for me.

"I want to be sure that she hates you. And firing her would, ultimately, ensure that happened," Darren laughed. I, however, didn't find this situation at all amusing, not when he was playing with someone else's life and he was attempting to ruin what they had managed to build for themselves, especially when it was for his own selfish reasons that he was doing it.

I place my now empty glass on the table and quickly stood up from my chair, putting my hands on the edge of my desk, so that I could lean closer to him without actually being anywhere near him. "Trust me, Darren, she hates me, so you don't need to worry about her leaving you for me."

"I never thanked you for making my job so much easier than it already was," Darren clearly ignoring the previous comment I had been made.

"Thank me? What is there to thank me for?" I already knew that I wasn't going to like the answer, the sinister smile on his face told me that without the need for words, but I could only hope that I was wrong and he was thanking me for something other than making his conquest to get Alyssa easier than it had been.

I always knew that I would drive her away in the end, push her into the arms of my half-brother even, but that didn't stop me from being cruel for the sake of being cruel. So, when she called me out at the Charity Ball, it only took a day for her words to sink in and then a further week for the hurt to set in and, by the end of the month, I was hating myself for not following after her to talk it out with each other.

To make matters worse, she had gone along with my pathetic plan of telling people that she was my girlfriend, by telling Douglas Jacobson that we were dating and he had one of the biggest mouths in New York. While no one else gave enough of a shit to go to the tabloids, Jacobson didn't miss an opportunity to sell a story and, as a result, Alyssa was branded a cheat with people claiming that she had never actually loved me and she had only been with me for my money—if only Jacobson had been around when I was with Rebecca, then he would have had a story, and it would have been true enough that I wouldn't have allowed it to bother as much as it did with Alyssa.

Naturally, that did nothing to ease the tensions between Alyssa and I, and it only aided in her bid to hate me even more than she already did. I remember that I had tried to hide the newspapers from her, but I had missed one and, when she caught the headline for the first time, she was obviously shocked and then she burst into tears. Her work area was a wreck by the time she was done and she waked from the office without even sparing me a second glance.

"If you hadn't have treated her like shit, brother, she never would have come crawling back into my arms. She's just another girl I can put a tick next to," I didn't even have time to process the thoughts in my mind, unaware of what I was doing until I had flown across my desk, and Darren's entire body was pinned against the wall beside the door as I attempted to control my breathing.

But my violent outburst didn't even phase him, he continued to laugh, actually thinking that using Alyssa was something to make a joke out of, but I didn't see it that way. I know what she had been through with her ex-husband, and with other males who thought that they stood a chance with her, and I knew that she didn't need Darren fucking up her perception of men any further than he already had done.

"She's so stupid that she doesn't even realise I have been fucking numerous other girls. Just last night I was with one of the waitresses from my restaurant, brunette if I remember rightly."

"Tell her it's over before you really hurt her. She doesn't deserve to be treated like that," I seethed with my face dangerously close to his and, while all he could see was the amusement in this moment, I was feeling anything but amused with his actions. I was ready to throw him out of my office window and watch as he fell to the ground, waving as he disappeared into the hell where he belonged.

"Oh. How sweet. My brother does have a heart after all. I never would have guessed," Darren joked sarcastically. I had a heart, only for those who really deserved it, but I did have a heart and I knew that Darren was wrong for what he was doing. "But, just because it was you who asked, I am not in a hurry to end anything. Not when I have her right where I want her."

"Which is?"

"So desperate for my attention that she will do anything I ask her to do. Just this morning, I told her to blow off your mother rather than going for the breakfast the two of them had planned, because I told her that she didn't need anything to do with the Collins family, not when she was going to be part of the Brent family."

"You absolute fucking dick," I shouted and I wasn't in control when my fist collided with his face repeatedly and, after the fifth shot, his nose was bleeding, he was sporting a bust lip and his eye was sure to be bruised in the morning from the number of times I had managed to catch it.

I knew that it was a cheap shot and I also knew that it would leave Alyssa even more pissed with me than she already was, but I wasn't going to stand around while my piece of shit brother admitted that he was only using her to get to me, not that she would ever believe that was the reason for my sudden loss of control, but I didn't really give a damn in that moment. I would take pride in reducing my brother to blood and bruises.

"I still find it amusing that she actually thinks that I have changed. She is the least likely person to be able to change me, especially when all she really has going for her is that she is fucking fantastic in the bedroom," I assumed that he would have had enough by now and that he would be ready to give up, I know that I would be if I was in his position, but he had never been able to know when was a good time to shut the hell up and keep his mouth shut.

"Why? She has never done anything to you, besides love you, and you treat her like she's a worthless piece of shit from the bottom of your shoe. Why the fuck are you doing this, Darren?" I hissed through clenched teeth, my hands tightened around the collar of the shirt which he was wearing.

"Sure fire way to pull the Collins family apart one member at a time," I could tell that he didn't give a shit about the consequences of his actions, as long as he destroyed my family, he didn't give a shit about the hurt which he would inflict on Alyssa when she found out the truth about his intentions where their relationship was concerned. I would have punched him again, but I realised that he wasn't even worth it and I dropped him to the ground instead, going back to the chair behind my desk so that I didn't have to look at him for any longer than necessary.

I never thought that I was possible for me to hate someone as much as I hated my Darren right now, I didn't even think the hatred which I held for my own father could compete with the way which I was feeling now, because my own half-brother was ruining the life of someone who didn't deserve it and he was also trying to pull my family apart. I didn't know why he was trying to pull my family apart, we had never given him any reason to do so, and I also didn't understand why he was using Alyssa to do that.

"Anyway, I must be off now, I have a flight catch. But this was a wonderful conversation and we really must do it again soon, brother," I didn't even bother replying because there were no words to be said, though I did finally get my own source of amusement when my office door opened and Darren's nervous filled the room, only for Alyssa to walk into the room with a look which kill a person.

"Alyssa. Babe. I can—"

"Can what, Darren? Explain? Explain how I am nothing more than another notch on your bedpost of how the only thing I have going for me is that I am fucking amazing in the bedroom or how I am part of some seriously fucked up revenge plan you have going on?" Alyssa's voice was so filled with rage that I wouldn't have answered back to her, matched with the confidence which was coming off her in rolls, and it terrified even Darren who, moments beforehand, had so much to say and was full of words of wisdom on how to make a woman fall in love with you.

Darren was now taking cautious steps backwards, his hands up in surrender, while Alyssa forced him back into the office until his legs hit the front of my desk and he was forced to take a seat on the edge, with Alyssa sending murderous glares in his direction and her arms folded across her chest—something I wished that she would stop doing, along with the lip biting, because I always found it sexy as hell when she did both of them at the same time.

I knew that I sounded like some sex-crazed maniac, but I hadn't had sex with anyone since Alyssa put me in my place, and I was trying, but ultimately failing, to figure out why no female besides Alyssa Lopez had the ability to turn me on anymore.

"I didn't mean what I said, any of it, I was only winding And—"

"I smell bullshit, Darren," I couldn't help but smile to myself as I watched her stand up for herself, something she seemed to be doing a lot recently, and she was also a lot less afraid of telling people exactly what she thought of them. I remember when she told Myles James, an investor who wanted to help me expand Collins' Holdings Inc. overseas, that he was an arrogant and rude fool who should never bother to stop foot on the premises again because, if she was to see him, she would personally make sure he never had the power to reproduce by the time she was done with him.

"And how the hell can you be so sure of that?"

"Firstly, you aren't Andrew's actual brother, you're just some kid who was born because his father couldn't keep in his pants, despite already having a wife and kids back home. And, secondly, you are such a shitty liar that, if you were ever arrested, they wouldn't even need a lie detector to prove your guilt," Alyssa snapped and, the smirk which had been on my face, was quickly wiped off as it morphed into shock. I had never expected anything that crude to come out of her mouth, especially to the man whom she apparently loved and had been in a relationship with for the last couple of months.

"Seriously? After everything he has done to you, you're actually defending him? Wow," Darren's voice was laced with hatred and, admittedly, I was shocked that she had defended me, but I also knew that she was pissed with what she had heard from Darren and that meant she was going to say what was on her mind—even if that meant slagging down my dead father.

When I discovered three years ago that my father was dead, I couldn't have been happier, I wanted to spit on his grave and celebrate that he was dead. I resented that he left me the company, something that I had never wanted and he knew that I never wanted it either which is the only reason he gave it to me over Ben, but I couldn't have more relieved that he was dead and that he no longer had the power to control our lives as he had done while he was alive.

I didn't even bother going to his funeral, something which both my mother and Andrea managed to do, but I didn't see in the point in saying goodbye to someone I despised. He was dead, there was nothing else to be said on the matter, and I wasn't about to mourn the man who broke my mother and left us without a father for the majority of my life.

"Andrew may be a complete a fucking ass who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut, and he may have the ability to make me feel totally worthless, but he's still a better man than you will ever been, Darren Brent. You are a pathetic excuse of a man and, if I am to ever see you again, then I won't be held responsible for my actions," I watched the way her nostrils flared slightly and her hands balled into fists at her sides, and even I knew that it was time for Darren to stop talking, because he was never going to win this argument and he was also never going to be able to keep Alyssa on the leash which he previously had her on.

"You don't scare me, Alyssa," Darren laughed and that was his mistake to make because Alyssa didn't hesitate to add to the black eye which was, undoubtedly, going to begin forming before the end of the day.

"Probably should have warned you, brother, that Miss Lopez here pack quite the punch," I found myself laughing, knowing just how hard she could hit because I had had my fair share of punches from her but, what surprised me, was that Alyssa actually shocked me was that she looked at me and she offered me a genuine smile.

"You are a bitch," Darren snapped.

"A bitch who, funnily enough, is going to be fucking walked over by people anymore. I thought that you, of all people, would have understood this by now," Alyssa sat herself down on the sofa, which was right in front of the bookcase on the right side of my office, and her eyes darted between Darren and myself before she opened her mouth again, "you can definitely tell that you have the same father."

"What?" Darren and I said at the same time, the both of us looking horrified at the fact she had compared us, not only to each other, but also to the man who called himself our father.

I was horrified because I was nothing like that man and I would never be anything like him either. If I was to ever become like him, I would sooner throw myself from the nearest cliff than live life as he had done, because I would never piss over the woman I loved as my father had done with my mother. Darren, on the other hand, he worshipped the ground on which our father walked and he believed the man could do no wrong, and the love which he held for the man almost made me want to be sick.

"You both fuck with women's feelings for your own gain. You're both too engaged with business to actually spend time with your mothers, both of whom were fucked over by the same man at some point in their lives, and left to cope with the kids which he had a hand in creating. You both love to act better than everyone else. You both treat those who are stupid enough to love you and care about you like complete shit. I mean, I could continue, but the list is endless and I wouldn't want to waste my breath," Alyssa said casually with her eyes now on her phone as she typed something to whoever was on the other end waiting for her reply to come.

"My father was nothing like that. He was nothing like that and, up until the day of his death, he loved my mother and was one hell of a father to both my sister and I," Darren defended, unsurprisingly, without giving too much thought to what he was saying, "I love my father and I will not have you talking about him in such a cold manner."

"We must be thinking of different people entirely. The father I had preferred to spend time with you and your sister over Ben, Andrew and myself. He cheated on my mother and then tried to pay her off with money because, apparently, he never loved her anyway and he only felt sorry for her when the two of them got together in the first place. He only used her to make sure he had someone to take over the company once he was dead, I hated my father, and I would be lying if I said that I wasn't glad that he was dead," I deadpanned. It's not that I wanted to dash the beliefs that our father was a wonderful family man who would do anything for his children, more than I wanted him to realise our father made mistakes, and one of his worst was when he decided to leave my mother to raise his three kids alone.

"Neither of you can just be happy with one woman," Alyssa laughed humourlessly and, perhaps, she was right about that once, but now there was only one woman I wanted to be happy with and I had already accepted that was never going to happen because of how much she hated me, and how little she could stand to be in the same room as me. "You are both after one thing and, once you have it, you walk away and pretend like nothing ever happened."

"I was happy with one woman, once, until she walked out on me and took my unborn daughter with her, but then you already know about that. So, please, excuse me for using women for the sake of keeping my bed warm when I was feeling a little lonely," I didn't need her telling me how to live my life, not when I already knew how much of a prick I had been without her telling me, and especially not when I couldn't have sex with anyone because, the moment I managed to get a girl in my bed, I either imagined they were Alyssa or just called out her name when I came—who knew that could be such a turn off in the middle of a good fuck.

Hence the reason I hadn't slept with anyone for a while now. It was actually getting embarrassing just how much I wanted the woman. She hated me, couldn't stand to even talk to me about business because of how much she hated me, but I was still calling out her name in bed with other women.

"And you, Brent, what's your excuse?" Alyssa asked as she slipped her phone back into her pocket and looked up so she was looking at Darren.

"Fear, I guess, I have never really liked the idea of being with one person. Too afraid that they will just walk out on me and leave me with nothing," Darren sighed. He finally moved so that he collapsed into the chair on the other side of my desk and ran his hands through his hair, only just realising what a fool he had been and how stupid he had been to let Alyssa go from his life. He had something good and, just because he was too much of a fucking idiot to see what he had, he threw it away for the sake of some childish revenge.

"The fact I spent most of my free time with you, shared a bed with you, went on dates with you and met you mother after asking you to meet mine wasn't enough to prove that I actually wanted to be with you?" I don't know if Darren heard it, or if she had hidden it well enough that he would accept the tone that she had used, but I could hear the sadness and hurt in her words, and I could also see the tears which were in her eyes as she looked over at the man to whom she had given much of her time.

"You are too good for someone like me, Alyssa. You are a wonderful, beautiful woman and you have a heart of gold. I never meant to hurt you, though I guess that was a given when you found out everything I had done, but I thought that I had to be dreaming because I haven't been this lucky in a while."

"You know what the real punch in the gut is, though? The real nail in the coffin?" her vacant eyes were focusing on anything which wasn't Darren, "I loved you, Darren, I fucking loved you. How stupid is that?"

"I don't know wha—"

"I don't want you to say anything. But, you want to know why I don't let males into my life, and this is the reason why. The last man I was stupid enough to love raped me and, this time, the man I thought I could give my heart to is only fucking me out some misguided sense of revenge, not because he actually wants to be with me," Alyssa stopped him before he even had the chance to say anything to actually defend himself.

I could see now just how much had changed in the last two months. Alyssa didn't let anyone walk over her anymore, especially not males who thought they had some weird power over her, and I was proud of her for actually making the change and for being able to defend herself. Her newly developed fiery attitude was hot and I do have to admit that it has helped me get some tricky clients out of my office, and she was the one who put Douglass in his place for leaking to the tabloids that she was my girlfriend.

"I'm sor—"

"Don't, Darren. Don't you fucking dare tell me that you're sorry, because I know that you're not, since you don't even know the meaning of that word," Alyssa turned a deadly glare in his direction and it was enough to silence him before he could make himself look the fool by pouring his heart out. "Want to hear a funny story?"

"What?" Darren and I, for the second time in the space of the last fifteen minutes, said at the same time, a blank expression on her face as she looked between the pair of us before she spoke up again.

"The only reason I actually came here was so that I could speak with Andrew because I wanted to actually try to be pleasant with him, it has been two months after all since he was a total dick and left me to get bullied by the people who give him their money every single year. I wanted to cook dinner for the three of us, I wanted us all to get along with each other because, for once, I just wanted my happy ending. I wanted something normal in my life, but it would seem that I couldn't even have that," Alyssa sighed with her head in the back of the sofa and her eyes staring at the ceiling which, naturally, had an image of the sunset painted on it with the name of each member of my family embedded in each of the rays—I had even allowed my father's name to bed added in the hopes that it would remind of me of the good times which we shared before everything went to pot.

"I know that I fucked up, and I know that I fucked up big time but, please, just give me a chance to prove myself and show you that I do actually want to be with you," Darren begged and, though it was amusing to see him losing the one thing which could have grounded him, I did feel slightly sorry for him because I knew that she wasn't going to give him another chance and he had managed to blow any opportunities he may have had in the future with the simple admission to me that he was only with her to tear my family apart from the inside.

"But, while I was stood outside, listening to your conversation and taking in your admission of how you were using me, I had another idea instead," Alyssa smirked and, from that one simple act, I knew that I wasn't going to like her idea, "I have phoned both of your mothers and have invited them to dinner at my place, tonight. And you are both going to be there."

"Wh—"

"No arguments," Alyssa put her finger up to silence Darren and I already knew this was going to be hell. I could only hope that Alyssa knows what the hell she is doing.

© 2015 Emma Norman. All Rights Reserved.