The Hunt

Chapter 1

"Good morning, Emily." Emily sighed quietly at the voice of her father's blonde secretary. It was bad enough that she had to accompany the inseparable father-daughter duo on their retreat in the mountains, but Emily had certainly not imagined that they would have to live in the same cottage as well.

It was only three months ago that her father had first brought Melissa home. At first, she had been mildly tolerant of the woman (who could not be much older than herself) and made herself scarce as her father and his new secretary sat down to work in the living room. She did think it inappropriate, her father exchanging his trusted friend Harold for an inexperienced and equally inefficient young woman and bringing her home in his luxurious sedan the very day she joined. Little did Emily know that that was perhaps the most appropriate thing her father had done in the following series of events.

Melissa Sawyer soon became a regular occupant of the couch in the Brooks living room and later, Mr Brooks' bedroom. Her presence at dinner eventually came to mean a sleepover at night and an inevitable appearance at breakfast the next morning. The strange noises of banging and violence and cacophonic screams everytime she stayed over kept Emily up all night, but who was she to complain?

But the day Melissa had helped herself to Emily's late mother's diamond earrings was when she finally snapped. The two women had got into a nasty fight- Emily answered Melissa's profanities with curses of her own. As soon as Mr Brooks stepped in, however, Melissa was quick to take a complete one-eighty degree turn and breakdown in his arms, accusing Emily of abusing her. Mr Brooks wasted no time in getting to his knees to console her, promising to make it up to her with the latest collection of handbags. When Emily tried to intervene, he hardly spared her a glance, dismissing her with a glare.

But Emily had never been one to give in without a fight, something that reminded Mr Brooks of her mother. Her protests, however, were met with a violent burst of anger from her father, the first time he had raised his voice at her ever since Mrs Brooks had passed away seven years ago. Confused and heartbroken, Emily had swiftly retreated to her room and cried all night. Her father tried to make neither amends nor conversation the next day, not that she cared. Emily was shocked at the changes in the once-sensible man who had brought her up- she had lost all respect for him.

Days had passed since, and the hurt was beginning to fade. Emily had hoped that their trip would make everything better- perhaps she could finally make her father see sense in the absence of his scheming employee.

As always, Melissa was a step ahead of her. Emily was bewildered at how quickly her father had lost the common sense to kick the woman out the moment she had whined and cried to be included on a supposedly family trip.

"Good morning, Ms Sawyer," Emily greeted back grudgingly. She despised the woman, but had no choice but to return formalities lest she should run to her employer screaming blue bloody murder. Emily had to admit, though, Melissa was no fool. She was deceptively nice, even to Emily herself, except for the one instance she had shown cracks in her mask. But it had worked, clearly, since it was safe to say Emily was now afraid of her.

"Have a seat," Melissa flashed her a dazzling smile. She was beautiful, Emily had to admit. Her large, curious green eyes and natural golden curls gave her an almost child-like appearance, complimented by her slender shoulders and curved hips. To some extent, Emily could see why men fell at her feet left and right. Perhaps if Emily were a man, she would never have seen through her façade and proceeded at the standard attempts to woo and wed her.

But since Emily was not a man, she hid a scowl and roughly plonked herself on the chair farthest away from the grinning woman. For a minute, she paused, contemplating whether or not to trust the secretary who had declared that she would prepare breakfast for the family the night before and asked Mr Brooks to inform the staff of the same.