Sparks Fly (An Aleheather Story/AU)

Chapter 23

Heather's eyes snapped wide open as she registered her surroundings, her eyes adjusting to the bright lighting. She glanced around, noticing that she was sitting inside a room of some old house; the wallpaper in the room seemed to be chipping off. She turned to move, but realized that her hands and legs were strapped to the chair she was sitting on.

A heaviness overtook Heather's chest as the events of what had happened prior flashed through her mind. The white cat. The empty street. The hand over her mouth, before she had blacked out. Where the hell am I?

"Hola, Heather," a low, deep voice suddenly spoke out, interrupting her thoughts. "It's nice to see you again."

Heather blinked and froze when she instantly recognized the voice of the man who was walking towards her. "José? What the fuck?"

"Don't look too surprised to see me," José smirked. "We're technically family, aren't we?"

"I am not your family, Heather seethed. She tried aggressively tugging at the straps around her wrists but it was no use. "Let me go, you sleazeball and lowlife!"

"If I were you I wouldn't bother," José said, a smug look on his face and an evident cockiness in his tone. "I wouldn't bother screaming either; no one else can probably hear you."

"Why do you sound like one of those pathetic TV villains?" Heather sneered.

José let out a loud grunt. "You are testing my patience, Ms Kasuga."

"Good," Heather firmly said as she tried moving her hands again. "Now let me go! What did I ever do to you?"

"Nothing," José casually shrugged. "You're just collateral damage."

Heather clenched her jaw as she felt her blood boil. "The only thing that's damaged here is your brain," she retorted.

José tugged at the collar of his shirt in frustration and began pacing up and down the room, taking a few deep breaths. I refuse to let this woman get to me.

"I understand that Illuminate is preparing for its upcoming jewellery collection, 'The Emerald Paradise'," José said the next moment. "I want all your product designs and proposals."

A wave of disgust instantly overtook Heather's body. Who does he think he is? If he thinks I'm going to be giving him our product designs just like that, he's delusional.

"Yeah sure thing, why don't you walk over here so I can tell you right now?" she casually replied, whilst faking a smile at him.

José raised a brow but walked closer towards where Heather was sitting on the chair, and crouched down so that they were directly facing each other.

"Go rot in hell!" Heather suddenly screeched as loud as she could in his face.

"Jesus, woman!" José shrieked as he covered his ears and immediately stood back up, taking a few steps away from her. "You're actually crazy. God, I seriously don't know what Al sees in you. With an unattractive personality like yours, I almost feel sorry for him."

"I feel sorry for J&B Co's employees because their next CEO is clearly too incompetent and dumb to come up with his own ideas that he has to resort to stealing someone else's," Heather mocked.

José clenched his jaw. The truth was, since Alejandro left their father's company, J&B Co's performance had been declining, whilst Illuminate's sales were skyrocketing. And José, basking in the satisfaction of Alejandro gone and the knowledge that he had secured the CEO role had been slacking off at work recently. That is, until Javier had told him that if he wasn't able to find a way to turn things around, the CEO position would be going to someone else. Upon an incidental encounter with Nathan at a bar, José and Nathan realized that they both happened to share a resentment towards Alejandro and Heather. And so teaming up together seemed like the logical option.