The Desire Complex

chapter 2

a/n: AHHHH, here we are.

"Dad is dead." Julia said with the efficiency she does everything else, cold and effective. "Finally, I've been telling him that he had been dragging this out for far too long, I was getting bored." Maria's eyes used to widen when she spoke of their father this way, but now looking back the abuse was evident even when he didn't leave marks. The things he used to say to Julia, the way he would look at her after our mother died, she looked just like her, a blessing and a curse to a grieving man. Though Julia was only ten and Maria only eight, she took the majority of the negativity that their father had to give as the older child.

Though she was only two years older, two years and four months as Jules used to always remind her when they were younger, Maria could see the age on Julia's face that had started to compound as soon as she took over caring for Maria. Their father could not be bothered with child-rearing himself, but took every opportunity he could to tell Julia how she was doing it incorrectly. Maria remembered one time where her father was yelling at Julia with such aggression after she had slightly overcooked their meal for the evening, that their father lost his voice and was unable to speak for days after. It was a needed reprieve.

Maria sat there for a moment and let the fact that her father is now dead wash over her, trying to see if any emotions would come out in response. There were no feelings that came other than the stuffiness of the car and remnants of what she had just been pulled out of at The Den. She found that her relationship with her father had been dead for years, long before even their mother died. Her father always thought of her as a 'problem child' and so that she became.

"So, obviously I will be taking over the company and you will be doing some very much needed growing up." she said, not looking up from her phone as we walked out the front door of the club and right into the opened door of her all black SUV. Their father owned and ran a telecommunications company that while she didn't care to learn the ins-and-outs of the business, she knew it was more of a front to hide the shady dealings behind the scenery. Her sister had been prepped for it for ages now and it was finally coming to a head.

After they both were old enough to leave the house, they did. Maria had barely spoken to her father in the last few years, other than that all he did was have someone pay her credit cards off. They were not the family to get together for gatherings or cherish holidays, their father's company had always ensured that he spent the lowest amount of time with them possible. He loved that company more than anyone, buried himself in it after the death of their mom.

"I don't know what you mean" Maria said, poking slight fun at her sister as they both knew the kinds of things that she got up to and it was nowhere near what her sister now expected of her as a now more integral part of one of the most powerful families in area.

"Maria you know I don't have time for your shit. I'm sending you underground for a couple of months at least for your safety, the assholes that were after Dad are now after me and subsequently you, anything the can use against me they will so I don't have time for your antics, you're just going to agree and get over it." she said

Maria was stunned, while she was used to her sister barking orders at her, the extra people in the car she hadn't seen before were starting to make more sense and the luggage in the back made the car start to shrink in on itself. She realized that she was trapped and she had walked quite willingly right into it. She now knew they were taking her to her cage, where they would hide her until things calmed down in the wake of her father's death and she had no choices or say in it at all. Like it had been her whole life, others were making the decisions for her.

"Oh don't look so surprised, you know this was coming and its for your own good." her sister took her hand for the first time in along time. "Know that I just want to keep you safe and as long as you can work on your public image after all this, it'll be just fine." With a pat on her hand, Julia let go and Maria knew that it was final, she kept silent, knowing that she has never and will never be heard fully in this relationship.