Revenge

Prologue [rewritten];

Prologue:

I never wanted to work in some dingy office on the fifteenth floor but, when my father inconveniently decided that it was it was time to drop dead, I had no choice but to work in what I would consider hell.

In the entire room, there were only two windows – one of which was so badly placed that, no matter where you sat, the sun was still somehow in the way. Not even covering the poxy thing seemed to be enough to prevent the unwanted light brightening up the room on a daily basis.

The other window was so badly placed that, if you happened to be in the office at the wrong time, you got a rather unpleasant view of some overweight fool doing his daily exercise on a running machine. I could save him the time by telling him he was never going to see the right side of ten stone again.

“Not this again.” I slammed the magazine down on my desk, admiring the picture of me which was plastered over the front pages again; this time there was some story about me sleeping with the wife of some guy I had never even heard of.

“What?” Victoria asked with her usual innocent smile.

“I am getting tired of all these damn lies now. No one has a mind of their own. They always believe whatever crap is posted about me.” I replied angrily. There was never a good thing written about me in the magazines, it was always the negatives and it only made people hate me for all the wrong reasons.

“Don’t worry. They will all realise one day how foolish they were.” she stated as she walked over to my desk. Her skirt barely covering what it needed to, her blouse was so white that you could see her bra through it and her heels didn’t even match what she was wearing.

“If they just talked to me, then--“

“Then what Alex? They’ll find out you’re just a man in denial?” Victoria questioned.

I should have sacked her months ago because she was useless at her job, she didn’t know what she was doing half the time and got everything wrong. The only reason she still had a job was because she was twenty-five, attractive and an easy shag.

I needed my sexual satisfaction somewhere and she only seemed too willing to give it to me.

It wasn’t just me that she was sleeping with though, she was sleeping with most of the males in this crappy place; even the ones on their last legs and who were close to death.

That didn’t bother me. I wasn’t too fussy where women were concerned, I was even less concerned about having a proper relationship with a women; I didn’t have the time or attention to be committed to just the one woman for the rest of my life.

“I don’t know what I would tell them.” I sighed, falling into my chair with a bump, causing it to move back slightly. “I just wish people knew the real me.”

“The people who matter know who you are though. Surely that’s all that matters?” she smiled again, wandering around into the space which was between myself and the desk, perching herself on the top of the paperwork which had been sitting there for weeks now. I couldn’t be bothered to find the time to go through it all and sort it out properly.

“That’s not the point. The version of me which these-” I picked up the magazine and waved it in her face to reiterate the point, “-these animals print of me is completely inaccurate and it pisses me off.”

“I know it does baby. I know it does, but try not to let it bother you.” Victoria almost grimaced. She knew it was always going to bother me and the headlines were always going to get to me.

My dream of being a successful businessman disappeared about the same time that my father’s life did.

I still got the money, power and spine chilling fear which came from inheriting my father’s role, but it was never going to be my dream job and I was never going to love what I did. I also didn’t want to earn the title of “Mr Rich and Powerful Playboy” as the papers so often referred to me when they were making up more lies about me.

The thing with people these days was that, no matter how hard you tried to convince them, they always believed whatever they read or heard about a person; the truest thing which they have ever printed about me was probably my age and monetary status.

Besides those two things though, they have done nothing other than smother the public with exaggerated lies about the person I happened to be.

“It never seems to end. The lies just keep on coming.” I stressed, despite knowing that she probably didn’t even give a damn. She was too busy flirting and trying to get in my pants to even realise how pissed off I was right now, to take a moment to actually be there for me as nothing more than a friend.

“One day, the world will see the real Alexander Jensen and they will know what a good man you truly are.”

Good man? Pfft.

If only she knew the half of what I did, she wouldn’t be calling me a good man. Those would be the last words she uses to describe me if she ever found out the truth about me.

I wasn’t “good” or “wonderful” or “incredible” or any of the other words people I knew used to describe me.

I was a sadistic and angry man who was untouchable in the world of business.

I was a man you didn’t want to upset.