Au

Chapter 2

"Get out!" She screamed, throwing a vase at both of the defenseless men. Her aim was as bad as her temper and the fragile ornament hit the wall, erupting in a tragically beautiful display of shattered glass.

Angry.
Betrayed.
Used.
Alone.

Iris felt all these and more after a birth certificate and his name on Elvis's last wil and testament proved that the stranger was telling the truth. As much as she wanted to deny it, the facts were irrefutable. But her rage didn't stem from the fact that he had a son nor from the fact that the inheritance would be shared. She could care less about his filthy money, because at 18 she made her first investment and by the time she was 21 she had enough investments and shares to set her up for life. The inheritance was cheap change in comparison.

So what bothered her wasn't material. It was emotional. It was the fact that this new and fundamental bit of information was sufficient to make her question the past 16 years of her life. It made no sense to her logic based brain that she could be raised by a man and not know that he in fact had a son. Just like that, the one person she held in her damaged heart, the one person she trusted blindly and the only person in this world who could make her care about matters that didn't concern her. Her grandfather who was the only true object of her love and affection had suddenly become a complete stranger to her.

"Ms West. I beg you please. Contain yourself." Wells tried but his pleas fell on to ears deafened by heartbreak.

"Get. The fuck. Out of my house!" she screamed.

"But the will..."

"I don't give a rat's ass about the fucking will. You can take it and burry it with the son of a bitch who wrote it!"
At that Joe stepped forward and despite his towering over her Iris stood her ground, directing a heated glare up at him.

"I understand that you're upset Iris but that in no way gives you the right to disrespect my father."

"Oh save your sentimental crap for some one who gives a shit. I was the one who had to make sure he took his meds every day. I was the one that sat with him every Christmas and every New Year and every Birthday listening to the same old playlist over and over again. I was the one that called an ambulance when he had his first stroke and I was the one that had to pick out a suit for him to get buried in. So don't you tell me what I do and don't have the right to do, Mr West." she spat out.

"And don't call me Iris. I haven't given you that luxury yet." hatred dripped from her every word like poison from a serpents fang and with that final remark she stormed out of the room and back up to her bedroom. Once she was safely behind closed doors, she took a deep breath as her mind shifted into auto pilot then proceeded to make herself look decent. Hair pulled up into a pony tail. White blouse and black pencil skirt. Red lipstick and a dark smoky eye for dramatic effect. Then with a determined stare she marched out of the building. Each high heeled step ringing through the mansion with a vengeful promise.

The men had left by the time she was done getting ready and the servants were clearing out the after math of her little  out burst. But that was just a warm up. She stepped into her red, two door, Audi A3 convertible and sped off in the direction of the city, stopping briefly at a bottle store before she made her way to the cemetery. The sky had grown cloudy and the sound of her slamming her car door shut was emphasized by the rumble of distant thunder. Her heels clicked across the cemented ground mimicking the steady rhythm of a battle drum, before she stepped onto the grass. She came to a hault infront of a freshly covered grave. The name etched in stone was that of the man she once considered as family but now meant as much to her as that of an anonymous John Doe.

"Who are you?" she asked, tears stinging her eyes but she held her ground. He didn't deserve the grief she felt.

"Who the hell are you?! Huh?!" she screamed and her voice echoed around the morbid city of the dead.

"Why did you take me in?! Was I one of your charity cases?! Is that it? Was I just a live puppet you could keep around to distract you from you're miserable and pathetic existance?! Was that it?!" she yelled, straining her voice in order to hold back her sobs.

"Well jokes on you old man cause I got the last laugh! You hear me! I'm here, I'm alive and I'm going to take over everything you've ever built while you rott away in a wodden box!" she screamed.

"I hope you burn in hell!"

She let out a frustrated scream then fell to her knees, unable to keep her tears in any longer.

"How could you?" she whimpered. With the exhaustion of her anger came a place for heartache to set in and the betrayal she felt was unfathomable.

"I thought you loved me. You told me that you loved me." she corrected.

"Then explain to me how could you lie to someone you love? How could you not tell me that you had a son Papa? Were you that ashamed of me? Did you not trust me enough with your secret? Was - I - not - family enough - for you to let me know?" she sobbed, her cries growing more desperate with each insecurity that bubbled to the forefront of her mind.

"Do you have any idea what it's like? To be given a nurturing home, a sence of security, a family then have it all ripped away. To grow to trust someone enough to let them fix you only to have them break you even more once you're all patched up?" she questioned and her voice trembled with the force of her sobs. Inside her a phoenix was rising from the ashes of her shattered dreams. Each sob brought her closer to closure. Each tear cleansed her body of pain. Each strained breath brought her back to herself until slowly her cold demeanour crept back in.

"Well that's exactly what you've done Elvis." she affirmed, dabbing away at her tears and rebuilding the walls she had around her heart. Her calling him by name signified the cutting of their ties, she was saying goodbye to her childhood farytale for good.

"Have a nice death." she hissed then spat on his grave and turned around to leave. As she walked to her car she made herself a promise to never return.

"Are you OK miss?" the question came from behind her, stopping her in her tracks. It was a shy, barely there whisper and for a second Iris thought that she had imagined it but the voice persisted.

"I didn't mean to scare you. I just...I saw you crying and all, not that I was spying on you I just...."

"Oh for the love of Gucci would you please shut -" she whipped around and was taken a back, swallowing her words as she drank in the sight before her. Piercing green eyes with the faintest hint of gold stared back at her from a dashingly concerned face, rendering her speechless and making her stomach turn with a feeling she'd never experienced before. The feeling of nervous butterflies. The clouds roared as they met and so it began to rain.