35.

"I thought you would have been out for longer, Lindsay. What made you come home so early?"

Mr. Givenchy spoke wearily, smiling gently at Lindsay, who was livid. We glanced at each other, screaming for help with our eyes.

"Don't fucking ignore my question. What the fuck is he doing here!?"

Lindsay was going blood red just at the sight of me, her hands balled up ready to strangle me to death.

"Hold on, don't talk to me like that, I'm you're dad! We were just-"

"Speaking of questions, I didn't get to answer yours, sir."

Both turned to look at me. Lindsay looked like she was 1 step away from eating me alive, while Mr. Givenchy's face lit up, like he received a blessing from heaven.

"I came here to tell you, Mr. Givenchy... How do I put this in the nicest way possible?" Mr. Givenchy remained clueless, but Lindsay knew what I was going to say. She, for once in her life, kept quiet with petrified eyes.

"Lindsay, even after all these years, you're still out for me. You could have kept taunting me for my dead parents, make me sit on thumbnails, and I would have taken it. But this? This was the one thing I cared for dearly, but you had to go and fuck it up. "

Silence. Squawking birds and trees could be heard from outside with how quiet it was. Mr. Givenchy looked grim, eyes downcast and hand pressed to his forehead, while Lindsay had a weird, blank expression. The silent loomed over for only a second longer before I decided to continue on. If he thought it was bad from just the summary, I wouldn't know what he would do when he found out the rest.

"She came onto my boyfriend at a party even when he rejected her several times, then filmed herself fucking someone pretending it was him and sent it to... well, everyone." Faces changed, silence remained. Now, it was Mr. Givenchy's turn to have a dead expression, all life drained from him in just a few words.

"That video being sent to everyone made them think delusional things about our relationship, and we both got harassed for days. Did I mention Lindsay sent me the video privately to make me believe my boyfriend cheated on me with her?" I leaned back, satisfied with my work. Lindsay was going to kill me with her stare, and Mr. Givenchy had tears in his eyes, either from shock or disgust.

Smiling and pressing the tips of my fingers together, I put on my pearl white smile and pointed to Lindsay, locking our eyes,

"What she did was a repeat of what I had left from that school before." glancing at his face, Mr. Givenchy looked hesitant to respond. I guess he was contemplating everything he had ever stood for. He stayed silent, until Lindsay, of all people, spoke up. Her eyes were full of hatred pointed to me, but from an innocent person's point of view, she had the face of an angel plastered over her snarl.

"None of this is true dad, I would never do anything like this." I stared in disbelief. She had been caught, but she was still denying it? What good would that do for her?

"Lindsay... It's not true? Then why would he be here?"

Mr. Givenchy was one puppy dog face away from forgiving Lindsay. I could not believe that was all it took for him to run over to her and put all the blame on anyone nearby.

"I have proof sir," standing suddenly, I marched over to him, pulling up the messages from days before,

"It's all right here."

Opening the messages, I flipped the phone over to show the screen to him, placing the phone in this hand. Mr. Givenchy's face growing more and more red the second. After he had seen enough, he timidly gave the phone back and recoiled into his chair, looking stressed like I had seen him when I first go here. Uncomfortable silence begun again, this time without Lindsay putting up a fight, instead, she looked... Smug? Like she had won this battle, even though I had evidence. Looking away, I went back to staring at the white walls crowding me, the shade making me queasy as it was the only colour in this house.

"Alex. I am so sorry. For everything, even though I know it's not me who needs to apologise, her ego is probably so inflated, the words would get stuck in her throat."

My eyes grew wide. Whipping up head up, Mr. Givenchy looked at me with sorrow, before turning over to a very shocked and confused Lindsay.

"You think you can get away with this because I let you off on everything? I only did because I felt bad for being a pressuring father, but now..." He breathed deeply, preparing himself,

"I won't fix your mistakes an longer."

Gawking at the tension between the two, I prepared myself to hear ear rupturing screams and objects fly across the room, but I saw the opposite. Lindsay was stuck, mortified, in her seat. Her hand gripped the plush couch like it was her lifeline, and she looked a word away from crying and bowing down.

"I'm cutting you off your card and sending you to live with your mother."

And finally, the rage broke through angelic demeanour, and her real scaly, snake-like characters broke through. Incoherent screaming and kicking and crying blew me away, I turned in panic to what Mr. Givenchy would do. He looked calm, like he had been thinking about this for some time and knew she would react the exact way.

Screaming and yelling was quickly followed by crying and begging, all emotions ran through Lindsay, while her father sat motionless and unbothered. He let her swing things around and yell right in his ear with no reaction, not even a flinch. I was amazed, how much of this had he endured all his life? Finally, Mr. Givenchy's hand moved to the watch on his wrist. He started tapping daintily on the tiny screen, then relaxed and smiled up at me. As soon as he did, the butler from before barged into the room and approached Lindsay, who had a gorgeous blue and white vase worth a least seventy thousand dollars lifted off the counter ready to smash. Her head whipped up, crazed eyes and running mascara gliding down her cheeks, backed away from the man, before dropping the vase and sprinting away, only to be caught and thrown over the guys shoulder. She kicked even more and hit the butler, but her just casually walked past and back out the door.

"Bring her to the car and send her off to her mother's, her belongings will to brought over by tomorrow!"

I watched as the butler continued to walk away until Mr. Givenchy spoke up,

"Sorry you had to endure all that, but now you know she won't be coming back. Her mother lives in the country side, all farm hills and the nearest shopping centre is 5 hours away."

I went ridged, but more in shock then fear. If she was so far away, I wouldn't see her again, would I?

"You won't see her again, don't worry." Mr. Givenchy read me like an open book, winking knowingly and taking a sip of her coffee before clapping his hands together excitedly,

"No more about her though, more about you! What have you been up to these past years? It's only been 3, but things still happen!"

Even though it was not what I was originally there for, what I needed to do was done and gone, so I gladly spent the next few hours re-capping my life to Mr. Givenchy, who had never once looked at me and thought what I was saying was dull. We spoke for hours on end, until the sun set and it had gone dark. Looking outside, I stared at the moon, thinking of Aether. He said to meet back at my apartment to fill him in on everything that happened after the plan. I decided it was time to go, getting up and grabbing my things, before I was stopped.

"Alex, just one last thing, I promise. This is rather important."

Nodding and sitting back down, I listened intently to what he had to say,

"You know how I wanted Lindsay to be smart and get her grades up, just like you, but do you know why?"

"Because... She was turning into a bimbo?"

He chuckled at that, eyes glistening with joy,

"You know she was too far gone, even at such an age. The real reason was because she is my only daughter, and I needed her to be smarted so she could take on the family business."

I mouthed an 'o', finally fully understanding why he wanted Lindsay to be more like me, I always thought it had to do with reputation of the Givenchy's.

"After I let her go, I stressed day and night for who would take over after I got old and wrinkly, but now, after seeing you again, I realised it doesn't need to be blood, just someone I can trust."

Now, both my mouth and my eyes shaped like an 'o'. He looked at me with admiration, I knew what he was going to say before he had even said it.

"Alex, would you like to take over Givenchy Corp?"

In that moment, everything had clicked. Everything I wanted in life was achieved. Revenge on Lindsay, and loving relationship with Aether, and a successful business placed in my palms by Mr. Givenchy. The second I agreed, my life went to dumpster fire to a perfect paradise.

It was crazy that all of this was given to me by just one boy, a little alcohol and an enchanting smile. Sure, it was a bumpy, painful ride, but I wouldn't change a thing about it. Not one thing.