Woohoo! Finally a new chapter! Gosh, some of you guys, wink wink you know who you are, were badgering me to update, so I completed this chapter just for you. This chapter is fairly smaller than the ones I usually write, but it works out for me that way. Thank you for all the reviews that you put in for the last chapter, I really appreciated it. And without further ado, here is the next chapter…………

…

Disclaimer: Don't own DBZ or any of the DBZ characters

……………………………………

Sealed Fate?

……………………………………

"Bulma, please stop," Duke said softly.

She shook her head and looked around for her purse. She found it, and strangely, Tamara and Vegeta's mother were at that table. "He lost his chance, let him marry that airhead," Bulma spat quietly as she retrieved her bag and walked away from Tamara and Vegeta's mother.

Duke and Sacoda walked after her and caught up to Bulma as she waited by the valet. "My car, please," he said to the guy, handing him a token with a number on it.

"Right away Mr. Ouji, sir," the valet said as he ran off to get the keys and then the fancy Lexus.

"I never want to see your brother again!" Bulma ranted as soon as the man was gone.

Sacoda shook her head. "But the baby!"

"This is my baby now," Bulma said as she put a hand over her still flat abdomen. The valet brought over the car and opened the door for the ladies.

"Stop that woman! She's a thief!"

Bulma halted where she was and scowled as she heard the voice that fell on her like acid. "The only thief here is you, you lying bitch," Bulma snarled.

Tamara flashed her a smirk that no one saw and turned to the security guards and one policeman that was at her side. "She's the one. Check her purse. I am sure she took my diamond necklace. She's a thief!"

The policeman walked over to a too stunned Bulma and asked for her bag. "You can't possibly believe this woman!" Bulma said incredulously.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but we have to make sure that you were not the one to take the said jewelry. We need to check your purse," the officer said.

Bulma handed her bag over because she really had no other choice. And besides, she hadn't taken the damn bracelet. "Fine, but you will find nothing in there of the sort. I don't steal from people." 'Anymore' she muttered in her mind, but wisely it was left unsaid. She had been close to saying 'I have never stolen anything in my life,' but she knew that that was a bold faced lie.

The man searched the bag and Duke stepped in. "This is preposterous!" he snapped. "Bulma is of my utter trust, you can't believe what this woman is saying!" he glared at Tamara.

Tamara smiled out of pure politeness at her future brother-in-law. "Duke darling, all I know is that my bracelet broke at the clasp and I left it on the table where conveniently her purse was located. When I went to get it, it was gone," she said morosely.

Bulma's eyes narrowed. "You lying little—!"

"Is this it, ma'am?" The officer asked as he took out a sparkling diamond and ruby bracelet from Bulma's bag.

"Yes!" Tamara said with a harsh gasp. "I told you that she was a thief! I demand that you arrest this woman at once! This world would be such a better place if criminals like this one were locked up in jail!

Bulma shook her head and looked at Duke pleadingly. "I can't go to jail!" she said frantically. "I didn't steal that thing, I swear!"

"I know Bulma. I believe you," Duke said as he watched in despair as the cop led her towards his police unit and pushed her into the back. He felt that since it was such an important gala, and the supposed thief looked completely frail, he didn't make a scene or place her in cuffs.

Bulma tried to control her reeling emotions, and had the situation not been so unfair, she would've smiled at the look of concern on Duke's face. As the car had pulled out, she had seen Vegeta at Tamara's side, wrapping a stiff arm around the other woman's shoulder. His fiancée. The mother of his other child.

She sniffed and placed a hand over her stomach. And that was when she made up her mind. Vegeta was history. She would take care of her child, become someone, and then she would make him pay.

……………………………

"You didn't sleep, did you?" Duke asked as he held Bulma around the shoulders as they walked out of the police station the following morning. Duke and Sacoda, and even Vegeta had stated that Bulma had been accompanied by someone at every moment. But what Bulma didn't know was that Vegeta had managed to threaten Tamara into retracting her accusation.

Bulma shook her head and her eyes watered. "I was up throwing up from four in the morning. Besides, this really isn't a place for a pregnant woman to sleep." Her breath shook as she let it out slowly. "Why does this all have to happen to me? I was so willing to give Vegeta my heart; I already had, and he does this and gets that conniving bitch pregnant," she released a small shaking sob.

Duke looked at her sympathetically. If only she knew how his brother had been after cutting her out of his life. But Vegeta was too stubborn and hard headed to forgive her for any mistake she had done with Tien. He frowned when Bulma halted and didn't move. Duke looked up and noticed why she had stopped.

Bulma's eyes darkened in anger and then went cold. "Duke, please let's go. I can't deal with him. Not right now," she whispered. She had spotted Vegeta coming towards her and his brother, and he was very near.

"Okay," Duke said as they began to walk quicker.

"What are you running away from, Bulma?" Vegeta taunted as she passed by. Bulma halted once again, and Duke shot him an unfriendly look, but Vegeta ignored it. "Did you involve my brother in your affairs too? Wasn't the horse keeper enough?"

Duke watched in consternation as her small hands fisted. Had she been up to it, she probably would've taken a swing at him. She had been through so much in the past few days; he knew that she was reaching a boiling point. She let out a slow breath and turned to look at Vegeta.

He was looking at her with an overbearing smirk on his face. It was all a mask though. She knew that he was hurt too, but she had offered to tell him all that happened and he had refused. "Why don't you run along and continue being Tamara's puppet? I have no time to waste with the likes of you," she said sweetly.

"Insolent bitch!" he yelled, taking a threatening step towards her.

"I rather be an insolent bitch than your fucking whore! Because that was all I was to you, wasn't I Vegeta?" She was a breath from screaming. "What I do now is none of your damned business. Besides, Duke and Tien are twice the men that you are," she spat.

Vegeta drew his hand back to strike her, but halted his hand in mid-air, watching as Bulma closed her eyes and braced herself for the blow that never came. No matter what she did, he couldn't bring himself to hurt her. "Go ahead Vegeta. Hit me. Break yet another one of your promises to me," she said as her voice cracked.

That comment hit him at the core; it hurt more than any of the others. He lowered his hand and then looked at her haughtily. "I won't lower myself to strike a woman, let alone you. You are not worth my strength," Vegeta growled, his voice full of malice. If she wanted to hurt him, he would hurt her back.

"And you are not worth the dirt she walks on," Duke growled as he stood in front of Bulma, putting a space between her and his brother. Bulma just stood back and looked at him with wide eyes; her pain momentarily forgotten.

"This isn't your fight, brat," he snapped. "I am your older brother, how dare you talk to me like that?"

Duke's green eyes narrowed almost into slits. "You may be my brother, but you have no right to speak to her this way. You had everything with this woman and you were stupid enough to throw it all away. If you weren't so fucking stubborn, then you would be able to open your eyes and see what you were losing," he almost yelled.

"I am going to forget all that you just said to me because you are my brother, but don't stand up for this woman. She doesn't deserve it," Vegeta growled as he looked at Bulma, who was glaring right back at him. Even angry she looked so beautiful.

"What I didn't deserve was falling in love with a low-life like you. You used me when I gave you everything, everything! And then you preferred to believe that bitch over me. You promised to protect me! I loved you, Vegeta, and you threw that love back in my face," she said sadly, not daring to let him see the tears that were threatening to spill.

"If you had loved me the way you said, those pictures never would've existed," Vegeta said dryly, willing to show no emotion, though he felt as if he was being ripped apart inside. Especially with that shattered look in her eyes.

"So that's what it comes down to. You are the most 'perfect' man in the world, never making a mistake, never doing something that you regretted later on, right?" she asked in all sarcasm. "Your name should be Vegeta the perfect," she spat. Duke let out a snort that was suspiciously similar to a smothered laugh.

Vegeta glared at him. "Of course I'm perfect, stupid woman. The only regret I have was bringing you into my life. I should have just paid for your hospital bill when I ran you down and left," he said coldly.

Bulma gave a pitiful sob and her eyes leaked with the pent up tears she had held in. Then she turned away from him and ran. Duke looked at Vegeta incredulously and shook his head. "How can you be so cruel to her? The only mistake she has done is love a bastard like you," he yelled before he ran off after Bulma. The last thing he wanted was for her to get hit by a car while she was so distraught.

Vegeta ran a hand through his hair in despair and watched Bulma go. The look on her face when he had uttered those hurtful words would haunt him forever. He had wanted to stop the flow of words, but his wounded pride had spurred him on. And for a moment, just a second, he had been happy to know that she had hurt as he was hurting at that moment.

He was about to go after her, to maybe apologize, but a hand wrapped around his arm and stopped him. Tamara smiled at him as she leaned up and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Lets go home, I still feel a little queasy from the morning sickness."

"You go, I need to be alone," he growled before he shook off her arm spitefully and walked off.

Tamara smiled. She had been present to all that Bulma and Vegeta had said to each other, but she had been stealthily hiding. God it felt good to win. Very soon her life was going to change and she would be at the head of all of Vegeta's corporations.

Soon she would have all of his money.

……………………………

A Week Later…………

Duke was working on reviewing some contracts when there was a knock at his door and someone walked in. He smiled. "How are you? How's my nephew or niece doing?"

"Shhh! Someone may hear you," Bulma said as she walked over to him and placed a kiss on his cheek. "I was taking a walk at the park that was around here and I decided to visit you before going to lunch. The baby is craving spicy Mexican tacos," she said as she rubbed her stomach.

Duke grinned. After her initial argument with Vegeta the day after she spent the night in jail, he'd had a rough few days trying to comfort her. He even thought that she had probably cried the whole week away. She was lucky that they had a very effective lawyer that had taken the time to actually get her out of two jams without making her stay too long in jail.

"Bulma, I don't know if it's wise for me to ask now. But have you thought better about telling my brother about his child?" he asked slowly.

"Please Duke, I don't want to talk about this right now. And I'll just go ahead and tell you why," she hissed. "After you left that night, and I stayed in jail, Vegeta somehow got in. we had another argument and I ended up telling him that I was living in Tien's apartment, and I even told him that we had started a relationship."

"What!" Duke literally exploded. "Bulma, I know that he hurt you, but how can you go about this so wrong?"

"Because he's marrying someone else! And maybe you have forgotten that she's pregnant too! Don't you dare tell me that I was wrong or petty because I won't take it from you! You are the only person that is helping me stay sane!"

Duke's face darkened into a scowl. "My brother, for the bastard that he was with you, still deserves to know that he is going to be a father. This baby was conceived before he even thought about getting with that woman. You shouldn't deprive him of his rights," Duke snapped.

"After all he has put me through. After shoving me out of his life and making me feel like shit, do you honestly believe that I will let him in on something as important as this? I told you already that this baby is mine and only mine. I have started to hate your brother more than what I hate my life, my past. And Duke, that is saying something. I will not stand here and argue with you about something that will not make me change my mind. When you become rational again, you know where to find me," she spat before marching out the door.

Bulma let out a shuddering breath, and to her immense misfortune, who did she come upon as she walked towards the elevator? That's right. Her eyes darkened as she saw Vegeta walking her way, and he looked honestly surprised to see her there.

"Oh get over yourself. I'm not here to see you," she snarled hostilely as she shoved past him and got into the elevator that had just opened.

Vegeta was even more shocked after her outburst, but he merely shrugged it off and walked into Duke's office. He wondered what had set of that wench.

……

Bulma bristled in repressed anger as she walked out of the Ouji corporations building. She hadn't wanted to fight with Duke like that, but her emotions and hormones were still on a rampage and she couldn't do anything about it. She would just call him later and apologize, hoping that he understood how she was feeling.

"Miss Bulma!"

Bulma turned and frowned. "Can I help you... Dr. Gero, right?" The old man nodded and took her hand to place a kiss on it. "How can I help you?" she asked.

"The other day I was at Vegeta's office, I accidentally overheard you arguing with his younger sibling," he said as he began to walk with her down the street.

Bulma stopped herself from glaring at the old man. "I don't want to talk about that conversation right now. I'm on my way to search for a job." Though she really was on her way to a less classy part of town; she had found a small but homely restaurant that sold the best tacos she had ever tasted. She felt more comfortable there without so many stuck-up rich snobs around her.

"I wanted to talk to you about something that is a tad delicate. Would you join me for a coffee so that we can have more privacy?" Gero asked.

She thought about it for a few seconds and then nodded. "Okay." They walked into a small café and sat down in a corner where there were no people. "So what is it that you want to talk to me about?"

"Are you sure that you have not met the Briefs'?" he asked as he examined her porcelain features and glittering blue eyes. She looked strikingly like………

Bulma shook her head. "I have no idea who you are talking about. I have been an orphan since I was three years old. I have no family," Bulma said dryly.

"Would you be interested in meeting them? They are very interesting people, and maybe they can see the family resemblance in you. Did you ever stop to think that you may have other family in the world?" he asked her sincerely.

Bulma blinked at his comment. No, she had never thought that she may have had uncles or aunts, or even other siblings! The possibility was somewhat overwhelming. "No-no. I had never thought about that. But there is no way for me to get to the states to visit these people," she said seriously.

"I may be able to help you there. I help you and you help me," he said with a pleasant smile on his withered face.

"In exchange for what?" Bulma asked curiously.

Gero sat forward. "I need a wife."

Bulma chortled. "I'm sorry," she said as she smothered a laugh. "I don't think I can help you with that," she said a bit more seriously.

"You would make a beautiful wife, Bulma."

"I am so not looking to marry anyone right now. Besides, we are people from two different words. You're rich and I'm very much poor now, and as far as I know, I always have been," she snapped. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but she kept quiet.

"I know what you're thinking. I'm far too old for you, and you're too beautiful—"

"I don't think I'm beautiful," she interrupted.

"But you are. You also think that you don't love me and that a marriage without love isn't worth it, right? But… I could give you everything you have ever wanted and more. I own a vast empire of making and selling diamonds aside from being a scientist. And I would be willing to share all my money with you," Gero said.

Bulma looked at him. "In exchange for what?" she asked as a waitress brought two coffee's over.

"A trophy wife."

"What?" Bulma growled as she stood and threw her napkin on the table.

Gero stood with her and put up his hands. "Let me explain myself, please," he said softly.

Bulma sat down and this time did glare at him. "I'm listening. But let me clear up something first. I am not a woman that lets herself be bought. Second of all, I have no interest in you as a man."

"I understand that, and when I said a trophy wife, I didn't mean for it to sound so cruel. There has been a rumor of me not liking women, and even though we live in a time where people are more open minded, I have to keep up a certain appearance. And the only way to solve that is for me to appear to have an interest in a beautiful young woman," he explained.

"You say 'appear' to have an interest in a woman. Are any of those rumors about you true?" Bulma asked slowly.

Gero took a sip of his coffee. "If they were, would it influence your decision?"

"So let me get this straight," and the word sounded ironic to her. "You really don't like women, but you need to take care of your public image, so you are willing to marry a woman," Bulma said slowly.

Gero nodded. "You can have all you want in exchange for acting like my wife. I have no interest in you either, but we would have to act in front of the cameras. You have to appear to be happy and very in love with me."

"I don't know, this all seems strange to me," she said quietly.

"This doesn't have to happen now. We will first interact. I can make you a model for my jewelry company, we can become friends for the media to see, and then I will ask you to marry me publicly," Gero smiled.

Bulma didn't know what to answer. Then she remembered just why she couldn't do it. "Mr. Gero. I would really like to help you, but at this moment I am in a situation that I cannot get out of, and I don't think you would want any part in it," she said quietly.

"Do tell, please!" he said seriously. Bulma shook her head. "There is nothing that I cannot solve Ms. Bulma," he said.

Bulma let out a heavy sigh. "Mr. Gero, I'm pregnant."

Gero's eyes widened in complete shock. He hadn't been expecting that to be her problem. He shook his head. "Like I said that is not a problem. Is the father of the child involved?"

Bulma shook her head. "He doesn't care about us," she lied.

Gero's mustache twitched in thought. "I would be willing to take your child in as mine. No one has to know that you fathered a child with someone else. They could just believe that it is mine."

Bulma thought about it. He was offering wealth and power. The two things she had never even dreamed of having. And he was basically offering these two things to her for free. In exchange for a fake image to portray to the media world.

"It doesn't have to be for the rest of your life. We can marry, you have the child, and a year or two later we can divorce. I will leave you very well taken care of and you are beautiful and young, capable of getting any young man of your liking." He made the offer sound so alluring…………

Her baby would grow up safe and healthy, not suffering and waiting for her to find something to buy him all the necessities that a small baby would need. Things that his rightful father should've been buying…… "I will do it on one condition," she said.

"Anything. Anything that you want."

"Help me destroy someone and I swear that to the media I will be the most lovable wife ever seen," she said softly.

"Deal," Gero said happily. "Now tell me child, who is it that you wish to destroy?"

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Duhn, duhn, duhn. Bulma is on a vengeance streak. What's in store for Veggie? And will Bulma go to the states to meet these Briefs people? I'm not telling you guys… Okay, thanks again for reading, and I hope that this chapter was worth the wait. I can't guarantee that I will update soon because I'm working on two other stories. I promise that I'll try to update 'The One' soon.

Shameless plug: I am currently writing a Harry Potter fic with Draco/Hermione as a pairing. They are in their last year in Hogwarts and something unexpected happens to their hateful relationship. If you like Harry Potter fics, go and check it out and let me know what you thought! It's under my other penname: jmalfoy

Have a great weekend!

!Joey!