Disclaimer: I don't own Hey Arnold.

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Chapter 2:

"Come sit Helga, my sweet dear." Helga's grandfather said while smiling sweetly. Helga looked into his face and noticed the added etches of lines in his eyes. He was reading the newspaper while drinking his coffee. The smell of it awoke her immediately. His plate was already full of food. She tried to snatch a bacon but he just swatted her hand away.

So that's how you're gonna play, huh? She peered at his face closely. "You know you're gonna bankrupt our company for those Botox injection you squirt into your face. It doesn't even work." she said, nonchalantly.

He grimaced. But suddenly, he was smiling again. "Why, good morning to you too, Helga." he said, in his most sweet, syrupy voice that he could only achieve despite the fact that he's old and a male. It terrified her. It was like watching an angel turning into a devil.

She sat in a chair farthest away from him. "So, what's the business today, old man?" she said, propping her elbows into the dining table. s\She reached out for a piece of bacon in his plate and opened her mouth. He glared at the girl, daring her to bite it, so she did. He shook his head while smiling. She smirked victoriously while chewing the bacon.

"Direct to the point as usual." His tone an octave lower as he plunged into their world. Their business world.

"You do know that I trust you with the company, right?" he said with a smile. Helga raised an eyebrow at this. What is this old man scheming? He chuckled, deep resonating sounds rumbled from his chest. "I just wanted to know how much you want, no, need, to have this company under your hands." he continued, smiling like the Cheshire cat.

She shivered involuntarily as she chewed on the piece of bacon. He's just gonna continue this until she bit the trap. She smirked. No way was that gonna happen.

"What do I have to do?" Helga asked frankly. He smiled again. Hmm…success. He bit it. Lure him into thinking that he got me then attack from within. It's a common knowledge for business tycoons.

The old man laughed. "You do know that I was the one who taught you that tactic, my sweetness. So don't think I wouldn't have noticed it." He said. Helga plastered a smile on her face, the perfect granddaughter face that she had mastered over the years.

"Why, of course, grandfather." she replied, with the same sweetness he had used before, throwing it unto his face. "I would never forget those times when you were so hellbent on teaching me everything in our world." she continued, sarcasm dripping heavily on my words. She gasped mockingly. "This just prove that that I need the company. I obeyed you. Oh, the horror." she said as she dramatically put her hand onto her chest.

Helga's grandfather's eyes twinkled as he chuckled and she smiled inwardly. Their usual bantering started their day again. This is their relationship. Their amusement. The thing keeping them sane while they trudge the world of business with dark secrets desperately clinging onto their hearts. Gripping it until they feel themselves slipping away from the real world. It's the chain that prevents the monsters in their hearts to be unleashed.

It's not normal.

She knows her grandfather. He didn't came up all this way without dirtying his hands. He also know her. Knows that she have been escaping to dreamland with blades. Knows the tissues in the trash stained with blood that she didn't even bother hiding. Knows that she still cry herself to sleep as she woke up from another nightmare. She would just sat there, staring at the air with tear streaks in her face and, suddenly, she would just feel a warm pair of arms hugging her. The hug wasn't reassuring, it's a pull to reality. That no matter what you do, it will still hurt so just face it head-on. They were each other's prison, keeping each other sane.

To normal people, they're just a cute pair of grandfather and granddaughter bantering. John said they were like Tom and Jerry, luring each other with moronic traps. But at the end of the day, never getting something from it. Now that's where he's wrong. They got something at the end of it.

Self-satisfaction.

Yes, besides the dark usefulness it presents to them, there's still a bit entertainment from it. The satisfying feeling they get when they outwitted the other party. The sadistic feeling they have when they know that the other is already defeated but still won't back down as he/she fumble for words. They smirk, put on a smug smile as if they're squeezing lemon juice into his/her already wounded pride.

But they never really got to know who won at the end of the day. They're Cecaniahs. They never really back down. Others would reprimand them for their behavior, if they have the heart, but the grandfather-granddaughter pair don't really care. It's sort of like…bonding. Yeah, that's it, bonding, in form of chains. It prevents them as well as entertain them. Ironic, huh?

"—Hillwood and-" Helga snapped her head at the word, all her other thoughts vanishing. "Wait, what did you say?"

Her grandfather sighed. "Obviously, you're not listening." He looked at her and noticed the look on her face. He reached up for her hand, calming her down "Helga—"

She swatted his hand away and stood up rather brashly. "Calliver Kean Cecaniah, what is the meaning of this?" she asked harshly. To heck with staying calm! He knows what happened there and also knows that she's not gonna involve herself with it. If this is his test, then there's no way she's gonna—

"Helga, sit down." he said in a voice she knows well. It was harsh and cold. He wasn't the grandfather she was bantering with awhile ago; he is already the man who is commandeering his employer. For a second, Helga got a glimpse of what her grandfather was. A cold-hearted man who would do anything to be on top, even if disowning his only daughter. Yes, he disowned Miria—her mother. Because she married someone who is at the lowest of the low scum of a bastard. A low-class man who would be willing to do anything for money.

Just like him.

He was terrified that his daughter would make the same mistake that her mother did. Marrying someone who would do anything to get what he wanted even if that means staining his hands. He saw too much of himself in Bob Pataki and was so afraid that he reacted the worst way a father would to his child, disowning her. This was the reason why Helga hadn't known that she has a grandfather until that unfaithful day. The reason why her mother would froze every time she questioned about it. Calliver Kean Cecaniah was not a man to be messed up with.

Helga slowly obeyed her grandfather's words, breathing air as if she would die if she were to stop. She forced herself to calm down. When she's assured that she was already capable of talking, she stared at her grandfather.

Calliver easily stared her down, already used by the intensity of her shocking blue eyes. But, this time, he found it harder to not squirm under her intense gaze. He looked unto these blue marbles and found himself. This kid has too much of my blood.

He hesitated and Helga noticed this. She may rather die than to go back in that place but she was not one to back down. Calliver saw this as the fire in her eyes intensified. He was jaw-slacked for a moment but recovered himself. Sometimes, he would just see Miriam in his granddaughter. Of course, she is her daughter, but the fire that Calliver saw just now was the same fire that held his deceased daughter's eyes when she told him that she's gonna marry that bastard. Calliver panicked.

He was not one of the people who believe in fate. But by some reason, he would just have to change that. He would not lose Helga like he did with Miriam. He's gonna… gonna let go if needed. He's gonna be the grandfather she never had so… he's gonna let go.

Helga stared at his grandfather as his eyes got in a milky daze, something that hadn't happened in awhile. The last time she saw that was when she won a multi-million deal for his birthday present. His eyes were clouded, almost looked reminiscent, like he was in his own world. It scared the hell out of her. That was the night she learned the truth from her grandfather, about what he did to Miriam. He sounded so determined at the same time, so pitiful. At the end of his revelation, he flinched back as if waiting for her to strike him. But it never happened. Helga just shrugged and said that she would do just the same.

Now, it's happening again. But this time, there was no holding back in his eyes, only determination. Helga braced herself as her grandfather opened his mouth.

"Helga, you're going back to Hillwood."

A/N: Review please.