Reviews are amazing! And the amount of favourites and alerts this story has got is blowing my mind :D
Thank you, seriously thank you.

I wish I could rewards you with an awesome chapter, but sadly this is mostly filler. However, I have got two other chapters that are ready for posting (I've been a busy writing bee) and they will be up in the next two weeks and will be very much so more exciting for you.
Hope you stick with me, and enjoy the chapter.
Xx

Previously; Lex bossed Chloe around at a boring social event/business contact making party. Chloe felt lusty feelings for Mr Queen. Lex was bossy and well... a bad man! Chloe made a deal with a slick stick of a dark man to work for Mr Chan (it's all very mysterious). Queen dragged her onto the balcony. Flirtacious banter. Pulses raising! Lustful eyes! :O And she agrees to three dates with Mr Queen and he drops her a sneaky kiss at the end. More banter with Arrow. (I enjoy my banter scenes). Sex with Lex in his glum mood, and then some violent puking the next morning to the all important question; Chloe: Pregnant?!

Chapter Fourteen; Making Arrangements

'It's a Latin name 'formositas falsus'; beauty that belies a dark nature'

'So even your plants have hidden agendas' – Lex Luthor & Clark Kent (Season Six, Episode Wither )

True to word, a pregnancy test was on her bed by the afternoon. Chloe rolled her eyes, there was no way Lex could ever step up as a parent. Not that she'd ever ask. She'd be the first to the abortion clinic as soon as she knew.

Was she pregnant?

No.

She had the implant as soon as she started dabbling in a sex life, the last thing she wanted was to bring a child into her world, there wasn't enough love surrounding her life to introduce something like a baby.

She ran through shadows and hid behind walls… babies weren't in her future.

Still, she went through the motions, giving Lex the definitive proof he needed. As expected it came back negative. Part of her was slightly upset, but it was for the greater good.

She sat herself on the bed and slowly something else began to creep forward. What if it wasn't Lex… what if it was-

Green Arrow came front and centre. She laughed it off, but the thought still stayed. The thought turned to a plot. If only she'd slept with him, she could pretend she was carrying his child. With a smile she took a laugh to her own genius. She didn't know how he'd react, but it would be one way to lure him out of the shadows, even to guilt him into his own parentage. Would he even step up to the mark? A tad cruel though… too much commitment and deceit for her liking…

Oliver Queen? Sure there was sexual attraction, sure she could see herself wrapped around the man… but he was an alpha male like Lex, he was business first, bedding multiple women second. He probably had some clause from his lawyers that automatically forced an abortion upon any of his conquests that were threatened with motherhood. That was just the way men like Lex thought. Queen would be no different.

She laughed pitifully at herself; her best chance for mothering was with a masked vigilante. A scoff left her lips and she left the entire idea behind her. She had overdone the alcohol, that's all. Lex had made this more than what it needed to be. Still, he had assets to protect, ensuring no child's life would be sucking his funds unless they'll been planned and written in a clause his lawyers could give him control of.

Tablets had soothed the stomach pains, toothpaste had obliterated the terrible taste, a shower had cured the general icky feeling but now she was filled with an emptiness. Lex gave her the day to move to the big city, and 'finish' some stuff. She supposed she should fill her day with things she may miss about the Luthor mansion. Plus, the high-handedness issue was grating on her a little.

With an idea in mind, she swapped the baggy clothes for a simple gym kit and hit the mats with a spare body guard, throwing punches to the padded targets he held high and low. Just as the sweat was building and washing away the tension, Lex appeared in the corner of her eye. She stopped violently and whirled to him.

"I took the test and like I said; I'm not." she hissed, the anger suddenly flooding her system again, the unexpected guard found himself bringing the pads back up again as she submerged herself in the exercise.

"As expected." he spoke, stood where he was before, not moving an inch at her outburst.

She dropped her punches again, in favour of turning to him with anger.

"As expected?!" she hissed. "You came in, making all these demands to protect yourself. If you expected this, you wouldn't have needed such demands." Lex nodded to the guard and he bowed himself out of the room politely.

"Merely a precaution. No offense was meant. You're taking this the wrong way Chloe."

"Damn fucking right I am." she muttered in disregard under her breath. Lex didn't even try to act like he heard.

"Before you leave, I need updates to Queen, I need a summary of where we are with Arrow and I need to discuss the terms of your leave with you."

"The terms of my leave?" she repeated. "We've already agreed I'm going to be in the city… you can't withdraw that because I don't agree to one of your stupid demands."

"Chloe. Drop the temper." he ordered with authority and boredom. She grated her teeth, but sucked back in her retort. Bart's words rattled around in her brain; just who was Lex when she got a clear look at him. Today she seemed to see nothing but annoyance from him.

"We'll discuss." she permitted. "They'll be an agreement that can suit us. As for Queen and Arrow, I'll give you a rundown of what I have in an hour."
Lex's instant reply was to tell her she'd do it now, not in an hour. But considering her current mood, he wisely stopped the words and turned out of the arena.

Chloe sighed, knowing he was giving her the hour out of kindness, when he could rather have just demanded she did it now. She smiled and met the confused guard as Lex sent him back in.

"Again." she declared to him and her fists went to his targets as they danced across the floor.

"Let's start with Queen." Lex called up to the balcony where Chloe sat with his books open, her notes on Green Arrow around her.

"It's already on your desktop and printed out." she dismissed with a wave and an edge of annoyance in her tone. Not that she was still mad at him, no, she was just focussed and thought she had something that was leading somewhere, interruptions were scaring the thoughts away.

Lex left her for the next few minutes while he scanned the paper copies and then the files on his desktop. It wasn't long before his lips parted again.

"Ch-"

"It's for the apartment." she answered, knowing his question. She'd put a link on his desktop for the video surveillance of his loft. "I know you'll just get someone else to get it otherwise." she elaborated, before he could ask why.

Lex raised an eyebrow almost approvingly, the girl knew him, that much could be said.

Of course, Chloe had the master surveillance software on her laptop, unbeknownst to Lex she could alter the feed if she wished for clandestine meetings in private. But that would not be in her report…

"Good." he praised very lightly. "Queen's papers are all here?" Chloe put down her pen and turned her attention back to Lex to explain what she had for him.

"Print outs include his finances for credit cards and for his business card. There's a report of a collective Queen Industries finance structure, input, output. From the cleaning crew to the CEO's new swivel chair." she mocked. "Staff rosters are as of yesterday including department, pay grade, years worked and family situation. I even took the liberty of following the recent news stories of Queen, but he's been away from his conquests for a while. It seems mostly about Green Arrow." she paused, looking down at her papers. "But, the rest are mostly self-explanatory. I can try another video feed bug from here, but he's probably looking for it, and I won't be able to successfully plant it for longer than an hour."

"That won't be necessary. I'm sure you'll be able to drop by in person."

"I won't be planting bugs for you though. It's highly suspicious if he suddenly takes a female to work and then finds a bug in his office…"

"Then either make it so he doesn't find it, or breach his security in some other way."

"Or, just trust me to do some snooping and I'll report back anything I find that's relevant." Lex accepted without much of a fight.

"And otherwise, you'll be keeping him busy?" he enquired seating himself on the edge of his desk, the finance report seeming to be more interesting that her answer.

"I caught his attention. I have a guaranteed three dates at the very least. That's more than enough to work with. He'll be so busy he can't breathe." she laughed lightly, her own eyes busy with the paper before her, rather than the conversation.

"Hm." Lex uttered, scanning the rest of the page with interest before putting it aside. "Three dates? When's the first?"

Chloe's attention took a few seconds to re-wire to speech from reading, but she replied as well as Lex wanted.

"Undecided, but tomorrow looks good."

"And Green Arrow, what progress do you have?" Lex's eyes focussed on Chloe though her thought had been captured by documents, only murmurs of vocalisation coming to his ears.

"I think I might have something…" Her lack of confidence in her results faded with each second though. She was almost sure she had something. "I was reviewing what we knew, and I think we may have something to work with." She looked back to her work, the words slipping free her thoughts. "Actually, I think I was going about this in entirely the wrong way." Her laptop screen flashed up a new document and she started mumbling away as it gained her attention.

"Chloe." Lex tried to call back her attention, but he ended up taking the stairs to see the genius in her working environment. As he got up there, he much preferred his place below where he saw no mess of papers spread out like a second floor over his mahogany.

"Look." And a single sheet of acclimated research was passed up to him. Lex sighed and glanced up and down, pushing the paper further and closer. Her handwriting was terrible when she was claimed by brilliance. He passed it back for translation. "Seriously Lex?" she questioned, looking at the offending paper he was giving her back. "You'd think by now you'd be able to read my handwriting." But she accepted the paper back to her pile.

"I doubt even a hieroglyphics expert could distinguish a message in your scribbling." he muttered, pushing a stack of papers further across so he could perch on the edge of the nearby table. "Do we have something or not Chloe?"

"Patience Lex." she reprimanded, squinting to figure out if her word started with F or E… maybe Lex was right about her handwriting. "Cold hard facts are limited, but work with me here." Lex rose an eyebrow, seriously considering the walk up here a waste of his time. "I asked myself what we knew."

She shuffled around to face him slightly, her attention still claimed partly by the laptop. "We know he's late 20's to mid 30's. He's a he. He favours bows, but modernises them to his liking." Chloe then let the new fact she'd learnt vocalise. "The style is almost identical to the 'dark archer' Vordigan. But, as Vordigan is dead, we could be looking at protégé or maybe even a relative. Son maybe."

"This is speculation." Lex interrupted in her natural pause. Chloe narrowed her eyes at him, but carried on unperturbed.

"He wears a voice distorter, so he's either in the public eye, or just over protective. He's had training and probably got himself a bored billionaire to support his activities in on the gig."

"Next you'll be telling me Oliver Queen is playing masked bandits with them to live out a childish fantasy of robin hood." Lex scoffed, standing from his place, finishing the conversation. Chloe raised her volume a little showing she was not finished.

"He works with a group, so he's not got any serious mental problems. He's not a psychopath, so he can be reasoned with. He's a team player and they've had a lot of practice. But he can still work alone, which is when he is best to target." Chloe paused, a fleeting look passed to Lex before she continued. "His crimes can range from saving people to destroying lives, he has no limits, but all of these crimes are done when he's alone, so he can be controlled when in a group."

"How does this help?" Lex asked, sceptical as always.

"Well, that determines the best time to strike. If he's alone we could be dealing with a lot of damage and no restraint, so it would be better to target him in a group setting… except we'd have to be able to manage the rest of the group to do it."

"That doesn't exactly help."

"It's better than nothing." she argued, pushing away one paper and reaching for another. Lex made to stop her before this took a trip into wonderland.

"Look, Chloe, th-"

"Let me finish." she interrupted, a glare to her eyes. "Another two minutes of your time, and then you can walk away." Lex sighed heavily, but sat himself back upon the table edge.

He motioned his hand, waving forward the damn hormonal female. "Alright, so, I put myself in his expensive leather boots. He'd need motive. It's not money, he may steal from the rich, but he isn't re-selling, despite the price tag on a few of these items. Maybe it's Vordigan passing down some principles of right and wrong, due to the nature of the items being black market."

"And my business he seems determined to take down?" Lex interceded. Chloe smiled.

"Revenge." she offered. "Maybe he had something taken from him, maybe some rich man came up living it up in a big mansion and his inbuilding grudge against these rich people combined with his new skills in theft have developed into some revenge plot in his mind."

"Guesses." he spoke. Chloe's eyes silenced his statement.

"So, I have my motive. Whatever it may be. But I need training for my bow addiction. I need my ammunition specially crafted. I want the best of the best, including a tailor to work with my sexual fetishes." Lex chuckled beneath his sigh. "I want the best voice distorter I can rely upon to hide my identity. I can flash the cash and not be questioned. I can hit in both daylight and nighttime, so I'm either unemployed and entirely supported by the billionaire, or, I have a flexible day job. Working from home maybe." she offered on the spot, her brain kicking up further into the ideas that swam. "This-" She handed a print out to Lex "Is a list of all registered archery ranges within two miles of any place where he's been sited. We're assuming he's local from the nature of the sightings and speed of response to the few crimes he does intercede. This-" Another booklet of papers found its way to Lex, followed by another sheet. "Is a list of places that train martial arts, and I mean ALL forms of martial arts, both private numbers and studios. And the last page is a list of expensive tailors within the same mile parameter."

"There's a lot here Chloe. You're wasting time."

"It's a shot. A shot that some names will match. I'll visit the high end places, ask for the best customer, best shot, weirdest requests, person flashing cash; the usual vigilante behaviour. And the lower end places will just experience a hack." She smiled, proud of herself.

"It's a long shot Chloe. Be prepared to come back with nothing."

"Until he strikes again, I don't have anything else to work with. For a man with a leather fetish, he's highly intelligent, and stupidly good at evading witnesses." Lex stood and she took place next to him, expecting some response. Her cheek received the slightest brush of his lips, but before she could turn to capture them he was already walking away, wishing her luck with her pointless endeavour.

Chloe sighed and sat back down with the papers. Was she missing something?

Her mind brought back something she didn't care to speak.

"The conditions Lex?"

"Oh, yes." He paused on the stairs. "I want to know every time you make contact with Arrow. Every time you see Queen and what happens. Where you go, when you are back. There will be security to escort you, you are not to drive." Chloe felt her anger make a re-appearance.

"How about this instead? I tell you when I see Arrow or Queen, and I tell you what is pertinent to you. You will not be digging into my date with Queen, I can handle him myself." she insisted. "I will be driving, but I will inform security when I leave the building."

"You'll come by the Luthor mansion every week to provide an update of progress and to finish any tasks I wish of you." he added.

"Acceptable, but I get to choose the day."

"You'll come when I request you." he corrected. Her scowl had him adding extra details "Or you'll stay here."

"Fine. It's acceptable."

"Sleep well Chloe." He wafted his hand in her direction and took his exit from the room silently. Chloe slumped down, exhausted, but secretly pleased she had no conditions that would restrict her too much. She needed to see Arrow again.

By night, Chloe was in a different bed, draining the last cup of coffee for the day and writing her essential notes regarding Arrow in her notebook. The kitchen was stocked and the security system was set up so with a push of a button she could loop it onto a blank feed. She sighed and paused her hand, she had a lot to do, places to visit, things to organise, but at current she could do nothing. It was peaceful in the quiet of the night, no-one yelling, no-one snoring, no noises of living. A gun rested in the top drawer of the bedside table, she didn't feel comfortable in the silence, strange considering how much she craved living alone. She thought of calling Bart, watching the latest action movie with him and eating pizza while discussing everything from the past. But… it just didn't seem right.

Chloe put her attention back to the notebook, listing the things she had yet to do.

Mr Chan would need her soon, he never was one to plan in advance, so she was putting him atop her list, her date with Queen below that. She needed to start visiting the tailors on her list, it was the best shot and smallest list, and then she supposed hacking the smaller archery ranges and martial arts centres for their client lists was another area to work on. With a sigh, Chloe scribbled out the rest of her list and snapped the notebook closed.

The bell chimed to signal Chloe's entrance to the quaint clothing shop. The shop assistant sat filing her nails, feet up on the desk. Must be a slow day. Then again, it was just ticking 10am.

Chloe smiled approaching the assistant and trying to forget her last encounter with an 'assistant'.

"Hi, you're website said you tailor custom jobs."

"Dad!" the woman called. From behind the staff door the grumpiest looking man came out. "She's asking about the custom job."

"I told you to take that off the website!" he grumbled to what Chloe presumed was his daughter.

"So you don't do anything custom?" Chloe asked.

"Not since some dip shit came in asking for a gimp suit." He scowled at Chloe's surprised face. "You're not after that are you?" he scanned her up and down, displeasure ripe across his features.

"No." she laughed under her breath. "I wondered if you worked with leather."

"Leather? What you want that for?" he sneered. "Probably some leather jacket with some crazy studs." he hissed under his breath. "No. I don't work with leather. Too annoying." The man huffed and turned away back to the back room.

"Just out of curiosity, have you ever done any leather jobs before?"

"No, and I don't ever plan to." he answered without even bothering to turn around. The door shut loudly in the silence.

His daughter quickly filled the silence.

"Sorry about Pa, he's got a stick up his ass. We do alteration though, you're pretty small, you probably have to get a few things altered don't you?" Chloe just smiled and thanked the assistant, mentally marking the store with a big X. "If you're looking for someone to do something with leather, I think there's this guy on 42nd street." Chloe paused, turning on her heels, taking out her paper of addresses. She had one on 41st.

"You mean Andrew's alterations on 41st?"

"Didn't say 41st, I said 42nd, and it won't be on any list. I overheard the gimp suit guy saying he'd be going to 42nd street as he left. I'm guessing it's one of those tailors that works out of their homes, spread by word of mouth, works with anything and everything. If you get my drift…" In other words, he specialises in fetish wear. Well, Arrow could be considered a fetishist with his love for leather. May as well check it out.

"Thanks."

"Welcome, don't forget to bring anything you need altering!" Chloe just waved and left the store. She guessed tactfulness was not something that ran in that family.

But now she had a lead.

She slipped in the back of the car, having chosen to let security drive today, and starting tapping into her phone's internet search engine to find a tailor on 42nd street.

An hour or so later Chloe found herself standing in the last shop on her list (Taylor's Tailoring; you've got to hand it to them for originality), having a bad feeling she'd need to scrounge for information on her 42nd street lead. If that didn't pan out… she'd be standing in square one again. The woman on the till tapped out a few more key strokes to the computer while Chloe looked around.

"Miss?" Chloe turned a few moments later, her hand on a light silk hanging from a mannequin. "I've got several forms for a lot of customs makes, but nothing in leather, I'm not sure if we do or don't."

"Is there anyone you can ask?" Chloe prompted, leaving the silk where it lay and returning to the desk.

"I could phone my boss." she offered. What was it with these shops leaving there assistants in charge? With a smile Chloe replied.

"If you wouldn't mind, I'd really like to find somewhere that would work with this job. It's for a play." she added on the end.

"Oh, how nice. Well, I'll ummm, I'll just have to be a few minutes. If you don't mind waiting." Chloe accepted the offer with a smile, keeping her fingers crossed this would be the last place. Hopefully a credit card, or a money trail, or a description of the man. Clearly it wasn't everyday someone walked in wanting a green leather outfit.

Chloe wandered back over to the rack of fabrics, settling herself in for another few minutes wait. As her hand touched to the silks once again she became aware of the sudden burst of vibration from her bag. With a curse she dropped the fabric and started the dig in her bottomless pit that was a bag.

If this was Lex he was pushing onto the boundary of over protective and reaching a new level of high-handedness. She could do her job damn it, he didn't need to phone the first day she left. She withdrew her phone, but the vibrations did not belong to her usual phone, it must be another contact that had her other number. Someone with information on Arrow?

No, she thought, her cheeks heating as she realised who it would be. Queen. Her hand dug faster, her pulse racing at the thought of her not finding it before he gave in. She cursed her thought process as she finally grasped the phone finding the number on the screen not one of recognition and summarising it indeed was Queen. Taking a deep breath, proving she was not in any rush to answer it, she put the phone to her ear.

"Hello."

"Well hello there gorgeous." She didn't know if the beam across her lips was because she was right, or just because he was on the other end, she ruled it as the first idea.

"I wondered when you'd be haunting my cell phone." But despite her words she smiled unknowingly.

"Well my plan was to terrorise your phone yesterday, but business seemed to dislike the idea of giving me time to date such an exquisite beauty."

"Business only likes the dogs of girls you usually date huh?" she teased, her fingers running over another fabric, her eyes on the back door the assistant was behind still.

Oliver chose not to reply to that, instead asking the question he rang to ask.

"So, are you free for me to take you out tonight?"

Chloe started words of an insult and a tease, but then she recalled the tailoring shops, she recalled 42nd street. Plus Lex would want some information about her day, if only an email. Besides, it was only day one.

"Tonight's not actually good for me." Her voice came out as apologetic and she instantly regretted speaking the words.

"Oh, com'on blondie, are you really going to make me call back every day? Because I will."

"I don't doubt that, but tonight is actually not good for me."

"Alright, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. How's your tomorrow look?" Clearly he was eager, and he wasn't giving in any time soon. And, if Chloe was truly honest with herself, she did want to see what he'd have up his sleeve for her. The sound of footsteps drew Chloe's eyes to the employee door as the assistant stepped back out. With a polite smile the assistant waited by the door, seeing Chloe was on the phone.

"Tomorrow sounds good." Chloe finally answered, caving to him and feeling a warm rush flood her body from doing so.

"Really?" Queen replied, shocked at the ease, he'd expected a little more fight.

"Really really." she repeated with a smile.

"Great. So, I'll pick you up from Luthor's castle of doom around 8pm."

"How about I meet you somewhere instead." After all, her instincts still kicked in, Queen was competition, he was business. Business could go south, competition could get ugly, it was always handy to not rely on said competition as your ride home.

"Whatever suits you, name any restaurant you want babe."

"Let's remember you insisted on the date, not me. It's your planning. You can just text me the details." Chloe noted how the assistant smiled hearing the one sided conversation. Better wrap it up quick.

"Alright, anything you don't like."

"Just make sure it serves good coffee." she laughed, ending the call and stuffing the phone in her bag. "Apologies." Chloe addressed the assistant.

"Oh, no worries, dating is hard." Apparently she spoke from experience. "I, ummm, I tried to call my boss, but she wasn't answering. I'm so sorry, I don't know if we can take on your job. I can phone you when I find out if you like, or you can call in tomorrow, she'll be working from here."

"I'll drop by, thanks." No point getting a phone call, besides she had a plan forming anyway. Chloe dropped a quick look at the main lock on the door and praised the stupidity of small businesses, this shop would have a night guest it seemed. Besides, people lie, accounts and records don't, well, not for a shop this small.

Chloe returned back to the apartment and started her telephone calls, finding as much as she could about Vordigan, seeing if anything else matched up. There were a few killings similar to the photo's Lex had tortured her with, but other than the arrows and costume there was very little else in common, which ultimately, made her link to Vordigan entirely useless. Vordigan had no accomplices in his work, no links to his real identity and therefore no idea of sons, but records of his death show the images of the weaponry being stolen while he was lying dead, surely a son would not need to steal them from a corpse. Chloe sighed, Vordigan's background was in a secret society with no known location, roster or identities. It was the definition of secret, and Chloe couldn't get her hands anywhere near it. Some things do really stay secret, she concluded. So, regarding Vordigan, she was at a dead end.

Chloe brushed her hands through her hair, the smaller pieces falling to her face first. Maybe she should cut it again, long had been her style for so long. Granted, it was mostly hidden by wigs or shoved into a bun or ponytail, but sometimes change was good. Then again, the only change she could make was either dye or cutting. Dye was too much of a reminder of her running days, and cutting it reminded her too much of her high school days. Neither was a memory she wanted to relive. So, she supposed she'd keep her hair long, maybe even grow it out. What was she going to do with it tomorrow, she mused internally. A date rarely called for hair shoved out of sight, and it was all about first impressions, well, second… no, third. With a quiet laugh to herself she mused before her mirror, playing with her hair. Maybe layers…

Her phone kicked up a fuss on the bedside table, a quick glance had Lex across the screen. A giddy voice told her to ignore it, a more sensible commander told her to stop being childish and answer it.

"Everything's going perfectly fine." she spoke upon accepting, anticipating his question and jumping ahead.

"You sound defensive." he noted.

"You sound accusing." she mirrored.

"I want an update on the progress." Like she said, Lex didn't believe in vacation days, her move to the penthouse was to do work, not relax.

"I started with his outfit." she began, wandering into the bathroom and staring at her reflection while she spoke. "There were only a handful of tailors that would work with leather, only a select few of those will do custom jobs. I searched their records and I am left with two possibilities." Chloe one-handedly fiddled with her hair, holding it up, then letting it down again. Up, and down. "One was unable to get me any records at the time, so I'm visiting them tonight." She grinned to the mirror, her hair up again. Up always looked to classy and elegant. A wedding style, not that she'd been to a wedding in a long long time. But up was also business-y.

"And the other?" he prompted.

"It's a word of mouth thing. Somewhere on 42nd street. I've got a contact to see who should know more." Then again… down always looked so much more… seductive. Previous men had always said they preferred her hair down, it gave them something to touch, something to dream of their hands in, messing it wild while kissing the life out of her. Maybe down would be better for her date.

"And Queen?"

"I have a date for tomorrow. One of your goons can drive me there if you like." she offered.

"That's acceptable. You'll phone me the morning after, I want to know the results of your 'research'" In other words, he wanted her to snoop around Queen's apartment and look for anything curious. She liked the confidence that she would be in his apartment on the first date, she liked the idea a lot. There's only one reason a woman comes back to a man's apartment after a first date, and as much as Queen seemed against it initially, she had her ways of getting what she wanted. "Wear the red dress." he instructed. Chloe stopped her hand in her hair… he was telling her what to wear now?

"I can dress myself Lex."

"As little as you value my advice, I am male. I'm simply offering some guidance in your endeavour. But please, feel free to choose whatever you feel is appropriate." As much as she hated to admit it, Lex was right, the red dress was the best, it showed everything needed in all the right places. The dress made men lust for her more than a lady of the night, a rouge lipstick on her lips and she'd knock Queen's 'no sex' rule out before he could even consider it. But… there was one small problem.

"And what do you want me to tell Queen about the scars?" The dress was mostly backless, just a few thin straps criss-crossing for elegance.

"Cover them."

"I neither have the time nor desire to keep that up. You do realise this is long term right?" she reminded him.

"Your father was abusive Chloe. It's nothing to be ashamed of." Her eyes narrowed and she turned away from the hatred staring back at her from the mirror. It was the story everyone got, the story that she hated telling, the one that physically hurt to tell. Her father was nothing but a good man. But she could hardly tell people it was Lionel.

"Let's not forget whose father is really to blame." she sneered down the phone.

"Chloe." The warning was clear in her tone. Play to the lie, or you won't play at all.

"I know." she hissed, finalising her point by jabbing her thumb at the end call button.

Her father! Her own father! Her father had never laid a hand on her, never done anything but love her. And she had to turn him into the same monster as Lionel to sell a story.

Her anger exploded inside her, her hand throwing the phone across the room, hitting the wall with a satisfying sound, she dropped herself to the cold tiles of the bathroom, taking long shaky breathes to calm herself again.

She wasn't an angry person usually, and if she was, it wore off quickly. It took less than a minute before she rose again, calmly walking to retrieve her phone and slide it in her pocket. She silently padded into the kitchen and poured herself yet another coffee, taking her time to sip from the mug, taking her time to repair what calm she had made for herself.

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Argh! So, I'm officiallly pissed with this lining system! I set it out all nice in word, and then I put it on here and it goes 'No, sorry we don't like what you've done with your convential ways of writing speech. Try this fucked up version instead.'
Which means I pretty much have to re-do everything I do when I upload. Grrrrr.

(Reviews make the writer work faster- proven statistic)
Xx