Trigger Warning:

- The chapter title gives away the biggest one: torture

- Marie Antoinette syndrome

- mention of miscarriage

- poison

- alcohol abuse

- emotional abuse

- physical abuse

- psychological abuse

- verbal abuse

- blood

- crude language

- heavy guilt

It has been four days since I came out of the hospital.

Four days since the day I willingly almost died.

Four days since I became the sole heiress of the Hanada Group of Companies.

Ah, this is quite nice …

I am of the-ends-justify-the-means mentality. So letting myself be on the brink of death just to see Hanada-sama's hair turn white seems like a good deal. I look at him closely. He retains a few strands of dark hair, but the rest has turned white. I could almost believe that I do not have to kill him myself; his mental health will do it for him.

Almost.

During my tenure as a spy, I have learned to leave as little as possible to chance. Hanada-sama has taken a massive blow. That is true. The shock will kill him. That is chance. And the fact that he has called me into his home office is all that I need to know that I will have to take matters in my own hands.

He busies himself with pouring a glass of sake. I seize this chance on reflecting the events leading up to this meeting.

When my eyes opened, they were met with the harsh glare of hospital lights.

My body ached, and I let out a groan. The nurse heard me, called in the doctors, did a thorough check-up, and told Hanada-sama that he could speak to me.

A normal process to any outsider. However, I recognized these faces. After All for One's arrest, I made a note to memorize the nurses and doctors who treated me. I went as far as to bribe them for their secrecy. These people were the same medical professionals from that time. Their glances which lasted a second too long were confirmation that they remembered me, too.

I did not get a chance to ask them because Hanada-sama entered the ward and requested privacy. So I asked him instead.

"This cannot be a coincidence that the exact same team from my last visit to the hospital is the same one treating me this time. How?"

To my disgust, he came over and embraced me. His emotionless tone relayed that he felt the same. "The news has spread. Reporters will come at the doors any second now. Pretend." He pulled back a little to give me a false smile.

Just because of that I continued to play along. Though I managed to plaster an artificial smile like him, my cold voice rivaled his. "How?"

Hanada-sama ran his hand down the length of my hair. I waited for him to pull on it and turn it into a noose."You and my sons were attacked in your bedroom, Selene. I had to take precautionary measures. And it is a good thing I did. Sending you to the same hospital, having you treated by the same staff … they told me you had a miscarriage. Again. Signs of assault, too. You bribed them last time; I kept their mouths shut this time. The fewer outsiders that know you are a prostitute, the better."

"The father must have been your eldest son," I hissed. "He graced the bed the most and never used a condom." Then, as an afterthought, "By the way … how are they?"

He paused for a long moment before telling me they were dead. It was the first time I heard some true emotion from him. I did not believe that the tears he began to shed were fake like him. For some reason, seeing that display stung. After my fifth birthday, he was so unapproachable to me. I believed him heartless and cruel. But now, he has the audacity to cry so openly in front of me. You mourn your bloodline, yet you never mourned what you did to me. Such humanization from him … it revolted me.

Tampering down the curses I wished to spew, I spoke in the same unfeeling tone as before. "What else happened?"

I am getting the answer to that question today.

He told me to worry myself with keeping quiet around the nurses and doctors until I was ready to be discharged. I did as I was told, in the hopes that I would learn about the outside world. I would learn whether my predictions were correct.

Here I am, waiting for him to finish pouring his ridiculous drink, so I can.

What if I mixed poison in his alcohol? Slow or fast poison? Angel's trumpet is fast-acting. Small quantities works as a narcotic. Larger quantities cause the bladder and kidneys to cease functioning, ultimately leading to death. Or aconitum. Commonly known as wolfsbane. The Greeks coated their arrows and spears with this flower just before battle. Also a quick poison.

The idea of giving an instantaneous, painful death is enticing. Then again, instantaneous. It is far too kind for someone as filthy as him.

Slow poison is the better route. Little at a time, until the toxins accumulate in the blood. Foxglove is a classic. It increases heart contractions, affects heart rate, and raises blood output. Killing Hanada-sama by giving him arrhythmia is not so bad. But it is not painful enough. Hmm. What about nightshade, instead? Perhaps, devil's trumpet. Also known as datura or moonflower.

I recall one of Shouto's nicknames for me: Moonflower. It is a lovely nickname. He chose it because of the direct translation of my name. Because of the flower's unmistakable association with the moon. Definitely not because the flower is a poison. A powerful hallucinogen. A potent source of respiratory and heart problems. A slow, agonizing death.

There is a rule in medicine: good or bad, anything consumed in too much quantity is toxic to the body. The same principle applies to these flowers. In sufficient amounts, they help alleviate the problems of the human body. Too much, and they hurt instead. I look at the sake Hanada-sama swirls around in his hand. I wonder if I can apply that principle toward him …

He sits down behind his desk. Glass in one hand, bottle in the other. The only other seats are the ones in front of the desk. Cautiously, I sit in one of them.

"This is going to take a while," he instructs. "Don't go anywhere until I am finished."

As if you would let me.

Finally, I get what I waited for. Between the occasional sip, he narrates the events that occurred over the past seven days. Obviously, with no son, there would be no wedding. That did not mean that both families ended all relations between themselves. That would have made for a terrible public image. Both Hanada-sama and the former bride's family have decided to highlight the fact that because of the League of Villains, there would be no marriage. Garner public sympathy, is their strategy. An effective one, I would say. Scandals like this do not hinder sales or election results; rather, the scandals boost them. Being the only survivor of that incident, I will be the face of that strategy. As I had hoped, I would be meeting with the Hero Commission Board soon. Then the Pro-heroes. Then legislators and business partners.

First, there will be a broadcasted funeral immediately followed by a press conference with the media; I do not mind that so much. But what Hanada-sama says next certainly piques my interest. "Two days from now, my lawyers are coming to the manor. You will have to sign some documents."

I narrow eyes. "What sort of documents?"

"Property transference. Inheritance rights. Assets authority. Essentially, my will. I do not have any family to pass on my decades' worth of effort to. You, Selene, are the scion of the Hanada Group of Companies."

There is no description for the emotion I am experiencing right now. That declaration … that acknowledgement … For years I was a pawn. A toy that Hanada-sama passed around to keep the men he was interested in partnering with happy. But now I have power. The way that he spitted out the word scion … so repugnantly, as though it physically pained him. A shudder of pure satisfaction courses through me.

A prostitute turned billionaire. Quite the promotion. Perhaps it is the delight that makes me glee, "Say it again. What am I?"

A vein threatening to pop in his temple is all the warning I get before Hanada-sama raises his hand to slap me. Unfortunately for him, I halt his action midair. My hand encircles his wrist in a tight grip.

I whisper, "Land that blow, and it will hurt you more than it will me. I suggest you take care of how you treat me from this day onward. Eyes will be watching everywhere now."

To emphasize my point and to satiate my own ego, I toss his hand aside like a rag.

It clatters against his partially empty glass. The glass topples over, letting the alcohol pour out onto the floor. He emits a sound of frustration before calling for a servant to clean up the mess. It takes some time to remove the stain. Neither of us say a word until the servant leaves.

I thought I had rendered Hanada-sama speechless. I was wrong. The instant it just the two of us in the office again, Hanada-sama rises from his chair to dig his fingers into my face. "Don't get cocky, Selene. I know you had a hand in their deaths. I just don't have the proof, but I will find out." I watch him pull out a kitchen knife from his desk drawer and rest it against my throat. Déjà vu hits me. We have been in a position like this before. That time, I remained unscathed, save for a slap, an aching finger, and a subsequent rape. I have leverage, now.

"No matter what I say, you will believe me a liar," I murmur. "So fine. Search all you want. Hire the best detectives in the world. Prove that I contacted the League of Villains and orchestrated your children's deaths. The evidence - or lack thereof - will prove to you that I am innocent. But until then …" I latch onto his wrist again and pry his fingers from my face. "You must impart your knowledge of business to me. I am all you have left."

He learns his lesson this time. Withdrawing the knife, he sits back down and downs a large portion straight from the bottle. Very unrefined for someone like him. Then again, I have a way of chipping away at the mask Hanada-sama wears in front of the world.

"Before that," he grits out. "There is something else we must discuss. While you were hospitalized, two things happened. Do you remember you once told me that I no longer had to keep tabs on my former business partners from England? Well, they contacted me this time. Actually, their families did because I learned … THAT ALL OF THEM WERE KILLED!" The bottle vibrates in place from his roar. For a long time, neither of us say a word. We let the accusation hang in the air.

Then, I break the silence. Feigning nonchalance is my best option. "They're dead?" I parrot cluelessly. "Cannot say I lament their loss."

"Don't play games with me, Selene!" he hisses. "Every businessman, politician, hero, legal officer, and influential person that made contracts with me were murdered. Their bodies were found in their homes, killed in various brutal manners. There were only three commonalities: the first, all of them had a corrupt past which were published into the newspapers; the second, their bones were shattered prior to death. The last commonality is a secret: you. All that blackmail I accumulated on them was a waste. There is no way their murders were a coincidence. My phone would not stop ringing with calls from their families, pleading with me not to release the material about your involvement with their dearly departed because of my children's deaths and your critical condition."

I scoff internally and externally. It took you this long to notice? What a shame. What a shame that I had planned for this eventuality. "And do you remember that Pro-Hero who you let rape me just months after we settled here? Scorpion, if I recall correctly, was the name you told me. I was also his dirty little secret. After his missing report was filed, I thought you would have investigated England, too. The fact that I knew about the murders there long before you did … you disappoint me Hanada-sama."

Perhaps to reign in his anger he downs another gulp. "Which is exactly why I'm confused. The timing of the murders there and Scorpion's disappearance do not make sense. In fact, so much time has passed, I believe Scorpion to be dead. It is physically impossible for the same person to kill in two countries on opposite ends of Eurasia at the same time. No one besides them, you, me, and my sons knew about the prostitution. So how?" He looks at me contemptuously. "Unless …" he drawls. "You did something."

I choke on my own saliva in surprise. After I recover, I gasp, "What?"

"It has to be you." He is no longer speaking directly to me. His thoughts are manifesting into words from his mouth. "It all makes sense." Hanada-sama catches me off guard when he slams the now empty bottle against the edge of his desk. Shards of glass shatter from the impact. Fear instinct urges me to clench the armrests of the seat. I should have resisted it. Because Hanada-sama buys the chance to climb over the desk like a rabid animal and pin me against the backrest. I thrash in his grip and claw at his face.

The jagged ends of the broken bottle presses against my neck. I cease my fighting.

"The alcohol has made you lose your mind," I warn. "This is the second time you've gone for my throat."

"No, Selene." He pushes the bottle further. I feel the skin break, and the blood start to bead. "The alcohol is making my mind clearer."

"How so?"

I regret the question as soon as it leaves my mouth. Because Hanada-sama brings up the one person I did not wish to involve in any conversation with him: Shouto. He snaps at me. I learn that Shouto came to visit me the day I was hospitalized. He revealed that we were friends; Hanada-sama revealed that I did not save his number. "So …" With another press, the blood streams down my neck. The mauve of my dress shirt stains to an unappealing shade of brown. And I really liked this shirt, too. Now I have to handwash this the way I do underwear stained with period blood. "Why did you keep this a secret from me? Do you have any idea how we could have benefitted from this a long time ago?"

"You," I correct. "How you would have benefitted from this. I remember distinctly you told me that you would investigate the family dynamics between Endeavor and his family. His son and I befriended each other at the start of the school year. I knew that you wanted me to take advantage of him because of his status and connections. Through me, you wished to manipulate him to achieve your own business goals.

"I refused to do that. I have already experienced what it is like to be manipulated by you; I vowed that I would not let anyone else share the same fate.

"Why did I hide this from you, you ask? Because he was the first genuine friend I made. He did not know of my past or of what I did. He treated me as an actual human being, deserving of love and respect. As for his contact information, he inputted it into my phone. I memorized it and deleted it soon after because that would have given you another medium to exploit both of us by."

I had not meant to say all that. I should have given another explanation. One devoid of feelings and full of logic. Yet here I was, letting myself be overcome by my love for him. I should stop now. But I cannot. It all comes pouring out. How he knows that I am traumatized but does not shame me for it. How he enjoys my company and encourages me to do the things I like. How he is an infinitely better person than the man the world claims is my father.

Hanada-sama grows angrier with every word, fueling my determination to push him over the edge. That is a careless mistake. Just before I am halfway finished with my next statement, he swipes the bottle against my throat. I barely manage to avoid having my arteries cut. "SHUT UP!" he howls. He braces to hurt me again. I push him off me and dodge his attack. Within the sparse seconds he stumbles back, I run toward the door. I am too slow.

He catches my hair in a tight grip. My eyes sting from the pain. "WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!" he shouts into my ear. I flinch and reach behind me to scratch his arms. Utterly useless. Veering by my hair, he tosses me into the wing of his office reserved for private guests. I am thrown onto the couch, and he pins me in place by my arms.

My voice comes out scarcely audibly. "W-W-What are you d-doing?"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" Each command is punctuated with a shove into the cushions. They are so powerful, I fear I may get a concussion. That too after I just got out of the hospital! "What do you think of yourself, huh? You refer to him as Endeavor's son; he calls you my daughter. Do you take me for an idiot?" Yes. "Do you think that he will treat you the same if he learns who you truly are? No one likes promiscuous girls except in the bedroom. Not as friends, and certainly not as romantic interests."

You are not telling me anything new, I want to scream at him. Everything you are saying right now are facts I have repeated a thousand times.

So why does it hurt so much to hear them from another mouth?

Against my will, I begin to cry. This seems to be the only sound he wished to hear from me. He grins cruelly. I feel him pull at my hair again, ripping the calla lilies adorned in it. "Tell me something, Selene. Are you more than just friends with him?"

My weeping pauses just long enough for me to stammer what he means by that statement.

"Did you touch him? Kiss him?"

He wipes new drops of blood with his bare finger.

"Or did you fuck him?"

That last question reverberates in my head one more time. The way an executioner announces the crimes and death sentence of the convicted. However, I am being wrongfully accused. Something inside me shatters. Hanada-sama does not notice and continues. "Did he initiate the physical relationship, or did you? I think it was most likely you. Tired of sleeping with the men I told you to, you must have decided to rebel against me by choosing a partner of your own choice. And he must have repaid you by somehow assisting in those murders. That's why you praise him so much. Say, Selene … how about we make a deal? You bring Todoroki Shouto's support to me; I let you bring him to the manor where you can fuck him to your delight. No one will-"

I cannot take any more. Fury blazes my mind, enveloping everything that I can see in flames. It is the first time my anger has taken the form of fire. It may burn me, too. I am fine with that. If it means that I will have to hear these scarring words no more, then I am fine with that.

"ENOUGH!" I shriek. My tears fall harder. I do absolutely nothing to keep them at bay. "Not another word about him. You've gone too far, Hanada-sama."

He has the audacity to smile even wider at my misery. "Why? Does that mean you haven't fucked him? I'm impressed, Selene. More than a year has passed, and my little prostitute has not jumped him? Then how else did you get him to kill?"

I shake my head in shock, derision, disgust, and a thousand other emotions. "Have you lost your mind?! The killer is dead! It was a woman, and her corpse was found at the explosion of the Phoenix mafia. Why would Endeavor's son, an aspiring Pro-hero, plot murder?! And how would he have accomplished that in a foreign country?! How would I have assassinated them when I have been in Japan the entire time?! When I am trapped beneath you!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" he roars. "I have no proof, but I know for sure that you were involved in those deaths. It was impossible to do it alone, so you had partners. That woman was one of them; Todoroki Shouto was the other. One way or another, I will find out!"

My hatred bubbles to the surface. I hope he sees it.

After that initial flare of anger, it turns into ice. It manifests as a low-pitched, dangerous tone. A challenge to incite the ire once again. That is what I imagine I sound like right now. Quiet, level, and lethal. "If that woman were alive, I would wish that she kill you."

A crack appears in Hanada-sama's leer. He releases me and climbs off the couch. Hesitantly, I do the same.

Voice carefully devoid of emotion, Hanada-sama gives me four tasks: arrange a meeting between him and a top businessman, a prominent scientist, a famous police officer, and Todoroki Shouto. If I can do that, he will teach me the systems to his empire.

"Oh, and one more thing," he adds as an afterthought. "Don't heal the wound on your neck. We'll use it to harbor sympathy during the funeral."

I leave without responding.

Once in the bathroom of the bedroom, I unbutton my shirt and wash it under the bathtub drain.

It has not been that long, but the stain will not come out by itself.

Much like how it has not been long since I have become the sole heiress, but my life has become unimaginably worse.

I thought the torture would end once they were gone.

I thought that things could not get any worse.

But expectation often denies reality.

Just when I believed that Hanada-sama could not fall any further, he proved me wrong.

Nightmare Shouto's face manifests in my mind.

How could you? he accuses.

You used me.

All those embraces, all those kisses, all those adorations were a lie.

No, they were not, I argue.

They were sincere.

I love you.

Please believe me.

He shakes his head and disappears.

I lean against the rim of the tub and cry all over again.