Chapter Three

Jasmine.

The meeting was silent yet felt so noisy. We had all come to the kitchen unintentionally and now it felt like a bomb was about to explode.

"Stop making it seem like we did a bad thing to you, Jasmine, that job of yours wasn't even fit for a woman of your status," Mom said the moment she walked into the kitchen and saw me.

And what was my status? No one seemed interested enough to tell me.

Ignoring her seemed like the best thing to do at that moment.

"Besides there's something else available for you here, much better," She took a sip from my cup of coffee, made a face that consisted of disgust and annoyance, probably because of the sugary taste of the drink.

"You never did learn how to prepare a proper cup of coffee with the adequate amount of sugar and milk."

I made a weird face at her the moment she turned her back.

"I can see that," The small smile on her face did not move an inch until Amanda and Charles came into the kitchen too.

Amanda held unto her head, "Why is everywhere so bright, those drugs aren't working," She complained while walking to the refrigerator.

"Maybe you shouldn't drink much when you know you have work to do," I muttered under my breath and rolled my eyes at her. She didn't hear me though but Charles did and he raised an eyebrow at me.

After my brief interaction with mom, I had momentarily forgotten about the reason I had come back to this place.

"Amanda," I called out.

"Hmmmmm," She replied. She was drinking a bottle of water and seemed like she was trying to drown herself in it.

"You made my boss fire me."

And the warm air that was once in the room became stifled and everyone tried their best not to look me in the eyes.

Amanda dropped the half filled bottle back into the refrigerator and turned to me, eyebrows raised.

"Yes?" She asked slowly like she didn't understand what the problem was. She was probably going to bitch about me to those stupid friends of hers and talk about how I was an ungrateful bitch.

"You made me lose my source of income and my home, my town, why?"

Amanda raised her shoulders up and down in a shrug, "Because that job was beneath our standards, honestly I wouldn't be able to cope working there," She used her hand to fan herself like she could faint at that moment.

Always the dramatic one.

"Well you weren't the one working there, you little devil......."

"It's enough," Charles shouted, he must have gotten tired of the whole fiasco but that didn't give him the right to talk to me the way he wanted to.

I was about to give him a piece of my mind but a quick look at mom made my mouth dry up.

"Jasmine, I assure you that Amanda didn't mean any harm. We needed you out of that job so you can start a new one, a much more better and respectable job," She started, her fingers moving upwards to her forehead to massage it.

"And what would that be?" I asked, I could feel most of my anger deflating at the mention of a new job.

Taking that job meant much more money but I would be under my mom's belt and debt. I wasn't sure I wanted that.

"A job with your favorite interior designer, you always talked about her when you were much younger and now that I know her a bit, I said why not get Jasmine a job with her," Mom continued, her smile grew bigger with each words.

My favourite interior designer. The famous Lana. I didn't even know mom listened when I rambled on about her and everything she did.

"Of course I listened, what kind of mother do you think I am?" She snapped at me.

I didn't know I had been talking out loud. But this was too good to be true, there had to be something attached to it.

"It's a thrilling opportunity Jasmine," Charles added, thereby ruining the moment. I had forgotten others were here and it wasn't just my mom and I.

"But one you'll only get if you do something for us," He continued, his eyes were fixed on mine firmly, his way of telling me I had nowhere to run to or something.

My mom refused to meet my eyes at this point and Amanda just couldn't stop smiling.

"What's that?" I asked, already dreaded the answer I was about to hear.

Would it be worth the job mom had found for me?

"Just something little, you know my political aspiration and how I plan to be the president soon," Like anyone in the family could forget, it was all he ever talked about.

"Well my rival is much more powerful than I am and would win if I didn't do anything to stop him."

"What does your political aspirations have to do with me?"

Charles sighed deeply, "This guy is a family guy, that's one of his strategies. He shows everyone how much he loves his family and how far he would go to protect them........"

I grew tired of listening to him talk about how perfect his rival was and I was ready to move out this very moment. Was this the torture I would have to go through because I wanted to work with my idol.

Listen to Charles Castor speak all day.

"... The thing is that dad wants you to get his rival to cheat on his family, his wife and kids," Amanda shouted over her dad's voice. It seemed like I wasn't the only one tired of listening to him talk.

"Woah woah woah, and how do you expect me to do that?" I asked, turned to my mom who was insistent on avoiding my eyes.

"Well you have to seduce him of course," Charles said with a shrug.

"Excuse me."

I had to seduce a man that was probably old enough to be my father and break a family up. There was no way I was going to do that. I didn't follow politics that much but even I knew the man wouldn't be as cruel as my stepfather, he deserved the win more than him.

"I can't do that, I just can't. Get someone else to play your dirty game Charles," I shouted, my gaze was fixed on him so I knew what he was doing.

Smiling. They had me cornered.

"Mom," I turned to the only person I knew could save me now.

She wasn't avoiding my eyes anymore now but rather faced me directly.

"I understand you feel like what we're doing is cruel but you're the only one that can do this, Amanda is already well known as his daughter and she wouldn't be able to sneak incognito like you, you avoided everything that would link you to this family like something dreadful..," She tried to explain to me but honestly I wasn't going to have it.

"And what about sex workers and even the red haired girl I saw in Charles office, they're not related to him so why can't anyone of them do it?" I interrupted, satisfied with the way Charles nostrils seemed to flare up at the mention of the red haired girl.

Mom flinched at that but continued, "We need someone we can trust and I promise you my dear, once you're done with this task, we're out of your life forever," She added the last part like an afterthought but I knew she meant it.

"Well I didn't know avoiding everything about this family would hunt me in the long run," The words came out of my mouth sarcastically and I rolled my eyes.

"I knew it would," Amanda said jokingly, she even added a little laugh at the end like we did when we were younger and still friends.

I ignored her.

"So I just have to seduce him and everyone would know he can be seduced from his family,"

The sound of Charles laughter have always been melodious but now, it sounded like nails scraping a wall. Harsh. Causes ear issues.

"You have to seduce him, have sex with him and get it on audio and video, get him to confess his plans, show him to the entire country," Charles said, the wicked smile of triumph spread on his face.

"What? It'll be like a live porno then. Everyone would see it," I tried to explain it to them.

"Of course. That's the reason why we're making you do it"