Chap-1*Gangbang In Public*

Phoenix's POV:

Life is a never-ending battlefield for some people. And a battered teenager like me has become an easy target for this hungry world.

It's been years since my father checked up on me or my mother, and now that my mother is dead, he's pleaded to be my guardian.

Darn you, 18; I wish I was 19 already. I will inherit my mother's wealth when I am 20 years old. But in the meantime, I will have to suffer while living with my father.

After my mother’s passing, things turned dirty for me. My past didn’t help either, and I had to travel this long way to settle into a house with a lady who had wound down my parents' marriage. As I reached the town, my eyes gleamed at the sight before them. I craned my neck outside the cab and felt the icy wind playing with my skin. It was beautiful out there. I drew in my breath when my eyes picked out my father, old and weary. Do you know what it feels like to have to live with someone who's already kicked you out of their life? It's an ugly feeling. My body rocked a little as the car came to a halt. I knew this was a great time to put on a fake smile.

"Hi, Nightingale." My father greeted me while he hurled up my packs. I lowered my head to avoid hitting my head after I ventured out of the car.

"It’s Phoenix, really," I answered, scorn taking over my face, but it was less viable as he appeared to care less.

His silence had messed up my mind. Why does he not bother asking me how I was doing? How was I coping with my mom’s departure? He had his head down, leading the way. The house we were just setting up wasn’t big. Compared to my mansion, it was tiny.

And I wasn’t noticing all that just to be a brat, but because my father left us for this. He left his little daughter at the mercy of predators.

The most frustrating part was that now he wanted to have his share of my mother’s property. He was busy convincing the lawyers that he didn’t marry my mother for her property, and he met Mia after my mother, and he was on a break from their relationship. I had to catch my breath to get my head together.

I can’t cry today; I can’t let them see how badly their actions have affected me. So I encouraged myself to put up a bold face.

“This is my house. Your room is the last one upstairs. Get settled.” His voice was devoid of any emotion, and his eyes did not even once look at me. He climbed the stairs to dump my luggage in the room or somewhere. I raised my head to see a lady in her mid-forties and a young girl, probably older than me, standing before me.

They didn’t look very pleased to have me accompany them. Besides their raw gestures, I noticed the trash was everywhere. There were spider webs in the corners of the walls. I understand affording a maid wasn’t an option for them, but they could do the cleaning themselves. A slight wave of anger ran through my veins as I tried not to recall how he would hit my mother for not cleaning his shoes properly. How could a daughter forget her father's wanting her mother to do all the chores, even in her sickness, when she had servants and maids to do the work for her?

“I’m Mia. Welcome to your new home.” The woman spoke, bearing a smile that did not seem authentic. I have to say that no one was happy to see me. “You can call me by my name because I know it will not be easy for you to accept me, nor am I complaining about it.” She proceeded once she acknowledged I wasn’t muddling through this relationship. My eyes quickly scanned her face. She was actually very attractive. With eyes sterling gray and hair caramel blond, it was no surprise that my father fell under the spell of her beauty.

"I’m Phoenix." I introduced myself, showing no enthusiasm.

"This is my daughter, Zoe. She just turned fifteen." Mia eyed Zoe to come forth from her cellphone screen and show me some fake generosity, like her. Honestly, mentioning her age sounded weird. She did not look younger than me.

"Hey, actually I’m nin---," Zoe halted when her mother’s piercing stare fell upon her. I thought she looked way older than her age. The way she spoke sounded impassive. Great! She hates me.

"Nice to meet you." I didn’t know what else to say, or where to shroud from that awkward introduction. Zoe silently strolled past me and went upstairs. Now, it’s just Mia and me. My glance fleeted across the living room: small and scanty. I might sound like a whinny, heedless brat, but that made me furious for a reason; how could father prefer living here than with us?

“So, Phoenix.” I darted my stare back at Mia, whom I found rubbing her hands as if to say something sensitive, “I know it must be hard for you to see me in place of your mother, and the reason I told you Zoe’s age is that your father and I met after his first marriage, and by the time he told me he had a wife, I was already pregnant with Zoe. And, I’m equally to be blamed, but when he married your mother, he was in love with her. He did not plan this whole thing to trap a billionaire just to steal her money. That is a lie, made up by your uncle.” She took a pause and looked down. “He had gotten me pregnant without revealing that he was already married.”

"Wha--," I wheezed in shock, looking down and tugging my hair to one side of my shoulder.

“So, he met me after he had you, trust me. There should be no hate. This house is as much yours as it is mine.” She slowly spoke and flounced out of my sight. The way she was constantly putting pressure on Zoe’s age was weird. Not only did she look too old to be fifteen, but she also disagreed with her mother and got interrupted. No way, Zoe was 15.

Just when I thought the drama had ended, precipitously, cars started to pull up in front of our house. One could hear people yelling and doors slamming shut. Mia and Darrell called for Zoe. They even gestured for me to join them.

“Don’t speak a word, okay?” Mia’s whisper crossed my ears as she walked past me. I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on.

Everyone had gathered around the road, viewing a young girl and a boy being dragged in the middle of the course. Cusses, slurs, and a lot of accusations could be heard. Among the aggressors, was a girl: me, whose bewilderment was higher than the tower. Luckily, we were behind a row of neighbors, who were keener to witness the commotion.

The girl, who was kneeling down, had her head slapped repeatedly by her father. For a moment, it was all like a dream. Back in the seventeenth century, these sorts of public humiliations were more expected than in today’s world. Tires screeched as three cars in a row stopped by us. A beautiful car, the Tesla Model X SUV, stole everyone’s attention. A tall, broad-shouldered man in a black suit rolled out of the car, and everybody bowed down a little to him. To say he was handsome would be an understatement, because he had the looks of a Greek God.

He elegantly strolled among everyone and came before the poor young boy. At that moment, the entire crowd stood in silence, looking at the man in a suit.

“Mayor, please,” the girl begged for mercy, joining her palms.

“Silence!” The heavy voice startled us in our skins. It was another guy in a black suit. It filled my mind with questions about that whole mayor thing. That young man in the suit was our Mayor.

"Let her speak, Jace. Everyone has a right to speak their side of the truth." Mr. Mayor showed kindness in his voice. He was humble, using all his facial features as he spoke. He had his eyes narrowed, his lips pouted, his one brow raised, and his hands slightly tied behind his back. The jawline was so sleek that one could cut all the haters with it, and the eyes were so blue that the sea would appear dim when compared to them.

“But you said you would spare us.” The girl, once allowed to speak, questioned Mr. Mayor. The poor girl has to lift her head in order to look into Mr. Mayor’s eyes.

“You mean after you offered me yourself?” My heart skipped a beat when the girl trembled, hearing Mr. Mayor accuse her in front of the whole town and her father. Mr. Mayor swirled to our side, his eyes quickly scanning the crowd. His eyes had something, something that looked like a secret, dark and mysterious.

“You wanted to have sex with me,” he then explained, to shock everybody even more.

“He is now going to order a public rough gangbang for her as a punishment,” Zoe whispered in my ear, and my soul left my body.