Picture of Kyle Brennan, Oliver's big brother.

Hey, my dear readers! Chapter 12 is finally here! I know it was supposed to be Victor's POV, but I just couldn't help myself. I was looking forward to their confrontation and I think Ollie's POV is a better choice in this situation!

Victor's true personality is going to finally show! Gosh, you are going to hate him! >.

Enjoy!

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Had you ever experienced a time when you thought nothing could get worse, and your whole life was a big disaster that ruined your every chance on happiness? No? Then consider yourself lucky because I was experiencing it at the moment, and the only thing I could think about was running away and hiding somewhere dark, where no one could find me. How could a day go so wrong in a blink of an eye? Just a minute ago, I was humming, happy, and looking forward to going home so I could see Matt and Josh and enjoy the evening with them. Now, my stomach hurt, my head started to spin, and I felt my whole body tremble at the sight in front of me.

Reaching for the door behind me, trying to turn and leave before the person noticed me, my eyes widened, cold feeling engulfing my whole body, when our eyes met. I always thought I was over the terrible past I lived through. I had Matty, found new love even though I thought I would never fall in love with anyone ever again, and I just accepted my lover's proposal to marry him in the future. There was no place for some fucker from past to occupy my mind.

So why were all the horrible memories surfacing at one sight of him? Why did I feel so sick and scared when I saw him sitting behind the bar counter, staring right back at me with wide, angry eyes? Why did he have such an impact on me even though I was in love with someone else? He was a history, a terrible nightmare that ended years ago. Why did he have to appear now? I was really starting to think that whoever was up there, looking after us, humans, hated me with burning passion.There was no other explanation for this situation.

Taking a deep breath, trying to calm down the trembling controlling my body, I looked away, searching the shop to see if Mel was managing somehow. I sure hoped she was because Charlie wasn't in a state to work in the front, and I wouldn't force him to do it. I was his friend and boss. I had to take care of my employees; even if it meant I would have to stay there and work instead of him. Though I would rather not right now.

Noticing Melanie just few steps away from Victor, I decided to ignore him for the time being and went straight to her. She looked kind of uncomfortable, her face paler than usual, making her freckles stand out even more. She looked so beautiful with her big green eyes and the messy bun of red hair on her head; almost like a forest fairy.

"What happened?" I asked, whispering, but after the scene that took place just few minutes ago, the shop was unusually quiet so everything was audible. I could feel everyone staring at us, and it felt extremely awkward and uncomfortable. There weren't that many customers, just eight, from what I saw, but it was still enough to make one want to jump out of window.

"Ollie! Thank God! The prick that's sitting behind you started to yell at Charlie the moment he saw him, and poor Charlie didn't take it well and run away. He was just preparing the order I gave him, and it ended up broken. I already cleaned it but they are waiting for it. I would love for you to kick his ass out but, right now, there are four coffees that need to be done, and I need help! It's the Irish Night coffee, and you know I always mess it up," Mel whined, dramatically waving her hands, shooting daggers at Victor's back. She looked seriously pissed and considering I never saw her in this state, it had to be really bad.

Though I wanted to do exactly the same thing she mentioned, feeling somehow delighted with just the imagination of kicking Victor out, I just smiled weakly and patted her shoulder.

"I'll take care of it. Charlie needs few minutes to himself, and I'm done in the kitchen anyway. I'll just bring the cake I finished so the regulars know it's here. Take four blueberry muffins and give it to the customers as an apology for the delayed order." Nodding, Melanie hurried to take the muffins, and I quickly turned, going to the kitchen to get the cake.

By the time I managed to get back behind the counter, after a five minute debate with Charlie about him calming down and leaving everything to me, there were only four people left. It was the group of four people who were still waiting for their order. Looking more carefully, trying hard not to squint, I recognized them. Putting the cake to its place, I went towards the four ladies and sincerely apologized for making them wait.

"It's ok, Ollie, we saw what happened and, to be honest, I wanted to call the police when I saw the bastard yell like that. I'm surprised you didn't throw him out." One of the customers said, and I felt somehow happy for their concern. They were a group of four single women who worked for a local women magazine and loved to come here after their work was done. I was surprised they didn't recognize the bastard because he was quite a big shot with his successful company, and I was one hundred percent sure they made an interview with him in the past.

"Thank you. Once again, I apologize you had to witness that. Unfortunately, if I threw him out, I would end up in a much worse mess. You probably didn't notice, girls, but it's the CEO of Nemara Inc., Victor McNemara, in the flesh," saying that, I smiled wickedly when I saw their eyes grow wider and their heads turning towards him. If fortune was on my side for once, they would swarm around him and take his attention, before he was able to talk to me.

"No way!" The oldest one of them, Erica, screamed, jumped up and walked in his direction, sitting down right next to him. It didn't take long and all of the women were around Victor, talking one after another, hopefully making his head hurt.

"Four Irish Nights, was it?" I asked as I came behind the counter and looked at the ladies.

"Of course! And I will take one piece of the cake you just brought. It's the one with the raspberries, right?" asked Rhonda, totally ignoring my answer, continuing to fawn over Victor.

I felt like singing. The fucker got what he deserved! I knew he hated situations like this, at least in the past, and knowing I made the situation happed made me happy. He will be damn sorry he made Charlie cry.

Adding the last liquid ingredient to the coffee, a shot of Baileys, I added a cream and a little bit of grated dark chocolate on top of it.

"Here you go, ladies." I smiled and put the glasses in front of them.

"I'll get you the cake in a second, Rhonda." Starting for the refrigerator where the cakes were placed, I kept on smirking, satisfied with my brilliant plan, when I faltered, my breath caught in my throat.

"I'm sorry, ladies. I'm flattered you want to keep me company, but I have an urgent matter I have to discuss with Mr. Brennan. So if you would be so nice and excuse us for a minute," sounded his deep, manly voice, causing the goose bumps appear on my skin. I was weak to his voice. It was extremely deep and so stupidly sexy I felt my cheeks getting red. It wasn't like I felt anything for him. No way in hell would I ever feel anything except for resentment for him. But being a gay man who was obsessed with manly men, I just couldn't ignore his perfect voice. It was like watching TV and admiring all the models and actors there. With an exception of the hatred I felt for the owner of the voice.

Well, it could be called a voice fetish too.

"Oh, really? You know each other?" Elisa, the only brunette among the four of them, asked, her curious eyes flitting from me to him and then back again.

Gritting my teeth, I looked for Melanie and nodded my head so she would come closer.

"Mel, give Rhonda piece of the afternoon cake. I need to take care of something," I whispered.

Turning back, I stomped towards Victor, looking straight into his eyes.

"I'm afraid we do not know each other, Mr. McNemara. If you have any business with me, as an owner of this café, we should probably discuss it outside of the customer's area." Glaring at him one more time, I turned, told Mel I would be back in ten minutes, and went outside of the shop, out in the street.

*****

It took a while, but the moment I heard the door open and close, I tensed, preparing myself for the confrontation I never wanted to experience.

"You look still the same, Oliver."

Turning to him, deadly stare directed to his tanned face, I couldn't help the words full of hatred escaping my lips.

"What the hell do you want?" I growled, trying to stay as calm as possible. People might think I was overdoing it. It was more than five years after all, but the bitterness of the betrayal was just too huge to let go of it. I still refused to talk to people who called me names in high school because of my crooked teeth I had at that time. Why would I let go of the horrible past this bastard made me go through? Yes, I was a bitter person, but only when it came to Victor McNemara. Cheaters were just disgusting and despicable human beings.

"Well, I heard some interesting news from my best friend, so I thought I would go and see for myself. You know Nels, he likes to exaggerate a lot." He smirked, the stupid face of his making me want to punch him.

"Whatever. I want you to leave and never come back again. You are not welcomed here. You just made a scene and traumatized one of my employees. I have enough witnesses who can confirm you are an aggressive bastard who yells at people without a reason. I'm sure the press would be interested in something like this, don't you think?"

I didn't feel comfortable with threatening anyone, even if it was this bastard. But I knew how much he relied on his reputation after he took over as a CEO; we talked about it a lot when his father gave him the heads up about his promotion. He would definitely rather avoid news like that.

His expression hardened, eyes going cold.

"I dare you to try it, Oliver. We will see how much longer will this café stay in business after I sue you for libel. I bet you wouldn't want that, right? From what Nelson told me, you are quite proud of it. You wouldn't want to be left with nothing but debts, right? Because you would definitely be in a huge debt by the end of the whole process; lawyers are quite expensive. Especially the ones who are at least half as good as mine." The victorious smile on his face was so annoying my fist twitched. This piece of shit!

"I have witnesses. It would be my victory," I seethed, but I knew what was coming next and that he was right.

"Yeah, and I have money and good looks. What's better?"

There was an ice cold feeling spreading throughout my whole body, and, for some reason, I didn't like where this conversation was heading. He wouldn't be saying all this just to scare me away from telling the press. He was trying to prove a point here, but the question was what point. I suddenly regreted I told the ladies who this bastard was. They would definitely took the money from him for their silence. What a fucking disaster.

"You know what? We are done here. Never come back again." Looking at him one last time, I walked straight for the door to get back to work. Maybe he would just back off if I ignored him. I was just about to open the door, when he grabbed my arm and pulled me back, pressing me to his chest.

"I will make one thing clear, Oliver. You are not the one who gives orders here. I have all the power to ruin you, so fucking stop being melodramatic and listen to me for five minutes. I'll let you go after that; for the time being."

Taking a deep breath, I jerked my arm, trying to get away from him. His clutch was too strong though. I could feel his breath on the back of my neck and all the memories of our time together flashed in front of my eyes. I could feel the tears coming, but I bit down on my lip, hard, to stop them. I would not cry in front of this jerk. I might still be hurt, even though I thought I was over it, but I didn't feel anything for his current self. The only person who was able to hurt me was Victor I thought I knew and that person didn't even exist in the first place. He was just an illusion of the past, and I didn't have time for that.

"I want you to go for a drink with me. I have few things I want to tell you. I hope you understand you don't have a choice in this matter, darling," he whispered, making me sick. My stomach literally hurt from all the stress I was feeling in the past half an hour.

"When is your next day off?"

Closing my eyes, I imagined Matty and Joshua, trying to get some strength from it. I had to be strong. I knew what his family was capable of. I heard all the stories of his father's businesses and all that shit, and I was sure Graham McNemara made sure his son was trained the same way. If he really wanted to, he would definitely ruin me. He could ruin Joshua's company as well, and if he ever found out about Matthias...God, I didn't want to even thing about it.

"Tomorrow, Sunday and Monday," I said, closing my eyes in a desperate attempt to stop the tears that started to well up in my eyes despite the bite on my bottom lip.

"Alright. I'll see you on Sunday at seven in the evening. Wear something casual, we will go to a bar. Wait for me right here, I'll pick you up." Saying that, he let go of me and left, leaving me in a state that was too much similar to the one five years ago.

This time, though, the feelings I felt were much darker and totally different from a broken heart.

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Now, give me some feedback!

What do you think of this situation? Why do you think Victor acts so differently in front of his friends and in front of Oliver? Do you think he would really ruin Oliver if he didn't listen to him? I'm open for all kinds of opinions!

Thanks for reading it! Hope you liked it!