Sinfully Beautiful.

Chapter Seven.

"You two know each other?" Cameron inquired, giving a suspicious eye between Maxwell and myself. Maxwell was smirking, his eyes not leaving mine while my mother was giving me an attempt at a smile. But all the botox my mother has gotten over the years has made it hard to tell what she is feeling most of the time.

I reached forward and grasped the full champagne glass, wanting nothing more than to throw it across the table into Maxwell's face. But instead I opted to chug the sweet liquid that was inside it. It slid down my throat easily, and made me relax for half a second before I looked up to see Cameron along with my mother and Maxwell staring at me. Jessica was on Cameron's other side, but was too busy texting on her phone to know anything that was going on.

"Of course she knows us. Have you not told your boss about your parents?" My mother asked smiling softly over to Cameron who was still giving me a skeptical look. I glared fiercely over to my mother. How dare she even say they were my parents, my mother was my blood but treated her help better than she treated her only daughter. I clenched the glass in my hand tightly, feeling the anger coursing through my veins. "Your father is Maxwell Preston?" Cameron asked, still looking between the three of us with confusion.

"HE'S NOT MY FATHER!" I found myself roaring loudly. Cameron went unfazed at my reaction, and rested his arm around the back of my chair. I could feel the eyes of everyone in the room boring into the back of my head, but all I did was continue to glare at my stepfather. "He's my stepfather" I said quieter, looking over to Cameron, giving him an explanation I know he deserved from my rude outburst.

"I'm surprised you haven't fired my Avery here, quite a temper she has on her" My mother said with a shake of her head. Her claws reached out and grasped the wine glass in front of her and took a sip of the expensive red. "You should be grateful for Mr.James here, He did hire you after you quit so abruptly at Preston towers".

My glare moved over to my mother and I shook my head. When I applied to James Enterprises I stated I had no previous work. So as far as Cameron was concerned, he was my first boss and this was my first real employment. I didn't want Cameron calling Maxwell for a reference, and I most certainly didn't want the Preston name giving me a leg up for a job. I would sooner die than let Maxwell get me anything in life, he has already stolen so much from me. I finally quit one day after not being able to handle the humiliation of being taken advantage of day after day.

My mother's eyes moved from me to my very confused boss. "Ah, I see my daughter hasn't been completely honest with you" She said winking to Cameron before taking another sip of her wine. I wanted to die. I was half tempted to take the steak knife on my place mat and shove it right though my heart, that would be less painful. My mother probably single handily just ruined my job, ruined five years of hard work working at a company I grew to love. I learned working under Cameron that he didn't tolerate liars, he hated being lied to with a passion. And I blatantly lied on my resume.

I could feel my eyes watering at the thought of Cameron firing me, of him hiring some other young girl to work for him and see him as I used to. I couldn't handle that, I couldn't handle not seeing him everyday. The thought alone made one of the threatening tears roll down my cheek. "Oh my daughter and her dramatics!" My mother said waving her hands in the air over dramatically.

My mother once said the same thing to me when i came crying to her about the rapes. I went begging her to help me, to make Maxwell stop what he was doing, but she laughed and told me to quit the dramatics. Sure I was an adult when it happened, but that didn't make it any less traumatizing for me. I had always wanted to save myself for the first man I loved. It never happened when I was younger, and instead I lost my virginity against a hard desk with a hand choking me around my throat.