Prologue
“Next” I called down to my receptionist and best friend; Kara, who was sitting demurely at the front desk with a nail file in one hand and some papers in the other. She was the only one I trusted to keep this business a private secret and discern which patients where deserving of treatment in the first place, As I watched she gestured to someone out of sight that their appointment with me could begin. I sighed and tried to relish these few seconds of reprieve from reality. I held my temples in my hands and took a few deep breaths. It had been a long day, a constant stream of whining victims, hoping that I could cure all their regrets with the sweetest form of medicine; revenge.
That was the business see, and I enjoyed doing it. I felt as though I was quite the do-gooder, inflicting a little pain on those who deserved it most; men. Cheating boyfriends, adulterous husbands, they were all putty in my hands... Until I broke them.
I could hear my next clients footsteps growing louder in the hall so I sat up straighter in an attempt to look professional. This was my last appointment for the day but Kara had warned me earlier it would be a particularly important customer who was willing to pay an unlimited amount of money to get what she wanted. The door opened and before me stood a very pretty yet fierce looking blonde who had her hair up in a straight pony tail, she had an icy blue gaze and stood straight, I gestured for her to sit down. “Miss...?” “Swift” she stated formally. I was about to begin speaking until she began to talk “Now I understand that any transaction that occurs today will remain a secret, am I right?” she asked. “It never happened” I quickly reassured her “All business is just that; business, and no one else need know about it, it stays between us and my receptionist, whom I trust”
“good” she smiled, looking more and more confident.
“now, Miss Swift-”
“It’s okay, you can call me Taylor”
“okay... Taylor... In order for me to be a good judge of character, and work out how to do what you would like me to do, you need to tell me why you are here, what ... ails you?”
This was the hard part, a lot of the women and the very few men who came to me for help had been through quite a lot and found it hard to recount their stories, but I needed to know because it gave me a better idea of what their men would fall in love with or be attracted to, it also gave me a better idea of just how much I needed to hurt them. Taylor however was not showing any of the usual signs, no watery eyes or shaky hands, instead a small smug smile had etched itself onto her face “Ellie” she said after glancing at the nameplate sitting on my desk “Before I tell you what happened I just want you to know, there is nothing, nothing, that I do better than revenge”
Not for the first time I felt slightly uneasy, but shook it of as I remembered the pay check that came with this job.
“Then, Taylor you will find that that is something both you an I have in common, go ahead”
“Well, it started about a year ago....
When Taylor had finished the story she finally did have a few of those expected tears running down her face, and I was shocked, we had some pretty bad guys who had done some pretty bad things to our clients here at the clinique, but this one took that cake. So hurtful and mean and ... horrid. I was actually disgusted.
As I gave Taylor a moment to clean herself up a bit I wondered at how I was going to pull this one off, it sounded as if he had no feelings whatsoever, but there was no doubt in my mind that they needed to be hurt. I looked up as a hand tapped my shoulder, she handed me a cheque. This is a quarter or you pay, you’ll get the rest when the job is done, I’m giving you a month”
I looked down at the cheque, half a million pounds. Half a million pounds. I could retire on that. I would be set for life, Kara and I could see the world!
“No worries. The job may take a little longer than a month though, give me eight weeks so that there is time for him to grow an attachment for ultimate impact though. And you will need to come back in tomorrow so I can do some planning and check everything over with you. Thanks” she nodded, and stood up to leave. We shook hands, and I showed her to the door where Kara was waiting.
“Bye Ellie” Taylor said.
As I watched her walk outside into the rain towards a waiting cab. I realized something.
“Taylor!” I called.
“Taylor!” she spun around just as she was about to get in the cab, her eyebrows raised in surprise.
“What is it?” she asked.
“you never told me his name, we need to do a background check”
“oh” she laughed.
“That’s easy, his name is Harry Styles”
And then she got into the taxi and sped away into the rain.
