Hero?

14

"What do you want sir?" Ana demands as she is escorted into Damon's study. She still insists on calling him sir and Damon has to work hard to keep his temper. He just hopes that what he's about to do will make things better again. If not all hell is going to break loose.

"Ana, I think it's time for you to have your own personal servant." Damon has Gemma be sent in.

Gemma comes before Damon and gives him a short bow. "Gemma will be your servant now."

Ana stares at Gemma's uniform. "You freed her?"

"Yes," Damon replies shortly.

Ana turns her attention to Damon, "Why?"

"You wanted her freed. I wasn't going to take your money though." Damon starts to relax. Perhaps this will go alright after all.

"So you just dismissed a debt of seventy-five thousand dollars?" Ana somehow doesn't believe it.

"Not exactly, no." Damon evades her question, he can't lie to her, she can tell when people lie to her as well as he can. However, he doesn't think she'll like the truth very much either.

Ana narrows her eyes at him and waits impatiently, tapping her foot. She wasn't going to drop the subject and she makes sure that he knows that.

Soon a looking of dawning horror rises in her eyes and Damon knows that she figured it out. "You had sex with her!" She starts backing up, "You forced her." Her face takes on a sick look.

Gemma is quick to say, "No, miss. He didn't force me. He gave me the chance to have my freedom, a job, place to live and an education. He didn't force me to take the opportunity, but I was more than happy to do so."

Ana looks at Gemma long and hard before giving Damon a glare. She then turns and runs out of the room.

"I'm sorry sir, I spoke out of turn like that." Gemma says fearful that Damon will revoke her status and put her back to a slave.

"No, although I normally don't like it when people break into my conversations she never would have believed me if I had told her that." Damon looks away from the door and Gemma sees the defeated look on Damon's face before he puts his mask back on.

"You are dismissed. See if Ana needs you for anything. It isn't likely that she'll even talk to me." Damon sounds defeated. Gemma bows to him even though he doesn't see it. Gemma leaves and hears a loud crash as she shuts the door.

Ana refuses to answer the door even when she hears that it's Gemma and not Damon. "Miss, please, open the door."

It's the sound of Gemma being in tears or near tears that makes it so Ana gets up and allows Gemma into the room. "Gemma, what do you want?"

"You are angry with me, mistress?" Gemma asks in a small voice.

"He forced you. You had no choice and he took from you." Ana is angry.

"No, Mistress, I owed him so very much that I never would have been able to pay him off or at least not for years. I know slaves that have debts even greater than mine that have no chance of paying it off. He reduced my debt and then gave me the chance to not only be free, but to have a job and help me get an education. He doesn't have to do that. I know of no other person that would be so generous and not just that he's given me a bonus and told me to get whatever I want and need for myself and my new apartment."

"How is it not coercion when the choice is either freedom or remain in slavery?" Ana states simply after Gemma defends Damon.

"Gemma, please leave. Ana," Calum says coldly entering the room since the door had been left open. Ana makes a mental note to make sure that never happens again.

Gemma looks at Ana to make sure that it's okay and when she receives a nod she scampers out of the room as fast as she could go.

Calum closes the door behind her before turning back to Ana. "What the hell is going on, Ana? Damon is acting the opposite of what his name means."

Ana turns her ire to him, "Perhaps you'll get what you wish soon, Calum."

Calum stops stone still, "What do you mean?"

"Me gone, that's what you want, it's what all of you want. The only one that ever wanted me here is Damon and then Jackson. Jackson will do whatever Damon wants.  Jacob will have an easier life at school not having to watch after me, you men will be free of worrying about me to protect Damon."

"Ana, what the hell are you talking about?" Now Calum is getting agitated and afraid, if Ana leaves Damon will go ballistic.

"I'm calling Mrs. Lighten tomorrow to have her come and get me. You all will be free from me and my dangerous presence or whatever it is you call me. You all want me gone, well now you'll get your wish. Just leave, Calum. Let me alone now please. I just want to have some peace before I leave."

"Ana, if you leave Damon will be impossible to live with." Calum says  in horror.

"You don't want me here, but you tell me that you don't want me to go. Just what the hell do you want from me, Calum? I can't take it anymore. You hate me, you can deny it all you want, but I know the truth. The men hate me, you hate me. You've wanted me gone from the time I woke up from my coma after the house fire." Tears come to her eyes and run unchecked down her face.

"I have never tried to tell you or Damon or any of you how to live. I have done my best to keep my thoughts and opinions to myself unless called upon to give them. Do you have any idea what it's like to have someone touch you, do to you whatever the hell they want and you can't tell them no? To be treated like less than dirt and used as someone else wishes? To be made to feel like the only reason you live is pleasure others and if you don't there is no reason for you to live. That is what it means for the slaves and I can't do this anymore. I won't say anything about your activities." Ana stops she's just too tired to even speak. Her sleepless nights are catching up to her and she finds herself falling as darkness descends on her.

"She wants to leave," Damon's voice is broken and has Calum turning sharply after catching Ana in his arms.

"Damon," Calum says with pain in his voice. He can't say anything to comfort his friend though.

Damon turns and leaves.