So Who's the Bitch Now?

Vivian hung her head disheartened. It felt like the earth fell from beneath her and she was falling into an abyss of lethargy "And it was all going so well!" she mumbled as a single tear roll silently down her cheek.

"Pardon me?" Tiffany was now really confused, "I was thinking of calling Mr Bartholomew and asking him what was going on, but I thought I'd let you come clean first."

Vivian wiped at her face, sniffed back her sorrow and stood, re-buttoning her blouse. Pulling her skirt down to cover her modesty again, she cleared her throat, "The jig is up as they say, and you've got me. I'm really sorry you found out, although you may not think so, I was having the time of my life."

Tiffany was now so totally confused, she just sat with her mouth open, "You have got to be kidding me?"

Vivian cheered slightly at Tiffany's confusion and smiled, "I'm not kidding you Tiffany, and ringing Trent wouldn't have done you any good, unless you have a direct line to heaven or hell! Personally I'm banking on hell."

Vivian giggled at Tiffany's expression, "Have you got Trent's number in your cell phone?"

Tiffany nodded, "Then call him now and see what he says."

Tiffany opened her phone and hit speed dial. A red button started flashing on her office phone and Vivian pick up the hand piece as she pressed the button and spoke, "Yes Ms Carmichael, I see you've found out our little secret my dear!"

Tiffany's jaw dropped as she heard a man's voice on her cell saying, "Yes Ms Carmichael, I see you've found out our little secret my dear!"

Tiffany was flabbergasted, "It was you all along! You set all this up, but why?" She now realised that Vivian had her by the throat, and the tables had turned one eighty degrees. She never felt so sickly frightened as she did at this moment.

Vivian smiled sadly as she replaced the phone handset, "Yes Tiffany, you've heard the quote,

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players:..."

" they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages." Tiffany finished for her. "Yes I've done Shakespeare a school, what of it? What are you trying to get at?"

"This was always my play Tiffany! And it was going so well until your damnable ethics for fair play put a monkey wrench in the works trying to save my stupid arse. I should have anticipated this, and made it harder for you, but I got sloppy from the sheer thrill of my fantasy coming to fruition."

Tiffany still couldn't get her head around what Vivian was saying and it certainly showed in her face, "I know your confused by all this my dear, but this isn't the time or place to be discussing the details."

Vivian was trying not to upset Tiffany because she didn't really deserve it, "How about you allow me to knock off an hour early so I can go home to your place and prepare us a nice Fettuccine Carbonara and tossed green salad, you can pick a couple of bottles of white wine; a Chardonnay would be nice. We can go over all this tonight, what do you say?"

Tiffany was stunned, "You're asking me if you can take time off? With what you have just eluded to I would think that you can come and go as you damn well please?"

Vivian smiled compassionately, "I know I can, but for reasons that I'll endeavour to explain tonight, please just allow me the luxury of finishing out this last day. I don't think it's all that much to ask for?"

~...~

The two women ate in silence eyeing each other across the dining room table until Tiffany couldn't hold her tongue any longer, "Ok Ms Donohue, you've got me and the meal is wonderful, but I'm dying here!"

Vivian giggled, "I'm sure you are my dear, so I'll put you out of your misery. To start with; neither you nor any of the employees at Dynamics Inc have anything to worry about from me! I set it all up and I take full responsibility for any act committed upon my person over the last three months."

Tiffany just shook her head in amazement, "I still don't understand?"

Vivian mouthed the last small potion Fettuccini from her fork and chewed slowly as she contemplated how to explain her gambit. Swallowing, she then wiped her mouth with her napkin, placing it on her now empty plate, "To understand you need to know my relationship with Trent Bartholomew! Trent was my father, and the reason my Surname is Donohue is because I married Carl Donohue in a bid to get out from under my father's controlling influence. My father's dead by the way. May his soul rot in hell!"

Tiffany had so many questions but held her tongue, "I can see you want to know why I hate my dear departed dad?" Tiffany nodded, "My father was a workaholic tyrant, he actually wanted a son to hand off his empire, and believe me when I tell you that what you see at Dynamics is only the tip of a very large iceberg."

Tiffany's jaw dropped, "You mean to say that I have a controlling interest in an empire?"

Vivian burst out laughing, "No my dear, I'm sorry to say that you only own twenty percent of Dynamics. Not that that isn't a fair chunk of change, but when you take in the whole, it isn't anymore than pocket coinage to me! Take this house that I allowed you to so eagerly get your hands on. I have several around the world twice as grand and expensive as this one."

Tiffany was starting see that she wasn't just playing with a firecracker when she stated this, but a damn atomic bomb, the humiliation that she heaped on this woman she now felt herself, and her stupidity was coming back and biting her on the arse, "You must think I'm a stupid moron for thinking I held all the cards?"

Vivian smiled, "As you so elegantly stated back when you first confronted me...Au contraire mademoiselle. I think you are a very smart and astute business woman, and I'm so proud of your accomplishments. You have outshone my wildest dreams!"

Tiffany was so confused she couldn't speak, "Huh?"

Vivian sighed, "Ok, to save a lot of time, let me explain how you got here in a point fashion." Tiffany mind was racing to catch up and so she just shrugged her acceptance.

1."As I've just said, my father was a workaholic. He got that way because of a car accident he blamed on my mother, which put him in a wheelchair and destroyed any chance of fathering a son to take over his business; he had no other avenue for his frustrations. My mother, god bless her soul may she rest in peace, drank herself to death out of sheer guilt over the accident."

2."My father ignored me most likely because I was female and to a point where all I wanted, was to get away from him as far as possible, hence my marriage to Carl. It didn't last, and I suspect that my father had a hand in it, because Carl disappeared without so much as a note saying, "I've had a nice time, thanks for all the blowjobs!" I don't know why and I have never seen him since to be able to find out."

3."When my father got sick, he was in the process of setting up Bartrell Enterprises. Named after him and my mother. Bart being the first four letters of his name, Bartholomew and rell being the last four letter of my mother's maiden name, Martrell."

4."My father was also a control freak! Every job I got was thwarted by his interference until I had no choice but to return and enter the family business, something I truly detested. You would think if he had so little interest in me as a child, then he'd certainly not care what I did or where I went. But that's the nature of a possessive, anally retentive, workaholic, insomniac. "

5."When he died I thought I was free to pursue my passion, which by the way is also my fetish. My husband saw submissiveness in my demeanour and encouraged it; we also found out rather quickly that I get incredibly turned on when humiliated, debased and embarrassed the more the better. I foolishly thought I'd be free to indulge myself after my father's death, but good old dad was still pulling the strings even from his grave."

6."He set up his will so that for me to inherit Bartrell any part thereof, or even so much as make any sort of a living, I had to work for the company. The mistake he made, and the one I found out about was that I didn't need to be running the company as he had wished, just employed by the company. I'm almost certain my father knew of my fetish and he figured that if I was a high profile business woman, then I'd have to keep my nose clean.

7.While I don't actually run Bartrell, I do have access to its vast recourses. I have one third of the stock, with the other two thirds divvied up between the other members of The Board of Directors. My father set out strict guidelines as to how and in what fashion the members of the board were elected.

8."By the end of my father's illustrious life he'd done a Howard Hughes, and become a recluse. The Board of Director at Bartrell are men selected by my father for their like-mindedness. They were of the opinion that keeping my father's demise as low key as possible would minimise financial disruption to Bartrell. Like my father they are not to be toyed with. I get away with what I do only under sufferance and the fact that I am the only heir to the Bartrell Empire."

9.Before you ask why I didn't just sign on as a secretary, or girlfriday, and continue my fetish in secret. It was more to get back at my father, while enjoying my fetish. Can you imagine him turning over in his graves as the employees of his empire degrade and humiliate his only child, the product of his seed? I know he's dead, but I cling to the sadistic thought that there is a life after and he is in hell with the devil taunting him about the degenerate slut offspring from his very own loins!"

10."I stewed for twelve months, trying to find some way out of my father's control, and I hit on this little gem, so I scouted around for someone I could help foster into taking over, and you are the end result of that search."

11."You performed your part in my play better than I had ever expected. You are my very own Judas of Iscariot, and I'm indebted to you for giving me three wonderfully glorious months of sexual bliss. I'm just sorry that after all the effort I put into my play, it was kyboshed after only three months."

Vivian sat back in her chair and sipped her wine waiting for Tiffany to process all that information. Tiffany for her part was lost in thought, mulling over everything she'd been told.

Tiffany finished her wine and poured another, "I don't know how I feel about being a Judas, but you're saying that everything I did was with your approval?

Vivian nodded but said nothing, letting Tiffany expound on her theories, "You're no Messiah Vivian! How could you possibly guarantee that I would be capable of doing what you wanted? You were taking an enormous risk that I might have taken your entire empire for myself and leave you destitute?"

Vivian burst out laughing, "That my dear is the last thing I have to worry about. First off is that you only have twenty percent of Dynamics, while I control seventy percent of this particular company with voting rights to my father's stock, the other ten percent is spread around out in public hands, there is no way you'd get anywhere near taking anything off me that I didn't allow."

Vivian took a sip from her wine glass, "For argument sake let's say you did manage to wrestle Dynamics away from me. That company is only a minute portion of what makes up Bartrell Enterprises! I would just go and take control of one of the other companies in the portfolio and then come after you with so much hellfire and brimstone that you'd be blowing winos in the park for pocket change just to get your next meal.

Tiffany blanch at Vivian's implied threat, "I'm sorry, I...I didn't mean to imply that I would do it. Just that you were..." She decided not to finished, realising that all she would do is dig herself a deeper hole.

Vivian chortled, "Relax sweetie, I know you wouldn't do anything of a sort."

Tiffany raised her eye, questioning Vivian's assurance, "No one can be that sure of what others will do Ms Donohue."

Vivian let out an exasperated sigh, "Ohhh for heaven sake will you please refrain from the formalities Tiffany? I see us as two friends having dinner and chatting. Call me Vivian, Viv, slut, fuckface, cuntrag, cumbucket...I don't know... any other derogatory name you can think of, but for the love of Mike quit with the Ms Donohue crap! After glorious hell you have put me through for the last three months I would appreciate the sentiment."

Tiffany was taken back a bit by Vivian's statement, "Ummm well ok...Vivian ...Cuntrag, if you insist." Tiffany saw the grin of Vivian's face and stated to giggle herself "Look! I'm just trying to catch up here, ok? All this has come as quite a shock! Here I thought I had you all worked out and sown up in a nice little package, and you've done a Houdini on me in no time flat! I am interested in knowing just how you came to the conclusion that I'd be perfect for your charade?"

Vivian rose from her chair, picking up her wine glass and the bottle, "Since dinner is over, how about we adjourn to the lounge and finish our discussion there?"

Tiffany followed on the understanding that her previous worries were superable, "There are so many questions, I just don't know where to start?"

Vivian settled into a comfortable rocker/ recliner, "All in good time Tiffany, we have all night to find your answers! Let me tell you how I settled on you first."

Tiffany sighed, "Yes I suppose that is the big question filling my mind."

Vivian refilled their glasses as she spoke, "As you know I'm thirty five, and my father died almost eight years ago. Taking into account the year I took to find my escape route, I then started looking just over seven years prior to now. Can you remember what you were doing about that time?"

Tiffany shrugged, "That's a no brainer, I was ending my education from high school. I was having to settling for that fact that I was going to be looking for some low paying dead end job, until one of my substitute teachers helped me get a scholarship to university. That was the turning point in my career!"

Vivian smiled knowingly, "You're right! Mrs Bedford, if I'm not mistaken."

Tiffany blinked, "You know her?"

Vivian chortled, "Of course I know her, she's one of Bartrell's employees I had come to your assistance. Your full scholarship was supplied by me via Dexter Pharmaceuticals, also a subsidiary of Bartrell!"

Tiffany struggled to keep up, "You're say that you paid for my higher education?"

Vivian shrugged, "Let's say I invested in my charade! I saw you about two months before then and had Singleton Investigations, again Bartrell, to check you out. I found out you were a strong intelligent, independent, motivated young lady who fiercely stood by her friends and family, and for no fault of her own was destined to a life struggling to make ends meet!"

Vivian could see the wheels turning in Tiffany's mind, "In fact there is very little I don't know about you. I know you had a guest list of twenty three close friends, and only fifteen showed up for your eighteenth birthday party, you were most upset. You graduated with distinctions from both high school and university. The first car you owned was a Ford Festiva, a hideous purple if I remember rightly, which I might add you proceeded to right off in an accident with an army truck! You were very lucky my dear to get out of that with only minor cut and bruises!"

Tiffany was now seeing the magnitude of Vivian's plan, the sheer logistics of planning and organising of such detail must have been horrendous "You're telling me you started on this charade seven years ago? Why not just find someone already in a position of authority, make them a deal and save all that time money and effort?"

"As you stated in the beginning, I couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't stab me in the back. I needed someone I could mould into the sort of person I needed. I know that sounds like manipulation, and it is, but not all manipulation is bad. Life is manipulation! Human beings make an art form out of it, we manipulate our environment, and those around us. Manipulation happens every day, by me, you, Sabrina; everyone has done and is doing it all the time. Only when one person loses so that another can win does it becomes unacceptable."

"To answer your previous question. You seem to think that I put my life on hold while I was grooming you for your role in my play. Not so my dear! Look at it this way; do you put the kettle on in the morning and then stand there for the next five to ten minutes while it comes to the boil, or do you go about your morning ritual of making toast, getting dressed, reading the paper? It's the same with this; I didn't put my life on hold after I put events in motion. I went about my normal daily routine and every now and then checked on the progress until the time was right to enjoy myself."

Tiffany couldn't grasp the dedication it took to see this through, "Weren't you worried that at anytime things could go astray? All that time and effort wasted on a singularity."

Vivian nodded with a certain amount of satisfaction, "As you get to know me Tiffany, you will understand that my father; as much as I disliked him; He and I have a few traits in common, and both go together to make his empire what it is, and my plan as complex as it was. We are both fanatics for perfection, detail, and above all else patience. Your query as to why I didn't take someone more experienced. I don't put my trust in too many people; there are too many variables to contend with, with someone already in the workforce having agendas of their own."

"To answer another one of your question, you're right when you said that I'm not the Messiah, heaven forbid that someone as fucked up as me should have divinity." Tiffany raised her eyebrow at the connotation that that statement raised. Vivian saw the eyebrow and stopped in thought. Both women looked at one another and the burst out laughing, as Vivian clarified, "I'm sure if there is a god, it would be more than heaven doing the forbidding!"

Tiffany giggled with a new appreciation of the woman sitting in front of her, "I don't know of anyone who could hold such dedication for so long. I suppose you're going to tell me that my job at Oztronics was your doing?"

Vivian waved her head from side to side with a silly grin, "Ok...Subsidiary of Bartrell again!"

"What about Langland Engineering?"

"Bartrell!"

"Jesus H fucking Christ! IS there anything I've done that you haven't had a hand in?"

Vivian thought for a minute then snapped her fingers, "I wasn't responsible for you getting caught being spit roasted between Jack Williams and Tom Ganger by your uncle Alfred! That was entirely your doing, but I was impressed. You were barely eighteen at the time, and your uncle is a very free spirited sort of chat, although it did take two grand to buy his silence."

Tiffany slapped her hands to a face that had instantaneously combusted, "Ohhh my fucking god! I thought I'd never live that down." Vivian got up to get the other bottle of wine and refill their glasses, "Here have a drink, it'll help with drowning the humiliation, I know I've been there many times."

Tiffany looked up to Vivian, "You're a cunt, you know that! And you're lying sack of shit too!"

Vivian stopped dead in her tracks and blinked, "Pardon?"

"Tiffany didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so she did both, "You did fucking well have a hand in it! I spent six god damn awful months worrying when my uncle would drop the axe on me to my parents. If I had known that he was in your pocket...Do you know I would do anything if his name was put to the request? I'd be like shot out of a cannon!"

Vivian laughed, "Ohhh my girl! I didn't lie, you asked me if I had a hand in anything, and I told you truth, I didn't help you into the mess you made, I did help you out of it. Semantics I know, think of me as your guardian angel, well actually Celeste was really the one looking after you, I was just financing it! One of the reasons I put you on the list was that threesome you got yourself caught in. I knew then that you would appreciate the effectiveness humiliation can have in controlling people."