Adam and Nyssa

Dave, Drum's brother, turned out to be a senior in the physics division of St Bartholomew's college department. Unlike his younger brother, however, he was big into sports, playing for the Eagles which won last year's national basketball championship.

He seemed to be genuinely glad to meet her and profuse in his gratitude for taking care of his foolish brother. Dave took them to a well-known restaurant in Coder St, a swanky neighborhood frequented by business shakers and movie stars.

Looking at them and the ease with which they moved in this rarified environment, Madi realized that Drum and his brother came from genuine wealth. Drum at school seldom behaved like a rich kid so to see him in his real element was a bit of a shock. But since Madi was a realist and one who finds the idea of money comfortable, she didn't dwell on it for long and simply went with the flow so to speak.

"I heard you also have the ice cold prick Jayden Hayes in your class?"

"You know him?" Madi was surprised.

"Our dad is acquainted with his dad," Dave said.

"He is?" Drum asked, surprised. "News to me. How? In business?"

"Yup. I think they worked together in that government project last year."

"So, how did you meet Jayden?" Madi asked curiously.

"Dad asked me to follow him in Nebraska after the term ended. Jayden was also there. You could tell he was bored though. No interest in the business."

"What's his interest then? Becoming a serial killer?"

Dave looked at her then flung his head back and laughed.

"I think he would make a successful serial killer. Nasty piece of work, if you ask me," Drum said, chuckling.

"The Alaskan iceberg," Madi agreed.

She really wanted to follow up on her questions about Jayden but she was afraid of giving herself away if she did. Jayden very much put an end to her budding interest in him by letting it be known at least between the two of them that he didn't like her, will not like her and in fact, had no intention of even entertaining thoughts of liking her.

She gets it but she was barely sixteen, suffering her first pangs of puppy love and it was hard not to just eat him up when she sees him, which was almost everyday.

Ashley Patton was never heard from again after suffering a complete public humiliation at the hands of her former best friend, Madison Trent. The photos of her spreadeagled, showing her bush and slit, circulated in the internet for years, adding to the tough heroine mystique that followed Madi until graduation.

Madi's classmates tiptoed around her from then on. Both parties declared a truce but Madi also refused to mend fences with her colleagues or be a part of any social activity or group that necessitated interaction with them. She speaks when she's spoken to, listens, smiles, but there was a palpable coldness and distance that gave people pause when approaching her.

In some little ways, the horrifying experience of being targeted and bullied increased Madi's wariness about the world. If it had been anybody but Ashley who did that to her, she would have been more understanding, more forgiving but the fact that her best friend actually did a Lord of the Flies on her basically wiped out her trust scale from ninety to zero.

Her friendship with Drum, however, intensified as the year drew almost to a close. She celebrated her sixteenth birthday with her dad and Drum only in attendance. She had been very candid with her father, telling him what Ashley tried to do and the ruthless almost vicious way she put a stop to it.

Adam Trent didn't say anything for a while. He seemed to be thinking of something. Madi was expecting a lecture so she was very surprised when he suddenly talked about her mother.

"It seems you have the same street smarts as your mother," he commented.

"Mom? You've never talked about her before."

"It doesn't mean I've forgotten," he said quietly.

Madi looked at him then took his hand as she leaned against him on the long sofa. It didn't take him long to start talking again.

"You didn't know it but your mom and I were high school sweethearts," Adam said with a smile.

"You were?" Madi was startled. "How did that happen? I thought you moved a lot in those days."

"I stayed in the house of a high school friend whose family was very kind to me. They took me in, housed me, fed me and basically saved my life after your grandparents died. I was in such a mess back then but Robert didn't even think of letting me off on my own. There was some money I received from the insurance company so I used that to continue my schooling. But emotionally, I was dead. Then I met Nyssa."

Adam smiled at the remembrance of the girl who had changed his life.

"You remind me a lot about her. You don't look like her since you got your looks from me but you basically share the same world viewpoint."

"Which is?" Madi asked curiously.

"That the world is inherently evil and if somebody breaks your trust then that person doesn't deserve a second chance."

"It's common sense, dad."

"In the case of your mother, it came about because of a personal thing that happened to her personally."

"What?"

"I betrayed her."

Madi looked at him, surprised.

"Nyssa used to have a close friend in high school. Her name was Marie. Marie was the sort of person you didn't really pay attention to unless she's best friends with the prettiest and smartest girl in school, which your mom was."

"Did you cheat on mom, dad?"

"No, but it's worse than that."

"What could be worse than cheating?"

"Taking another girl's word as gospel and losing faith in your sweetheart as a result."

Madi didn't know what to say so she waited.

"Your mom was the best thing that happened to me in high school, besides Robert of course. She was like sunshine that drew everybody to her with her warmth and her kindness and her care for other people. But something happened. I guess Marie was jealous of her popularity and said some things that harmed and almost destroyed Nyssa."

"What did she do?" Madi asked.

"A pair of black pearl earrings which Marie's mom gave her before she passed away went missing. That night, she stayed in Nyssa's house for the weekend. Monday morning, she came to school very upset. Everybody was concerned, especially Nyssa. Your mom asked me to talk to her to find out what's wrong so I did, that very day after class. After much badgering and begging, Marie finally came clean and told me that when she was in Nyssa's house, they tried on some outfits pretending to be runway models. Your mom loved clothes and shoes so whenever Marie comes over for a visit, she would show them off then allow Marie to try them on. That night, Marie was going through your mom's jewelry box looking for some accessories when she saw something really shocking. She found her missing black pearl earrings."

"There must have been an explanation for that. What did mom say?" Madi's heart was beating so fast, it almost felt like she had just ran a long marathon.

"Marie didn't say anything but somehow word leaked out and the gossip started. It became so bad and vicious, your mom was targeted and isolated. From being the most popular and well-liked girl in school, Nyssa became a social pariah overnight."

"Did you believe the rumors?" Madi had a bad feeling about his next answer.

Adam didn't answer but when he did there was so much sadness on his face that it almost broke Madi's heart.

"Yes," he softly said. "I did. I believed Marie because when I asked Nyssa she didn't say anything and merely laughed at me. She said that since I believed Marie over her then there was nothing else to say."

"What happened then?"

"The bullying became very ugly and very physical. She was ganged up in the bathroom but luckily saved herself by being proactive. She had began carrying maze, spray paint, a BB gun and rope wherever she goes as a means of fighting back. The worst attack was when ten boys stalked her inside the locker room. Your mom loved to swim and she would always do a few laps in the mornings because she said she liked the peace and quiet. When she was done and went to change, those boys were already waiting for her."

Madi looked at him horrified.

"No, it didn't get that far," he said in answer to her silent question. "But it nearly went out of control because they started taunting and roughing her up. Luckily, a janitor, who was not supposed to be there because one of his sons was sick, arrived and chased those hoodlums away."

"What happened afterwards, dad?" Madi whispered, afraid of the answer.

"Well, Nyssa extracted the most savage and most vicious form of revenge that practically wiped that school off the face of the planet. Nyssa didn't report the attack to the authorities. Instead, she hired ten private detectives to look into the lives of those students and teachers. Yes, teachers, because she later found out three of them were in on it. They knew what those boys were planning to do but kept quiet about it.

"Several days after the attack, Nyssa went back to school and hell went with her. That very afternoon, those boys, who were preening about feeling so cocky and proud of what they almost did to the school's famous prom queen, found their lives totally and utterly destroyed before the day was over."

"What did mom do?"

"Well, the ten detectives came back with different reports. Three of those attackers were supposed to go to Harvard after they leave school. But Harvard withdrew the scholarship offers after Nyssa flew to Cambridge and spoke to a prominent member of the scholarship board. She not only spoke to him, she presented him a report of the three students' public and private lives. Turns out, one of them had a gambling problem, another one was abusing his five year old sister, and another one was anti-gay. Nyssa also told them that once she gets back, she will file a $100 million civil lawsuit against the three for sexual harassment and she'll be sure to drag Harvard's name in the gutter if the scholarship offers were not rescinded."

"My god," Madi said reverently. "Mom sounds awesome."

"Awesome and scary. Very scary," Adam corrected. "So those three boys lost what could have been a life-changing scholarship offer from one of the world's top famous universities."

"What did she do with the rest of her attackers?"

"She destroyed their livelihood."

"What?" Madi said, stunned.

"Not only those who boys but everyone who used to be her friends and who were now hanging out with Marie to mock and abuse her."

"But how did she do it? And where the hell did she get the idea?"

Adam Trent smiled.

"Your mother was wired differently than most people. She understood commerce and money because her family was rich. She didn't use money to bribe her enemies but instead use the idea of having money to destroy their hopes and dreams. Those kids had parents whose businesses depended largely on her family's money to survive. So, she cut their access to them by simply announcing a new bidding war."

"Bidding war?" Madi was perplexed.

"The backbone of all commerce, Madi. Top quality; low production cost. That's how Nyssa played it."

"She did that on her own?"

"Your grandfather allowed it," Adam Trent shrugged. "Your mom and your grandfather were very alike in that department. Totally merciless and ruthless."

"So, what happened to Marie?" Madi was getting excited hearing the story.

"We'll get to her, don't worry. Anyway, after your mom started the bidding war, all bets were off. The old bidders expected to be given preference since they've been with the company for years. But the new bidders were more aggressive, more techno-centered, so they won the bid. After the winners were announced, almost all of your mom's classmates dropped out and did not return to school."

"Wow." Madi breathed almost reverently.

"Nyssa's tormentors found out too late that they never had the power over her at all. She always had the power of life and death over them so they lost and lost badly. Some of them came begging at school, grown men and women crying for another chance, but Nyssa was like ice. She looked at them like they were dirt under her feet and completely ignored them.

"As for those teachers who encouraged the bullying, turns out two of them were having an affair so Nyssa showed the teacher's wife a video of her husband humping his co-worker and invited her to come to school. In front of thousands of people, that wife beat, kicked and basically humiliated that poor teacher in front of the entire school."

"Nobody stopped it?"

"Nyssa, by then, had cowered everybody into silence. They saw what happened to those boys and their families. The entire school board were frightened they would be next. That other teacher involved in the bullying escaped your mother's wrath by escaping quietly. He didn't even resigned. He just disappeared."

"Mom was scary shit. But what about Marie?"

"Nyssa didn't do anything to her."

"What?" Madi was surpised. "But..."

"She didn't need to. By then, everybody was facing financial and social ruin. One of the girl's hanging out with Marie had a sister who was about to get married. At the last minute, however, her fiancee canceled the wedding. Turns out, someone told him that his fiancee's sister was involved in the vicious bullying of his employer's daughter.

"By then, everybody finally realized that all of this started when Marie found her missing black pearl earring inside Nyssa's jewelry box. They pieced the clues together and started picking holes in Marie's story. Nobody actually heard her say that the earring was found in Nyssa's possession but she didn't deny it either so the implication was obvious. So many bright futures ruined and destroyed because they believed a liar secretly hating on her best friend. There was only one outcome and Marie found out what it was weeks later."

"They killed her?" Madi whispered, aghast.

"Worse than that. They crippled her. They did a Tonya Harding on her and had someone crush her legs with a crowbar."

"I would have had her gang raped in front of a huge crowd," Madi said, seriously.

Her father laughed.

"Very much like Nyssa," he said, shaking his head.

"While all this was going on, what happened between you and mom?"

"We broke up. Rather, she broke up with me. After the attack, I went to her house to see her. I realized I made a mistake and wanted to beg her to take me back but she refused to see me."

Madi looked at her father and hesitated. But she wanted to know and she felt that the question was important.

"If you loved her...if she was the best thing that happened in your life...I don't understand why you didn't believe her even if she didn't say anything. Surely..."

Adam Trent met his beloved daughter's eyes and gave a sad smile.

"I've always felt that Nyssa was too good for me. I had nothing but my dreams and love to give her. She was the star that everybody wanted to reach yet she chose me. I felt inferior. I felt...so many things. In some way, perhaps I hated her. I wanted her pulled down from her pedestal so she could at least be on the same level as me. Share my mediocrity."

"Dad..."

"Shhh, let me speak, darling. I need to get this off my chest because...Your mother moved away afterwards. I stayed in that school for another year until I graduated. Robert's father gave me a job in his company so I was able to send myself to school. But I never forgot your mother. Nyssa needed me and I failed her. Despite the many successes I have in my life, I still felt small and insignificant...because I let a stupid mistake rob me of your mother's love and companionship."

"But, dad, you and mom got together again. You got married and had me so it can't be that bad," Madi protested.

"Nyssa and I got together only after ten years had passed. By then, she had a life without me. She married and had a son..."

Madi was so shocked she nearly keeled over from where she was sitting down.

"Mom was married and she had a son?!"

"Time doesn't stop for anyone, you know," Adam Trent smiled. "Your mother found someone who loved her as much as I did and they got married. They had a little boy named Trevor and...Nicholas and Trevor died in a car accident. They were driving to pick up a cake they had ordered for Nyssa's birthday that day when they met an accident. I heard about it and went to see your mother. This time she permitted me to see her. After ten years, we finally came face to face."

"Then?"

"She told me that she was going back home to L City. She thanked me for coming and asked me if I ever built the dream house I used to tell her about when we were in high school. I told her yes, and that it had always been waiting for its mistress to come home."

Adam wiped the tears running softly down his daughter's cheeks.

"What I regret most in this life was the years I wasted. If I had known then what I know now, I would have asked Nyssa to marry me in high school. I wasted ten years. I had her for eight before I truly lost her. We could have had all those years together if I'd been a man who truly was deserving of her. But I guess I shouldn't be too greedy. I had those lovely, peaceful and passionate eight years with her. One shouldn't ask anything more when they're already had a glimpse of heaven, right?"