SELFISH WORLD

VERONICA'S POV

"I have reason to believe that Adrian is compromised." I say as I sit around the table. The only woman in a room of me. The men that own erotica. The only reason I'm in this room with them is because my husband was one of the founders of this organization. When he died, I decided to take erotica into my own hands. I decided to personally train the girls and build them the way I wanted.

"And what pushes you to come to that conclusion veronica?" Fernando, the new CEO of erotica asks me.

"We all know Adrian has never been a careful man. He's reckless and irresponsible which is why we never really integrated him into the heart of erotica. But he has money. He has invested so much over the years and because of him, we all are swimming in money."

"Why don't you get to the point. If Adrian is compromised, then we best find and kill him." Another man says.

"I think that would be unwise." I say with a scowl.

"What do you suggest we do then Veronica." Fernando asks.

"A few days ago, Adrian's house was raided. His guards were killed, his maids were set free and I believe he was kidnapped. He sent a girl to us."

"Ah, this beautiful girl you've given the title angel. I hear the guards won't stop talking about what a beauty she is." Another man around the table says with a predatory look on his face. This is how all men are and this is exactly why they are one of the weakest species to ever exist.

They only think with that thing in between their legs and with the right tactics, they can easily be manipulated.

"She was a well renowned therapist in the outside world. She comes from a good family. She has a best friend who was a lawyer and recently, just a few months ago, she found love." I open a file and throw some pictures that were difficult as hell to find.

"That is Dante Russo." I say as the men around the table examine the picture in front of them.

"I have trouble understanding what he has to do with all this." A fat man with no thought behind his eyes as he smokes on a cigarette.

"Use your head, Thomas. He was the girl's boyfriend, and if I'm putting two and two together correctly. Veronica thinks he has something to do with Adrian's abrupt disappearance." I smile at Fernando. He's the only one with a brain around here.

"This man keeps himself well hidden. It took me and my tech guys a lot to find him and we did. I have reason to believe he found out about Adrian's involvement with erotica." All the men go on alert at my words but they don't seem scared enough.

"This is just one man though. What can he do?" A man asks.

"Oh a lot." I take out other pictures of middle men, investors and other business men who have worked with us over the years. Killed in unimaginable and disgusting ways. The men all look at the images with a twist in their faces.

"A certain hidden shadow has had a personal Vendetta against us over the years. We have lost a lot of men because of this man but he has never really managed to get to our core. Not until he found Adrian and I'm scared that his involvement with Adrian and this Adeline girl will bring him straight to us. I have received a call from Adrian recently. He wants to set up a meeting but I know it's a trap. I know the person who really wants a meeting is Dante Russo."

"So you're telling me the boyfriend of the new and most beautiful girl we have here is coming against us." Fernando chuckles. "Just what exactly does he think he can do to us?"

"It would be stupid to underestimate him. He has Adrian. He has a reason to hate us and you would be surprised what kind of monster a man can turn into because of his love for a woman." I look to each and every man in the room with me.

All monsters.

"So we give him what he wants then. We set up a meeting with him and get rid of him. We get Adrian back too because he might be stupid but he can still help us in other ways. Financially I mean."

"I believe you will take care of it then." Fernando says to me. That's how they are. They never do their own dirty work by themselves. They always get other people to soil their hands for them. No worry though. I get bored sometimes and that boredom leads to murderous thoughts. Sometimes I just need to kill somebody, and right now, I won't rest until the pest named Dante Russo is dead.

"Of course. I'll get rid of Dante." I say with a smirk on my face.

"About the girl…" Fernando says. "Don't hurt her. She will be of use to us. Our clients have been looking for something new lately. The girls is not young but she's hot. With the right buyer, we can sell her off. Imagine how much money she will bring us."

"That's the plan. She's one of the girls that will be put up for auctioning. Sooner than she'll be out of here and bought as wife to some pervert. She will serve her purpose. That you don't need to worry about." I assure him.

"Ah Veronica. Sometimes I wonder what we would do without you." The man with the cigarette says. I hate the smell of cigarettes.

"Seriously. You hold this organization together from the bottom up. our clients are always pleased with out girls because of you." Fernando says.

I wasn't always the monster I am today. When I look back at my life, I can tell the exact moment everything went wrong. I was born into a rich family. My parents educated me and raised me to be the perfect daughter. I was from a family people like to call old money. My parents had generational wealth and when I turned eighteen, they decided to marry me off to another filthy rich family.

I was okay with it. It's how I was raised and it's what I was trained for, but nothing could have prepared me for the messed up man that my parents set me up with. He completely ruined me and turned me from a happy girl, to a girl that could only see everything wrong in the world. My happiness and innocence was snatched away from me at a young age. Evil was all I knew after I got married.

My late husband is the one who introduced me to erotica and I embraced it. I embraced it because I had no choice. I had no choice but to push my emotions and humanity away. I had no choice but to become monster, and so I did, and now, all that is left of me is an empty, empty and hollow shell of a human and there's nothing I can do but accept myself as I am now.

I've sunk too deep to try and swim back to the surface and even if I wanted to, they wouldn't let me. I'd be dead before the thought even crossed my mind.

I've lived by one rule my whole life. 'In a selfish world, the selfish succeed.' It is a selfish world and to save myself, I don't care what I have to do. I will always choose myself. I will always survive.