Leashed

Chapter 4

Ohm Consunji was 24 years old, and it was his old man’s birthday party. The event assembled different faces—some he knew, some he didn’t know and some he didn’t want to know. Their nervous employees were there along with their opportunistic business partners, jealous relatives and bitter competitors whom they’ve respected to invite. He didn’t like to be there watching his father, Ricardo Consunji, smiling from ear to ear towards people who’d be too glad to see him fall. His father is honest and compassionate to a fault, and he loves him too much, especially after his mother succumbed to cervical cancer. He doesn’t want to see his father drown in devastation again. If it was possible, he’d bomb that extensive banquet hall to exterminate the people who’d want to take advantage of him just like how he got rid of the women who tried to ruin them both.

            He recalled a certain woman named Meryl Domingo. She was the first of the few women his father brought home when he was 18. She was in her late thirties, divorced twice but without a child. She was a brunette with an hour-glass figure, and she had a lot of experience (you get what I mean) with wealthy men.

            His father was then a dejected man who felt that he needed a replacement for his deceased wife—a diversion from his loneliness. Meryl was two decades younger and was perfectly accommodating. But of course, Ohm knew that she was after his father’s money.

            He had to remove her from their lives.

            Meryl had just finished taking her bubble bath when someone knocked on the door to the spacious room her elderly lover gave her. She was annoyed why someone would bother her early in the day when she specifically told the maids to stand by until she called them. It wouldn’t be Ricardo since he’ll be away for five days on a business trip. Whoever it is, she’ll give her a piece of her mind as the self-proclaimed future mistress of the Consunji Estate.

            “Who—?!” She didn’t need to finish for (as you may have guessed) Ohm was there standing several inches over her. His heart-shaped lips pressed into a straight line.

            “Hey.”

            She caught a whiff of his youthful scent. He smelled of soap and shampoo; just like her, he had just taken a bath. More importantly, this was surprising. Ohm seldom talked to her particularly that she sensed he didn’t like her a bit.

            “Oh, Ohm. What brings you here?”

            “Good morning. May I come in?”

            There could be nothing wrong with this. She’d be his stepmother anyway. “Sure.”

            As soon as he let himself in, he hurriedly locked the door. She wasn’t alarmed with that, only with him suddenly approaching and kissing her.

            “W-What are you—?!” She protested, but he didn’t take any heed to what she had to say. “O-Ohm, stop it. No! Don’t.” Her arms were weak against his, and her hands couldn’t make his solid chest budge. Eventually, she surrendered to his embrace.

            He brought her to her bed and peeled the cotton robe off her, exposing every bit of the woman she is. She was ready for him.

            He inserted two fingers inside her womanhood. She gasped as these went back and forth. He quickened the pace until she curled her toes when she reached her c****x.

            “If you don’t like this, you can tell me to stop.”

            She sat up. Her hunger and longing evident, she kissed him. “No. Please continue.”

            w***e. He mockingly thought.

            He never thought he’d resort to something as revolting as this. The woman, for him, was ugly. She had a lot of ugly sides to her. She slept with his father yet she was salivating for him. He knew how attracted to him she was; and she’d always try to seduce him. She would walk around technically naked around him. Once, she scooped some ice cream and licked it in front of him in the most malicious of manners.

            He took his shirt off and unzipped his pants. He was eager down there. Not for the s*x but for punishing her. Rough and unforgiving, he thrust inside her.

            I’ll destroy you, you b***h. He mentally promised.

            This kind of encounter was repeated a lot of times, and most often, Meryl would ask for it. She fell in love with the young Consunji. Though he has the same eyes as his father, his are furious and challenging. Her young lover has too much energy in bed; she had had enough of old men who’re too pitiable to fall for her and whose weak joints couldn’t satisfy her. At least, their money compensated for what they lacked.

            Then one day, just as Ohm planned, his father found out about his girlfriend’s outrageous affair with him, yet not everything went the way he wanted it. Instead of throwing Meryl out of the house and beating his son, he forgave them both, and he chose to support their relationship. In his perspective, they were starkly in love with each other, and as the ever considerate man, he felt that he had not the right to interfere. His father was happy for them.

            But he was definitely not.

The memory is vivid. His father gave him full consent for he thought he was giving his son a huge favor; little did he know, he gave him the right to abuse her. He remembered how, day by day, he mortified her.

            Ohm ordered to lock her up in a villa, guarded and alone to painfully wait for him, for he only visited her once or twice a month. This was deliberate and calculated, since he wanted her to desire him, to seek the meager attention he allotted her. And when he went to see her, there’d be times he’d stop in the middle of making love to her, reasoning that he had to go to back to school, do research or some urgent dealing. He was playing with her to make her lose her patience—to make her insane for obsessing herself for his embrace.

            Then one day, she couldn’t contain it anymore. She needed an outlet for her release.

            Ohm found her naked, positioned on all fours in the living room, while one of the men guarding her rammed her from behind and another’s shaft was in her mouth.

            A loud gunshot and a broken vase made the three of them look at him. Bewildered and ashamed, she collected herself.

            “Ohm. I thought you wouldn’t be here till next week.” She realized her predicament that she wished that this had all been a dream.

            Ohm spitefully looked at the two guards standing still with an erection. “Get out before I blow your f*****g heads off.”

            They sloppily collected their clothes and took their exit, leaving behind an aghast woman to deal with the furious man.

            “It’s not what you think, Ohm,” she started to reason.

            “Then, what the hell am I supposed to think?” He calmly replied through gritted teeth.

            “It’s not my fault. It’s not. You’re not always here to see me. I feel rotting as days pass by. You don’t know how much it—”

            “Oh, stop it! Now, it’s my fault that you had s*x with them?!” Tears started to spring from his eyes as he looked at her. (It’s an act, I tell you) “I thought you love me.”

            A pang of guilt struck her. “I do love you, Ohm. I love you so much.” She made her way towards him but an angry bullet to her trail made her halt.

            “Don’t come near me, you w***e. Don’t you dare come near me!” He was in frenzy. He shot his bullets around her without looking away. She, on her end, slumped to the floor for dear life.

            He approached and looked down on her. “I don’t want to see your face ever again, slut.”

            Then, he left as she howled her apologies which his ears chose to repel.

            He got inside his car and dialled a number on his phone. “Good job, boys. Did you have fun?”

            The guard on the other line had just finished changing himself. “It was fun till it lasted, boss.”

            “Well played.” He smirked to himself and ended the call.

Days later, Meryl made a scene at the entrance to his university. She wore a silk robe and nothing else underneath it.

            “I am Ohm Consunji’s lover. Let me in! I need to see him.”

            The security guards had enough of the warm dusk and of her. She was annoyingly persistent.

            Finally, in her peripheral view, a Gray Lamborghini appeared, and she had a strong hunch who was behind the wheel. She dashed to it and made it just in time to barricade it.

            “Ohm! I found you. I know it’s you! Please talk to me.”

            The security guards followed her.

            “You have stop this at once, ma’am. You’re being a nuisance. The student named Ohm Consunji has already gone home,” one of them said.

            “I don’t believe you. I know that’s him inside. Let me go! Damn it! Ohm!” She protested and wanted to get loose from their grip.

            “Ma’am, you have to—” In her earnest, she kneed one of them in his jewels and bit the other’s hand. She broke free.

            “Ohm!” She extended her arms. “I’m sorry about what happened. I truly am.”

            To the shock of everyone around, she took off her robe and revealed her nudity to him and to the other university students. Sure, they won’t mind—if only it had been an oblation run.

            “You want this, right?” She pertained to her body. “I’ll give it all to you—only to you!”

            He watched everything unfold in front of his very eyes. He found it laughable. Really. He was amused and tremendously satisfied at how pathetic the woman he despises was.

            That’s right, b***h. Show me more of the dog you are.

            He wanted to laugh out loud—to relish in the absurd spectacle and to reward himself for succeeding in making this woman the laughingstock that she was at that moment. But he had to hold it in for he wanted her to be swallowed more in humiliation.

            Ohm didn’t get out of his car and stayed still. His schoolmates were already saving videos and taking pictures of her. A short while later, she was viral in social media.

            Meryl couldn’t care less and didn’t want to give up, for he made her believe that he was truly in love with her, but she squandered it. She thought that she needed to do everything to get him back.

            After retrieving themselves from the shock, the security guards took it a chance to subdue her and turn her over to the police for lasciviousness. She was released eventually, but her efforts didn’t cease there. She longed for him so much; she felt that she’d die if she couldn’t see him in a day. That’s why she made it a plight to make him love her again—which you and I know that he never did—with whatever means necessary.

            Dusk of February that year, she was admitted to the National Center for Mental Health. The court vindicated that she was unfit for sanity after she infiltrated his room, tried to force herself on him and even went as far as attempt to kill him.

            Meryl Domingo wasn’t the last woman in his father’s life, so she wasn’t the only victim to his ploys. He terrorized the women his father fancied to the point that two of them committed suicide and the rest ran away and vowed never to return. Certainly, he admits it to himself that he is evil, but it was all for the sake of protecting his father and the security of their possessions.

            Nevertheless, he could never forget any of them since they all tasted uniform to him—sweet but bland—and smelled alike—musky but never addicting. He inhaled and closed his eyes as if reliving his exploits. Women, for him, are fragile—easy to break and easy to dispose.

            “Ohm, hijo. Here.” He was then severed from recollecting when his father called him. “Come greet my good friend, your Ninong Wile.”

            He approached a man in a neat tuxedo and briefly pressed the back of his hand against his forehead. This is the Filipino way of respecting elders—pagmamano.

            “We’re truly grateful that you came, Ninong.”

            “Oh, I wouldn’t miss this old man’s 57th birthday.” Wile chuckled along with his father.

            Ricardo Consunji, his father, and Wile Belmonte may have nothing to do with each other for the disparity in their businesses, but they are friends who’ve known each other since childhood. He admires the friendship of both men. It has been cemented through decades of trust and confidence even with totally contrasting personalities. His father is honest and as gentle as his Sino eyes, but his compadré is someone who doesn’t bare enough goodness to others.

            He can definitely relate to his Ninong. They are so much alike. They are both cunning. They are both insatiable. They are both manipulative—so unlike his father. Sometimes, he jokingly wonders if he grew up with the wrong parent.

            That evening, however, his Ninong had a very interesting companion.

            “Ohm, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Neoma.”

            Her porcelain white complexion made her look like a doll clad in a red dress that was off shoulders and only reached inches above her knees. She was beautiful and enticing, and she didn’t smile. Her eyes were like his, cold and serious, that these could kill.

            “Happy birthday, Tito Ricardo.” She handed him a gift tied with a ribbon with the same color as her dress, and those were the first words he heard from her delicious-looking mouth. He gulped as he imagined how it would taste.

            He heard that his Ninong had an only child, but he never met her in person till that point, and he never expected her to be a goddess that even Aphrodite herself would be envious of.

            “Thank you, hija. How great it is that you’re also here!” His father graciously replied. “Anyway, I’d like you to meet my son, Ohm. Next year, he’ll be replacing me as the CEO and President of our humble company.”

            Neoma looked at him straight in the eye. There definitely was tension. Her gaze was condescending, and it started to intimidate him. “Oh, I know, Tito. He’s quite popular to us women.”

            Tabloids. He thought.

            She extended her hand to shake his. He took it and the moment he did, a surge of electricity struck him. This woman, he thought, is unlike any of the women he met before.

With a glass of champagne on one hand, Neoma was outside the hall and at the terrace, feeling the cold wind. Ohm finally found her—you see, he’d been looking for her for a while after he couldn’t grasp a sight of her inside the hall.

            “Why are you here alone?” he initiated.

            “For the same reason that you are alone—I don’t want to talk to anyone I’m not familiar with,” she answered without taking a look at him and sipped her drink.

            “I guess you’re just afraid you’d get hit on,” he jested.

            Her brow shot up, and she turned to face him. “Just like what you are doing now?”

            He couldn’t respond that instant, for it really was his intention.

            “I’m only trying to talk to you though.”

            “It doesn’t feel like it though.”

            This girl was challenging him, and he was up for it. She was still 19, yet there was this aura of maturity that felt so appealing to him. So he went closer to her—actually too close that she felt his breath on her cheeks.

            “What does it make you feel then?”

            “You can’t take your eyes off me since the moment we met. Now, tell me, how do I make you feel?”

            There was something in her words that triggered him. There was something in her tantalizing eyes that pulled him. There definitely was something that made him cup her face and claim her lips full.

            He closed his eyes and felt all the heat, the passion. It felt like he was starving till he tasted this woman. He needed her badly; he was going insane.

            She, on the other end, didn’t back down. She wanted to feel it too. The excitement was there, and she was attracted to him. But she herself knew that this was fleeting.

            He was sinking more and more to her enchantment. He didn’t want to stop even when the glass slipped from her hand and broke on the floor. There was nothing that could make him, for he already decided that she’ll be his conquest. It was until he chose to conquer her neck that she suddenly uttered something which made him stop.

            “Sol,” she said, “Don’t. Tito Ricardo will surely be sad.”

            A guy as tall as him was already pointing a gun at his temple. He let go of Neoma and turned to properly see his face.

            He was younger than him, but he certainly looked more menacing as he went behind Neoma and wore her coat on her.

            “Wait for me in the car,” she told him.

            Sol’s eyes were now directed to him, and peculiarly, he smiled at him like nothing happened—like he didn’t try to kill him.

            “Well then, Sir, please excuse me,” he courteously stated before he jumped over the concrete railings and disappeared into the shadows.

            “Who was that?” Ohm managed to ask.

            She gave him a dimpled smile. “He’s my dog.”

            He was baffled, and he felt uneasy. Maybe it was because he had too much alcohol; that’s why he couldn’t shake off the uneasiness—the fear that Sol imprinted in him. He didn’t know that someone could sneak behind him like that and almost drill a hole in his head.

            “Well then, I’d like to retire for the night. Thank you for the company.” And she left him hanging and alone.

            Ohm confirmed that she was definitely someone extremely interesting. Yet the guy with her was also nothing ordinary.

            Her dog, huh. He thought.