Resisting The Billionaire

43. Everyone Is Suffering

Just as the door of the office flung open and Diana felt terrified to be seen in such a compromising situation, her reflex actions worked and she assumed that the best thing for her to do in that situation would be to run as quickly as she could.

She turned to leave and sprint away but someone grabbed her from behind and grabbed her by the hood of her oversize hoodie.

She cursed the day she decided to wear just a big jacket that made it easy for other to grab her and hold on to her.

She was weak and feeble, barely even above forty five kilograms. The only weight that she presumably had was that of her skeleton and her bones, since that was all that she possessed.

Diana’s eyes widened, as she realized that she was being taken to a secluded room and she felt terrified wondering if it was her father, who would give her another beating for being anywhere near him or trying to get closer to the office in the Sarmiento Mansion.

Once she was taken inside the ballroom, the person who was holding her dragged her down and threw her on the ground, making Diana hit the ground with her knees.

She gasped with shock that she felt as her body hit the wooden floor underneath her.

She remained frozen, afraid that if it was her father, he would begin hitting her soon and he would only thrash her wildly, hitting her black and blue.

Ross was a facetious fascist, who never hit Diana on the face and gave her such injuries that would be visible to others. He would hit her in the belly with his foot or kick her around and even punch her down. The only time he would smack her or slap her on the face would be when it would be weekend or a holiday, so that the injuries that she may sustain would vanish away before she had to go in public. He also made sure that Diana didn’t leave the house if her injuries were showing anywhere.

He was that much of a unscrupulous monster.

Assuming that she was going to be kicked any time soon, Diana bawled herself down and only remained in that position for the next few second, until she heard Adrian’s voice call her out.

“Get the f**k up! What the f**k do you think you were doing in there?”

He yelled at Diana, making her turn around and feel shocked, to find that the person who caught her sneaking up on the office was not her father but Adrian.

Even though she laid down on the floor, in an embarrassing situation in front of her crush but she did not care because at least she wasn’t getting abused by her father.

She only sighed in relief and stood up and brushed the dust off her jeans and her elbows.

“I asked you something?”

Adrian charged towards her and Diana flinched, afraid by looking at Adrian and the anger that he possessed. She felt afraid that just like her father, Adrian might as well hit her, given that he was the one who was getting trained by her father. So, she couldn’t expect anything less or more from the monster that her own father way.

Noticing that Diana was acting scared and flinching away, Adrian immediately took a step back.

He was already angered and agitated but he was never going to hit Diana.

He was many things – a rude bastard but not a bully. He was never the one to hurt someone physically or emotionally. He was rude towards everyone else because of the responsibilities that he had on his weak shoulders. Life was tormenting for him. he believed he knew what it was like to be bullied, since he used to be by his uncle and behind his then sore mood, the reason laid the same, his vicious uncle, who was never of the idea that Adrian would become the next CEO. That’s why whenever Ross would be training Adrian, Jake would pop up out of the blue and begin daunting and scolding Adrian and if anything, it did not make him feel dejected or demotivated, how Jake thought his techniques would work. In fact, if anything Adrian felt even more motivated and inclined to become the next CEO and take over the company and take it away from his uncle and shove it in his face that all of his years of t*****e never worked for him.

But he still needed to channel out his anger at someone and somehow Diana would always end up becoming the target of his torments and verbal a***e.

“Tell me! I asked you something.” Adrian yelled at Diana, who squirmed and took a few steps back.

“I… I heard some noises from the office, so I was just worried and…”

“Even if I you hear me dying, you should never come anywhere near the office? Got it! I don’t want to see you anywhere near me. Your entire presence is pesky and horrible. I hate you!”

He yelled at her, embarrassed that Diana may have heard him getting scolded by his uncle.

Understanding that Adrian may be embarrassed by something that may have happened to him, Diana decided to help him feel better as she spoke up.

“You don’t have to worry about a thing. I didn’t hear anything.”

Adrian snapped his eyes sharp at Dian and squinted them lowly as he stared at her, throwing daggers with his eyes.

“Did I ask you, if you heard anything or not? Did I?” he yelled again and Diana only shook up, as she took a few steps back, where a small console was place, as part of the large sofa sets that were placed in the living room.

Her legs stumbled upon the console and she ended up stumbling back and losing her balance.

She went stumbling and flying back, falling down on to the console, where she hit her bottom quite rigidly.

“Pathetic.” Adrian stated, as he looked at her condition and commented mercilessly.

“Stay the hell away from me? Got it? I hate it that you are always buzzing around me. It is so fractious. If I could, I would have you thrown out of the house and never allow you to be anywhere near me.”

He told her, as he finally turned his gaze away from her and walked out of the living room through the other door, located on the wall adjacent to the one from where Diana and Adrian had previously entered.

“Ouch…” Diana complained, getting up on her feet and only sarcastically complained about her pain just to her own self because there wasn’t anybody else who would understand her.

She walked out from the same door of the living room with which she entered, ready to leave but once again, her feet felt stuck when she heard loud murmurs coming from the inside of the office.

She wanted to leave but somehow her feet felt stuck and immobile.

Somebody was taking her father’s name over and over again and scolding him out and loud.

Diana didn’t know that her father was getting scolded by anyone at the company.

She thought that everyone loved him at his office and he was rejoiced by everyone at his work place but she guessed that she could be wrong after all.

She wasn’t curious about the kind of the business that was happening in the office area of the house but rather excited to see that her tormenter also got taunted and scolded by someone else and she assumed that perhaps seeing her father getting thrashed even verbally by someone else would bring her some sense and some sort of joy.

With that she leaned forward and saw that the door of the office left slightly open by Adrian when he had walked out of it and caught Diana try to sneak up and eavesdrop on the conversation previously.

Initially when she came closer to the door of the office, she was only worried about Adrian but then she was excited and curious to see her father getting scolded by the two voice that were coming in from the inside.

One was of a man and as Diana craned her neck and peeped through the small opening of the door, she immediately recognized that voice to be of Jake Sarmiento, who was the father of Zion and Adrian’s uncle and the current CEO of the Sarmiento Corporations. He was older of the two brothers; with Leonardo, Jake’s father being his younger brother. But it was said that Leonardo met Holly in college and got married to her before Jake did and had a son Adrian and then six months later Zion was born.

Even though Zion had a more firm claim to the seat and the chair of the CEO, Adrian’s father just believed that being the older one, Adrian should be the one to be the next CEO. And as it was Leonardo’s wish to see his son become the CEO, he worked hard, day in and night out to spread his seeds in the company and planted many of his trustworthy men in the company. It is said to believe that Leonardo noticed Ross’s potential to be a sagacious corporate slave, so he had him promoted to the planning committee where Ross would stay close to the CEO’s office and even got him married to his wife’s best friend which he believed was a move that would keep Ross closer to the family and once he would have all that was necessary insight of what goes on and about in that office, through Ross he would be able to train and teach Adrian the necessary skills to be the CEO. This way, very keenly and cleverly Leonardo sowed a permeant seed that would always remain grateful to him and be of his use in the long term, in the name and face of Ross.

But poor Leonardo was gone too soon. Due to the extensive worries of his business, he ended up passing away only two years ago when Adrian was only fourteen but that did not stop Adrian or his mother, from working hard towards fulfilling Leonardo’s goals.

In the mean time, during all those years when Leonardo was working hard, Ross was also able to become the Head of the planning committee by donating his kidney to Percy Sarmiento, Adrians grandfather, who was so pleased and moved by Ross’s gesture that he promoted him to a very powerful seat.

And Diana did not have much or deep understanding of the power dynamics or how the balance of power actually worked in that family but one thing that she always believed was that her father only married her mother because she was someone who was quite close to the Sarmientos and through her Ross got closer to the family and that was how he reached to that position.

But Diana never knew that underneath all that staunch and machoism that Ross possessed in the house and specifically showed it towards Diana, he was nothing but a mere pawn and a corporate slave to the Sarmientos who moved him around, by pulling his strings like a meek little puppet.

She peaked inside and found Rosalia, the petite, short statured, slightly chubby but quite the domineering woman, who had her brunette hair pushed back in a tight bun, wearing formal clothes. She paced the office space back and forth, with her husband sitting behind the large desk, a place where Adrian sat during his training by Ross, Diana’s father.

And that’s when it hit Diana, Adrian must had been sitting on that chair when her uncle came in and without a second thought, he must have had Adrian pushed out of that chair and sat on it, just because he wanted to show that he is the real CEO and Adrian would never be anything compared to him and his power.

Diana felt agitated and finally realized that he was the reason behind Adrian’s sour mood that let to his lash out at Diana.

Diana felt slightly tinged and worried about her father who stood on the opposite side of the desk, facing Jake, who was the current CEO of the Sarmiento Corporations.

Behind Jake was a large window, right out of which one could easily view the entire street and usually the curtains on the window are drawn on in order to maintain peace for Adrian whenever he would be getting trained by Ross but with those curtains drawn off, Diana could once again tell that it was a deliberate move by Jake and his wife Rosalia, done only to irritate and irk Adrian and interrupt his training.

“You don’t even get paid for it, so why do you put so much time and energy in training that c**k!” Rosalia complained, as she continued fuming and paced the office.

Cock!

Diana wondered how dare his aunt call him with such derogatory terms. She was confused and also heartbroken to see how much of vicious people they were.

It was also for the first time she was actually understanding Adrian’s rude and aloof behavior. It must be as a result of the fact that he was also just as much bullied by his own uncle and aunt just like Diana was bullied by her father.

“I only do it because Adrian is Joy and Leonardo’s son.”

Ross stated, in a meek tone and it was what caught Diana’s attention to begin with.

Her eyes widened as she realized how much of a wimp her father actually was. He acted like a weasel in front of those with power and thrashed and hit Diana, a helpless, weak girl.

That was the real face of her father, a worthless man and that’s why he hit her because hitting Diana gave him a sense of power that he lacked in the real world.

“Really? You really have some guts, risking your own life and future for the meek boy.”

Jake commented, making Rosali scoff along with her.

“You know you can not do this. You work for my husband and you train that boy, against us. My son is the ono who actually deserves to sit on the seat of the CEO but you have the guts to train that limp in our house so that he would take over my husband.”

Rosalia grunted at Ross, who kept his head low and his hands tied in front of him, showcasing through his actions how much of a meek pawn he was in the game of power dynamics between the Sarmientos.

“I don’t do anything that would be classified as working against Mr. Sarmiento. I come here in my free time and explain the boy simple methods of how business works and I don’t tell him anything about the highly classified secrets of the company that I know should not be given to anybody outside the office space. I do it as a favor because the poor child does not have a father who would teach him all of that.”

Rosalia couldn’t help but feel even more agitated at the way Ross defended the boy and his own acts shamelessly, leaving no space for them to complain.

“Fine then! From tomorrow on, you would train Zion as well in your free time.”

Ross kept his head low as he spoke back to Rosalia, trying his very best not to offend her.

“I can’t do that. you can not ask me or order me about how I choose to spend my free time. If you have a problem with me training Adrian here, I would simply shift the training to some place else and if you want me to train Zion, I can only do that during office hours. Since you have refused to let Adrian join the office before he at least graduates from college, I would recommend you send your own son to the office starting as soon as possible because he is practically far behind Adrian in that perspective. I can not do anything more than that.”

“Wow! Aren’t you going to say anything? Can’t you see the way he is acting as if he is your boss? Who the hell do you think you are to tell us that we can not order you?”

Rosalia hit Ross’s shoulder with her finger and forced him to shift his body towards him.

She mannerlessly snapped her fingers in his face and once again forced him to look up but he didn’t dare to. He knew better then to match his stare with the woman he knew was vicious and would only make another issue out of him staring right back at her.

“You are nothing! Do you get that. the clothes that you wear and even the food that you eat, all of that is given to you by us and if we want we can snatch all of that away within seconds and make you, your stupid daughter and that whorish wife of yours beg in the streets for food and if it comes down to that, I will make sure you don’t even find empty cans to hold out for begging and no one will pay you even a single penny. You would die of starvation and you dare to talk back to me and tell me that I can not ask you what you do in your free time?”

Rosalia yelled at Ross as she reached out and pulled his hair up, making Diana gasp in sheer shook.

She held her hand over her mouth as she watched how cruelly Rosalia daunted Ross.

She was quite shorter than him and almost half his size but she still dominated him even with that petite and short stature of hers.

She continued to pull Ross’s hair up, forcing him to look up and hoping that he will so that she would find a new to punish Ross but he also knew better so he just kept his eyes low, even when Rosalia pulled on to his hair.

“Listen to me you jungle freak! You are no one to tell me what my son lacks and what not. He is the most perfect boy on earth, you got that? I can sell your daughter and she would be only worth one meal of my son’s. you need to get this straight through your head.”

With that Rosalia let go off Ross and pushed him aside, gesturing him to get out of the room and Ross did just that. he straightened up, as his face was burning red with anger and embarrassment and Diana knew that if she went home with him or around the time he was still up, he would make her the target of his agony since he didn’t have the guts to talk about to Jake or his wife.

Once Ross decided to leave, he bowed down and was about to leave when Jake called him out, who was still sitting quietly and watching his wife behave horrendously with Ross.

“Wait! Don’t shift or change the place of Adrian’s training. Continue training him here.”

He ordered Ross, who nodded once again and finally bowed for one last time, as he walked out of the room.

Watching her father exit through that door, Diana immediately rushed forward and hid behind the doors of the living room and held her hands in tact over her mouth, making sure that nobody would listen to even her breaths.

Once she was sure that Ross had left, she also decided to empty out the place and leave it behind.

She walked out of the ball room and was about to leave when she heard Rosalia screaming at her husband.

“You didn’t say a word or asked him to stop training that b****y orphan. What is it now? Huh? Do you feel bad for him? are you showing empathy for that bastard who is only eighteen and already working towards snatching my son’s position?”

Jake only grunted and shrugged at his wife.

“You need to teach your son to be more responsible before speaking out and lashing out at others. Adrian is responsible and that is one thing that I can not deny.”

“That’s why you are going to let that backstabbing deceiver Ross continue that orphan’s training right in front of us? Under our very own nose?” Rosalia yelled back at her husband and he only rubbed his ears, annoyed by the screeching noise of her voice.

Diana also found Rosalia’s voice to be quite fractious and only wondered her husband was ever able to tolerate her.

“At least that way, I would know what Ross is teaching Adrian and how much he has taught that boy. And so far, I could tell that he has taught him quite a lot in over the last two years. The training that Ross must give that kid must be methodical and I only wonder how Zion would be able to match that. Ross is a very well versed worker of the company and he knows all that goes in and comes out of my office. So, I am confident that he is teaching Adrian the right things and if your son would not be able to keep up with Adrian and his pace then even if I have to swallow my pride and give that position to Adrian, I would. Remember! For me this business that my father built through his hard work matters the most.”

With that Jake got up from his seat and turned to walk towards the wall opposite to the book shelves and stood gawking at his father’s portrait pictures that were placed in a large frame, in the very middle of the rest of the family pictures.

“My father shed his blood, gave so much just for all of his to be sitting where we are.”

“Oh really?” Rosalia commented and then immediately groaned with agitation.

“We can’t even live out of this house where all of the family is crumpled up because of your father’s stupid rules. That’s how much control he still has on you even after he is dead. You are nothing but a mere servant to his legacy. Don’t think that you carry that legacy and don’t you dare forget that your father may have earned a name but I also brought multiple companies with me from my side, when I married you. this family grew stronger because of me.”

Rosalia reminded Jake that their relationship was nothing but a sped up and hastened alliance between the two families. Jake agreed to marry her only because he felt insecure when Leonardo got married and announced that he was expecting a child.

Percy had been pushing his oldest son to marry Rosalia, who was from an influential family but Jake himself was in love with another girl who belonged to a middle class family and Percy never agreed to the alliance. Jake still tried his best and kept on pushing but when Leonardo brought in a girl from a rich family, Percy was really happy with his son and got the two married immediately. This made Jake insecure who after hearing Leonardo’s pregnancy announcement agreed to marry Rosalia only to get the seat of the CEO but it was already too late.

Leonardo’s first child was a boy and being the older one, it put Adrian on the pedestal to become the next CEO after Jake.

And Rosalia also learned after a few years of her marriage and two children that her husband never stopped loving that middle class woman, when she caught him cheating on her and ever since then, she also made it her ultimate goal to work towards building her son strong enough to become the next CEO. She was embarrassed to having to leave her husband after he cheated on her and did not want to lose her husband to a woman from a lower class. Thence, she stayed but kept on reminding Jake about her influence on the family.

“Fine! then if you don’t want your father and your influence to go to waste then push your son to work hard.” Jake retorted back at his wife and she only grumbled back at him.

“He is just a child yet! How can you expect him to work hard?”

“Isn’t he around Adrian’s age? You want him to be the CEO, right? Then stop treating him like a child. It is because of you that he is so careless. If it weren’t for you, he may actually be able to learn something. Look at Joy and look at how she treats her son like a man. you need to stop treating Zion and stop spoiling him.”

“Whoa! Now you have developed the shame of praising other women in front of me.”

Rosali went ahead and began pushing Jake’s shoulder, forcing him to look at her but he only kept his face turned away from his wife, as he was reminded of his heinous acts of infidelity and a******y.

“I stayed with you even after you f****d other women on our bed. I kept this family together what else do you want from you? you would never be happy with me no matter what I do. So, what do you really want from me? Now you find Joy to be praise worthy but me? What about me? I tolerated every s**t that you threw my way and I am still not enough for you? how come you are such a vicious bastard?”

“Mind your f*****g tongue!”

He yelled at Rosalia, who screamed back him, screeching in a sheer voice and Diana only placed her hands over her ears and rushed out of the place, afraid to notice and witness the toxic environment that they had built around the mansion.

It was actually her first time, learning that the entire family hated each other so much that even a husband and wife yelled and fought with one another all the time and wanted nothing but to snatch the seat of the CEO; because whosoever would sit on the seat would get to rule not just that company but the entire of the New York and become one of the biggest influencing factors of many variables around the world.

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