Insufferable Proximity Read online

  Insufferable Proximity

  -By Z. Stefani-

  ©Copyright Z.Stefani 2012

  Table of Contents

  A Bitter Beginning

  Thank Heaven for Little Girls

  The Un-Heavenly First Encounter

  The Story Begins

  Sugar and Spice And Anything But Nice

  Another Day, Another Battle

  The Accidental Peep

  Peeper Penalties

  A Little Sabotage

  DAMN!

  The Best Friend Theory

  Signed Submission

  Contractual Obligation

  A Whole New Work

  Petal’s Dinner Party

  The Second Week

  Wedding Weekend

  The Third Week

  The Party

  The Fourth Week

  Escape from the East

  Back to Reality

  The Contract Ends

  The Congratulatory Party

  Friends?

  Intruder

  The Past Shall Come to Light

  A Series of Texts

  Conversations with a Stranger

  Escape

  Proximity Violation

  Epilogue

  Thank Heaven for Little Girls

  Heaven Sevigne Deville had been born dead smack in the middle of an intense April storm. It had rained hard for thirty days straight, flooding the city streets, forcing businesses to close and all living beings to seek shelter.

  The beautiful infant lay across the red, crushed-velvet blanket that covered the bed on which she had been born and conceived. The innocent infant lay unaware of the earth’s chaotic turn of weather or the scandalous reputation of the brothel that she had been born in.

  “Hello Heaven, my precious darling.” Ms. Sybille Deville, the Madame of the disreputable establishment, beamed with pride as she stared down at her only child.

  Never in Sybille’s wildest dreams did she believe this day would ever happen. She was thirty years old now and for the past fifteen years, every credible doctor had told her that she would never be able to have a child. Therefore, this little baby was a true miracle and the moment she was able to, she would teach her child everything she knew. She also planned to spoil her rotten and give her everything her heart desired.

  However, for the time being, Sybille had some dues to pay.

  Moments after Heaven’s birth, her mother had been whisked away by the local authorities and taken straight to the prison where she would begin serving her five-year sentence for tax evasion. Knowing their current governor as she did, Sybille knew she would be serving that sentence down to the last minute, there was no getting out of it. Even though over half of her cliental worked for the government, they were still able to get her on a fluke.

  Their current governor was on a crusade to ‘eradicate’ all forms of pornography in his state and he had found the perfect “election winner” in Sybille Deville. For over a year, he tried everything in his power to get Sybille, but quickly found the woman was clever as well as resourceful, she never left an end untied. However, in the end, just a week before the election, he had found his pot of gold.

  Although Sybille ran her business like a tight ship, she had made the mistake of trusting a friend. That friend had been cheating the IRS and pocketing that money, foolishly believing she would be long gone before it caught up with her. In truth if it was not for the governor’s war against Sybille, her accountant would have gotten away with it for much longer and Sybille would have owed much more.

  Sybille had more than enough money to pay that debt off, but their governor to be, made sure she would not get off that easy. He needed her to be the big bad wolf and was eager to make an example out of her.

  It was Sybille’s half-sister Coco, who would leave her career as an accountant to pick up the pieces of Sybille’s broken life. Coco’s personality was the polar opposite of her sister’s, where Sybille was romantic and whimsical, Coco was strict and disciplined.

  Over the next five years, Coco had re-invented the brothel, bringing it to more of a business level. During it all, she had raised Heaven as if she were her own child, spoiling the girl within reason while focusing on her development and her education. Coco and her sister had different beliefs on sex and education, but in true Coco fashion, she taught her niece that a woman’s true power came from her intelligence. She kept Heaven under her wing, teaching her everything she knew and was proud to see the highly intelligent child’s thirst for knowledge increase by the year.

  Coco had also been very careful with exposing the impressionable child to the inner workings of the brothel. She had set up boundaries and designated areas that Heaven could not enter under any circumstances. The only men that Heaven would be seeing were paying customers and Coco did not want the men that frequented the establishment to know that a little girl resided there.

  Nevertheless, she knew that rules and boundaries would not be nearly enough for a girl as curious as Heaven. Coco decided to use fear tactics to keep Heaven in line. She taught Heaven all about the evil that men were capable of and trained her to avoid men like the plague. Coco worked on Heaven diligently, unaware that the child’s perception of the opposite sex was turning toxic. Coco had no idea that Heaven was beginning to equate men with criminally-depraved, sex-obsessed monsters that ate little girls for lunch.

  Just as Coco had predicted, Sybille served the entire five-year sentence in prison before they released her. Sybille had returned to see her business had been very successful and she had an obscene amount of cash in her personal bank account. Even though Coco was more than happy to hand the business back over to her sister, she was reluctant to hand her niece over so quickly.

  Heaven was standoffish at best when it came to anyone other than her aunt, so meeting her mother for the first time had not gone as smoothly as the women had hoped. The five year old refused to speak to Sybille and adamantly refused to go near her. Sybille was crushed, it felt like her whole life was over and she preferred the inhumane conditions of the prison to seeing her daughter’s hateful reaction to her. It was painfully obvious to Sybille that the little girl wanted nothing to do with her, no matter how hard she tried.

  Coco also tried to help convince Heaven to speak to her mother, but the girl would hear none of it. At only five years old, she had already proven to be quite stubborn and made it a point to spend the next year avoiding Sybille.

  ***

  As the years passed, the little girl grew up finding life as strange as it was unsettling. She spent most of her time locked up in her bedroom, preferring to avoid the activities going on under her roof. Despite Sybille and Coco’s attempt to give Heaven the normal childhood that they did not have and the financial security their own mother could not offer, raising the girl in a brothel had made a negative impact on the child that would haunt her for most of her life.

  Despite all of the strict rules she followed, Heaven had still seen things that no developing girl should see. A few pivotal moments had defined her personality, but it was the event that took place on her ninth birthday that would inevitably set her fate.

  For Heaven’s ninth birthday, her mother had thrown her a party at the dance studio and Heaven refused to remove the new tutu she had received. Once they were home, she had rushed to show Maude, her Aunt Coco’s closest friend, her new tutu. She had looked everywhere for Maude, but could not find her and during her search, she had somehow wondered off into the forbidden wing. She was well aware of the fact that she was prohibited from entering that section of the house, but she was too anxious to find Maude to turn back now.

  Heaven stood on the stairs, her warm brown eyes wide with curiosity as she peeked into the brightly lit
waiting room. A huge silver disco ball hung from the center of the ceiling, scattering beams of holographic, diamond-shards across the room. She was tempted of course, but she knew better, she was turning to leave when she heard Maude’s distinguished laughter.

  Deciding to throw caution to the wind, she snuck into the waiting room and saw a few of the working girls there, waiting on a large man. They all wore matching white dresses and were over accessorized with thick silver costume jewelry. Most importantly, their interest in the man was too deep for them to see Heaven sneak through the room.

  She had just made it out of the waiting room and into an adjoining hallway when she heard a strange voice behind her. Not wanting to be discovered, she ran down the long hall and snuck inside of one of the unlocked rooms. The room was darker than the stark white area she had just left and it took her eyes a moment to adjust to the hot-pink-hued darkness. When they finally adjusted, Heaven watched the scene before her come into focus and felt her pulse race as her mouth opened with shock.

  She took a step backwards, ready to throw her hands up to hide her eyes from the horrific scene when she heard a wheezy chuckle then turned to see a lecherous looking old man step out of the shadows.

  “Well look what we have here, I didn’t know they served them so young.” he squawked, licking his thin lips before smiling wolfishly. Heaven watched as his long bony fingers reached towards her and she quickly turned to escape the room. The old man was faster than he looked and managed to grab the little girl.

  Heaven’s number one rule at home was to avoid all of the men on the premises or she would be punished for her disobedience. Coco, knowing her nieces relentless curiosity and in order to get Heaven to obey had trained her to believe that men were bad and capable of doing terrible things to little girls. After years of believing that men were the monster hiding in the shadows, Heaven developed a strong fear of the opposite sex.

  “Let go!” Heaven yelled at the old man before finishing with a trick that her self-defense teacher had taught her. She thrust her knee up between his rickety legs, forcing the man to release her as he doubled over in pain. The girl tried to make a run for it, but the man grabbed her new tutu and held her back.

  “Come here little girl!” he hissed. She was ready to do every defense move that she had been taught, when she heard Maude’s familiar voice.

  “What is going on?” everyone in the room turned to see Maude standing in the doorway. She was dressed in a skimpy whites dress with silver accents and a pure white wig.

  “Just visiting the little girl.” the man said his rickety old body taking a step back as Maude stood before Heaven to shield her from him.

  “If you ever come near this child again I will permanently bar you from the brothel,” under normal circumstances, Maude was one of the friendliest women in the brothel but when provoked she was lethal. “And I will sick the Deville sisters on you.”

  “No, please, I’m sorry, she just wondered in-”

  “I don’t care if she breaks down the door and smacks you, don’t you so much as look at her!” her words were elegantly fierce and forced the man down to his knees.

  “I am so sorry.” he cried.

  “Come on.” Maude said, shielding Heaven from the man as she took her out of the room. “You know you’re not supposed to be up here, silly girl.” Maude smiled sincerely then immediately took Heaven to her mother, opting not to involve Coco. Coco’s focus would be on disciplining Heaven and she would not see the traumatic look in the little girl’s eyes. Although Maude knew that Sybille, who was much more compassionate, would know that something was wrong.

  After that unfortunate birthday incident, Heaven vowed not to be a part of that lifestyle. The old man’s bony fingers digging into her skin had triggered hatred so pure, she made a solemn oath to avoid involvement with men at all costs. Her family had trained her to avoid them and she would have no problem keeping up with that rule in the years to come.

  ***

  Over the years, Heaven had found men to be utterly unappealing, impatient, sex-obsessed freaks. She had seen more than her fair share of men growing up, she saw all different kinds, the rich men, poor men, angry men and the happy men. Unfortunately they all had one common denominator- sex. Men were obsessed with sex and women were enslaved to their emotions. Heaven had decided at a very young age that she would never fall victim to such a selfish emotion like love. She refused to be anyone’s play toy, she would make her own money and would never rely on using sex to obtain financial support.

  To guarantee her success and independence, she would spend the next years of her life dedication herself to her education. She knew that an extensive education was the key to her success and financial stability. She had skipped the entire high school social scene, opting to take advantage of the free education the school offered instead. She decided that friends were a liability she could not afford and chose to surround herself with people who could only expand her knowledge.

  She had also managed to avoid the entire dating scene, knowing a relationship would be the distraction that destroyed her dreams. She avoided boys as if they were plagued with STD’s so potent that even standing to close to them could infect her. She was not naïve, she knew she was at that delicate age when some teenage girls became fixated on the opposite sex and romanticized the idea of being a subservient member of a couple. She would take no chances with her future and found that costuming herself in unappealing clothing kept the boys at bay.

  In the end, all of her hard work had paid off, she had managed to skip kindergarten, the fifth and seventh grade, and graduated three years ahead of her scheduled date. At that point, she enrolled into a prestigious college of her choice and even graduated early with honors. Her last year of college she interned for the king law firm, one of the most successful and influential firms on the east coast.

  ***

  The Un-Heavenly First Encounter

  Heaven Deville never once doubted which law firm she wanted to be a part of. The King Law firm was one of the most lucrative as well as influential law firms on the east coast. The firm was composed of a small team of highly intelligent attorneys that knew their game well and never lost. Everyone in Heaven’s graduating class had fought hard for the internship position at the firm, but Heaven blew her competition away with her remarkable intelligence and her powerful drive to succeed.

  When she first started her internship position, she had worked under Gavin Grant who was the lowest on the totem pole at the time. While she was sitting in on a meeting with the firm’s attorneys, who were discussing a rather difficult case, Heaven noticed a seemingly insignificant clue in the evidence that would solidify Ayden King’s theory.

  Ayden King, the head boss at the firm, was beyond impressed with Heaven’s keen eye for details and asked her to assist him with the case. Ayden was a hard nose attorney, he came from a long line of driven men, striving to be the best at their fields. He could smell a true-blooded lawyer from miles away, and Ms. Heaven Deville was the real deal. He knew talent when he saw it and he knew they would see many great things from her. She was young, ambitious and so damn hungry to succeed, it was refreshing to him.

  Unbeknownst to Heaven, Ayden had met her mother many years before when she first came to New York. When Heaven showed interest in working at his firm, her mother, Sybille had immediately called him and suggested he accept her for the internship.

  Of course, she had forbid him from telling Heaven about her interference and Ayden agreed. He also let her know that he would only pick her for the internship if she were good, at which point Sybille did her trademark chuckle. At the time, he assumed it was just a mother bragging about her child, but after meeting the unbelievably intelligent girl, he was beyond impressed and picked her on the spot.

  Heaven stayed on after her internship to help Ayden finish the case. After the conclusions she had come up with regarding his client’s innocence and the impressive closing argument she presented to Ayden, he offered
her a temporary position at the firm after she passed the Barr exam.

  He knew he was taking a chance on a woman so young as well as new to the field, but he always trusted his gut instincts and he knew he would not be wrong with this decision. He knew Heaven would become a formidable opponent in the courtroom and he needed someone with her skill at his firm.

  ***

  Julian King was down in New Orleans defending hotshot real estate tycoon Mr. Oliver Lexington. Mr. Lexington was a born and bred New Yorker who had fallen in love with a southern belle and after a whirlwind romance that ended with a quick marriage, they moved back to her hometown. Little did Oliver know that the love of his life was also in love with his best friend, who happened to be his business partner as well as the best man at his wedding. Then to make matters worse, Oliver had discovered that his business partner had been embezzling millions of dollars from his company and he was in serious debt. Needless to say, the evidence had been stacked against him and at quick glanced it looked like an open and shut case, that Mr. Lexington would be rotting in prison for the rest of his life.

  Julian was no fool, he knew what he was up against, he knew it would be hard to convince a jury that such a controlled, intelligent man had not been rational when he murdered his business partner. He would have to convince a group of twelve men and women that his client had become so engulfed in his fear that he had literally snapped, then in a temporary state of insanity, he had murdered him with the first available weapon, a pen.