Parasite *•.¸♡ 𝙏𝙤𝙣𝙮 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙠'𝙨 𝘿𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙧 ♡¸.•*

Is this a Trick?

Tony doesn't respond. His eyes are fixated on the man staring back at him on the screen. Moving next to the billionaire, Pepper looks to see a mugshot of a brown-haired man with grey eyes. He looks pissed as he stares menacingly at the camera. "Who is this?" she questions, looking up at Tony.

    "It's her father," he lowly mutters as he goes through the pages of the case report from about ten years ago. Pepper curiously leans over his shoulder trying to see what he did to end up in prison. She doesn't get the chance to because Tony furiously slams the computer closed, startling her. He tosses it to the other side of the couch where it gently lands with a bounce.

    "What did he do?" she questions, her voice being fearful and hardly louder than a whisper.

    "He killed her mother in front of her, she was only four Pepper," he states, staring forward, his eyes empty and thoughts running wild. Pepper's hands go to her mouth as she lets out a small gasp. Her face is one of worry and sadness for the girl.

    After some moments of silence, she quietly asks him a question with her head lowered, "do you think she remembers?"

    Tony shakes his head, his eyes staying locked forwards, "I don't know. I'll ask her later."

    Pepper frowns at the idea of telling a fifteen-year-old girl that her father killed her mother. It is not something that anyone would want to hear. And depending on if she remembers, it can make horrible memories resurface that haunt her or it could place that image in her head that she didn't need.

    "I'll just ask her if she remembers anything about her parents," he shrugs. She nods her head sadly. Because Tony had closed his laptop so fast, he did not get to the part of the report where it mentioned how Ariana was found with bruises and cuts. After a few minutes of silence, Tony tries to lighten the mood a bit.

    "Oh, I almost forgot. Sometimes she does this weird thing where someone will ask her something and she doesn't respond for like five minutes until she finally spits it out," he adds. Pepper gives him another amused grin.

    Ariana walks into the room and stops once she sees the strange new woman. She looks over her beautiful pale red hair and fancy business look. Her heart drops. 

    Seeing the teenager enter the room, the pair stop their conversation, looking at the frozen girl. Pepper stands up and smiles wide, making her way over to the girl. "Hello, you must be Ariana," she grins, extending her hand. Ariana goes numb and shakes the pretty woman's hand knowing where this encounter is going.

Ariana notices the woman seems overly happy; probably trying to lighten the mood because she is getting discarded again. Stark stands up and adjusts his suit. Walking over to them, Ariana notices his empty expression. He doesn't care. No. Why would he? It was just a publicity stunt. He never cared. He must have been waiting and praying for this day to come.

    "How have you enjoyed staying at the tower?" she inquires.

    Ariana hesitates, her gaze shifting to Tony to answer for her. Not receiving any, she gives a brief answer that she hoped would placate him, "good."

    "That's good!" Pepper grins widely. Tony doesn't think so, however. She took too long to answer the question. She also only replied with 'good' not a great, or an awesome, just a simple good with no excitement or happiness behind it. Had she not enjoyed her time? What did I do wrong? Sure, I wasn't around, but teenagers don't care about that kind of stuff.

    "So Ariana, it's the end of the month..." Pepper trails off, smile not leaving her peach lips.

    Ariana nods her head and blankly states, "I have my backpack packed and ready to go." Pepper's face twists with confusion. "Shall I go get it quickly?" the girl questions. After a brief silence, a look of realization slides over Pepper's face, quickly turning to a face of annoyance. Ariana watches the redhead back up a little to talk to Tony. She can't make out what they are saying, but Pepper does not seem happy.