Vice

57: Caught

**Trigger Warning: Mr. Vice Senior is an extremely racist person. This chapter contains a censored racial slur and many extremely offensive comments directed toward Natara. If this is a trigger for you, please skip this chapter.**

Natara gapes at Mr. Vice Senior standing in the office doorway. 

Did she or Cameron forget to lock the office door? How often did Cameron's father even come to visit him? Mr. Vice Senior looks at Cameron and then his eyes land on Natara. 

She quickly tries to slip her dress back on to cover her fully exposed body, feeling mortified.

Mr. Vice Senior grows red with fury.

"Axius, you disappointment! Are you seriously fucking a n----- girl in the office I gave you? After I just told you to get your fucking act together?" He roars. 

Natara has never been called that word in her life. 

Her stomach sinks and bile rises to the back of her throat.

"Wow, fuck you!" Cameron yells back as he gets to his feet. He doesn't bother covering himself. Natara averts her eyes as Cameron steps toward his father aggressively. He raises his hands, pressing back his father's shoulders and slamming him into the office door behind him. "Don't you EVER fucking call her that again!"

"No, fuck YOU! I am done with this bullshit. You are getting married tomorrow or I am taking every part of your share of ownership in Vice Corp, putting it back in my name, and stripping you of all of your status!" Mr. Vice Senior slams his elbow into Cameron's side and Cameron stumbles backward, averting his eyes with a glare pressing at his brow.

"I'll disown you and your reputation will be destroyed forever. You will be on the streets - alone, broke, begging for scraps while the company and father you chose to abandon will sit on the cover of every magazine you see, haunting you forever! Is it really worth risking everything for this dumb whore?" Natara scoots further back from Mr. Vice Senior as his voice becomes louder than she could have thought was possible. 

Would Cameron really risk all of that for her?

Mr. Vice Senior lowers his voice and stares Natara in the eyes before looking back at Cameron. "Don't screw your whole life over just to stick your cock in whatever sleeve you can find."

If Natara felt bad about being called the N word, she feels a thousand times worse being looked in the eyes and called a "sleeve". She feels sick, like Mr. Vice Senior sees her as less than a person. 

Even if Cameron broke things off with his current fiancee, there would never be space for Natara in his life. They were from two different worlds and no one would ever see her as a part of his. Too many emotions to process race through her mind and body.

Natara pulls her clothes back on, keeping her eyes down as Cameron and Mr. Vice Senior's voices fade to a blur in her ears. She runs out of the room with tears streaming down her cheeks. She chokes out sobs as she runs down the hallway to the bathroom.

She hears more yelling from Cameron's office but she doesn't look back.

When she gets to the bathroom, she locks herself in one of the stalls and collapses onto the floor with her back against the stall door. Her sobs elevate to wails. 

What had she ever done to Mr. Vice Senior? How could people be that awful? Was it really that horrible that she was falling in love with his son?

As soon as she thinks the word "love" her tears flow even harder. 

Is she really falling for him? What about Jace? Is she a horrible person for cheating? Is Cameron a cheater for being with her when he has a fiancée? Could she ever love Jace?

She cries for a long time. She cries about being treated differently, and being spoken about so hatefully. She cries about her feelings for Cameron and her guilt over cheating on Jace. She cries because Cameron might still try to turn around and kill himself at any moment. She cries because Cameron and his father are fighting because of her. And she cries because she's not sure what to do. She's never been in this kind of situation.

After a while, she runs out of tears. She tears off a piece of toilet paper and wipes her red eyes and runny nose. Then she sits in the stall with her head leaning back against the cool stall door for a little while.

The main bathroom door opens. Natara hears footsteps as two other people enter the bathroom.

"-aven't you heard? Jace has officially had sex with every single girl in the office," a voice says. Whoever is speaking sounds a little familiar to Natara. She leans closer to the stall door to listen.

"That's actually kind of amazing. I heard about the bets going on saying he wouldn't be able to. I mean, I didn't think he'd be able to get the last one. That girl is like, what, barely legal, right? She looks really young," another voice says.

This gets Natara's attention. Natara is easily the only person around eighteen years old in the whole office. All the blood drains from her cheeks.

"Poor Jace, honestly. That girl looks like she came from the deepest reaches of the slums. He probably got a disease or two if he didn't use protection," the first woman says. Natara's heart stops. She puts her hand over her mouth to keep from letting out a scream.

"You think she was a virgin? Or do you think she's been whoring around since she was fourteen or some shit? He said she was awful in bed," the first woman continues.

Natara doesn't want to be here anymore. She's reached her breaking point and she just wants to get as far away from all of this as possible. She doesn't care if the women are still here or not. She doesn't care if Jaquie is mad about this. She doesn't even care if they see her crying.

She bursts out of the stall and runs past the women, not looking at anyone she passes in the halls or on the streets as she bikes home.