Chapter 3

Lisa Chapman didn’t think she could go on much longer. She was tired, exhausted, and stressed. This job wasn’t worth it. But her daughter—she had moved her all the way to San Francisco. What was the alternative?

Her housing was tied to this job. If she lost it, they would be homeless and have to move back to Ohio, or some other godforsaken place. Live the rest of her life in a Walmart or factory?

She told herself, just keep going. Hopefully, it will be worth it in just a few months—maybe even weeks.

Meanwhile, Edward Pembroke was in a meeting with his manager. Senior management was unhappy with him. He was irreplaceable in some respects, but a liability in others—a walking lawsuit. Female board members were visibly repulsed just watching him or hearing about the complaints lodged against him by former female colleagues.

“Look, Edward,” said Ms. Sarah Irvine, her tone measured but firm. “We’re prepared to make this easy for you. A year’s pay, and the rest of your pension. You don’t even need to work again, and we’re happy to give you a glowing reference. It’s just time for you to move on, and we’re shutting down your department.”

Pembroke didn’t mind. The offer seemed generous. “Well, that’s a shame,” he replied drolly, his expression unreadable. But as he spoke, his gaze lingered—mentally undressing the impeccably groomed, composed Mrs. Irvine in her smart pencil skirt and tailored suit. She remained professional and unflinching, though the tension bristled in the air.

Her discomfort was evident, but she refused to let it show. It annoyed her deeply that this disgusting ugly pig of a man could intimidate her, and felt as if he could rape her if he was left alone with her.

“Unfortunately, Ms. Chapman—your assistant intern—we are letting her go as well,” said Ms. Irvine regretfully. Pembroke’s report had been scathing, and without his department, there was simply no need for her. “I’m afraid you’ll have to break the news to her. Her accommodation will also be suspended. She has a month’s notice, and the paperwork will be emailed to you.”

Pembroke smiled faintly. He might keep this to himself for a little while, savoring the thought of toying with poor Lisa before delivering the blow.

That evening, Lisa was cuddling up with Lola on the sofa late at night.

“Mommy, why do you always have to work so late at night? I get so lonely waiting for you,” Lola complained, tugging at the hem of her tiny pajama shorts. The soft cotton bunched slightly at her hips, gathering around her thighs, while her teddy bear-patterned vest rode up just enough to expose a hint of her stomach.

“Sorry, baby,” sighed Lisa. “It’s that Mr. Pembroke, he’s such a creep, he’s the worst boss I’ve ever had. I just have to do these long days a few more weeks...”

“That’s what you’ve been saying for months since you started,” wailed Lola. “Mommy, it’s not worth it if this is what your life is going to be like. This Pembroke guy is using you.”

“I promise you, darling, in a few weeks, I will never have to see him again. I will put him out of my mind,” Lisa shuddered. “He is so disgusting. Lola, I’m working so hard now so that you won’t have to grow up dealing with horrible pigs like Edward Pembroke. God, promise me you won’t stay a day working for someone like him.”

“Then why are you still working for him?” asked Lola plaintively.

“He promised me that there will be a decision in two weeks,” said Lisa. “Just a little more time, God, I hope it works out. I’m so tired all the time,” said Lisa. “I’ve neglected you, sweetie, and you have been so depressed here, I’m so sorry. It’s your birthday coming up, you’re gonna be a big girl, fourteen!”

“Well, not like anyone wants to celebrate with me...” said Lola sheepishly.

Lisa started putting Lola’s head on her lap and massaged her head through her hair. “Let’s have a party here at the apartment. We haven’t invited anyone around. Your friends might like it.”

“I have no friends, just enemies,” sighed Lola. “You might as well invite that horrible Edward Pembroke,” she laughed.

“Cheeky girl,” giggled Lisa. “Come on, let me meet your schoolmates. It might lead to something fun...”

The next day, Lola shyly gave out invitations among her classmates to a birthday party at the apartment—even her bullies.

“Let’s see the little bitch’s place,” snarked Shakira. “I bet it’s a fucking dump. I heard your mom is a whore that got run out of whatever shithole it is you came from.”

Lola winced at the remark, but it was too late—she had invited her.

A few days later, Lisa was once again working late. Pembroke was also there, feeding her more nonsense about an urgent project for a client in Japan. His bosses were puzzled by his insistence on staying late during his notice period, a time when he should have been relaxing. In truth, he had very little real work to do. But he didn’t mind lingering in the office, especially with a beautiful woman sitting across from him, tethered by her own responsibilities.

He smirked to himself at how oblivious she was. Lisa, in his view, was clueless. The task he had assigned her was something a graduate could have realised was a useless joke. Yet there she was, stressing over it, her fingers flying across the keyboard in a desperate attempt to code, check, and debug.

Her blonde hair hung in straggly strands, a testament to days of late nights, relentless stress, and too many cups of bitter coffee to keep exhaustion at bay. Her makeup, hastily applied and half-faded, betrayed her waning energy. But Pembroke still drank in the ruby hue of her plump lips, slightly smudged, and her piercing blue eyes, even as dark circles framed them like shadows.

He imagined those blue eyes filled with a very different kind of tension, the kind born not from coding deadlines but from fear, violence and sex.

Across the desk, Pembroke sat in his self-made fortress, his back to the wall where no one could glimpse his activities. Lisa, oblivious, was seated on the opposite side, furiously typing and squinting at her screen.

On one of Pembroke’s three screens, a game of solitaire flickered lazily beside his email inbox and a trivial coding puzzle he occasionally pretended to tinker with. The second screen, however, displayed a live feed from a secret camera he had placed under the desk, angled upward between Lisa’s legs. He zoomed in on between her peachy white thighs up her skirt and the pink gusset of her panties between her legs. He licked his lips as he detected a little moisture building up through the material, perhaps owing to her stress.

“Mr Pembroke, do you mind if I go to the bathroom?” Lisa pleaded. Lisa’s fingers trembled as they flew over the keyboard, her thoughts scattered between the impossible task in front of her and the growing pressure in her bladder.

Pembroke watched her struggle with barely concealed amusement. “You’re cutting it close, Lisa, do you want to explain to Mr. Kubayashi why the report isn’t ready?”

“No ... no, I’m almost done,” Lisa stammered, her voice tight with effort.

“Good,” Pembroke replied, leaning back in his chair with a faint smirk. “Because almost isn’t good enough.”

He glanced at his screen again, shifting his gaze momentarily to the live feed from the hidden camera. Lisa’s discomfort was evident not just in her stained face, but in the growing wet patches in her panties he could see as he smiled to himself.

But the third screen would soon hold the most unhinged development of Pembroke’s evening. Using his own private, encrypted Wi-Fi network, he connected to a different conquest he had been orchestrating all day. This one wasn’t in the office. She was a new, unfortunate young female he had targeted.

Her panicked responses filled his screen now, the messages riddled with fear and confusion. Pembroke’s lips curled into a cruel smile as he scrolled through her desperate attempts to understand why she was being contacted, why he seemed to know so much about her.

Pembroke looked above his screen checking on the panicked face of Lisa, absorbed in her useless coding task. He then flickered his eyes to the similarly panicked face of Lisa’s daughter, Lola, on the third screen looking even more panicked and haunted.

Lola’s face was a haunting reflection of her mother’s features, but twisted with raw fear. Her large, childlike blue eyes—so striking and wide they almost seemed unnatural—were rimmed with red, darting nervously as if searching for an escape that wasn’t there.

Her straw-blonde hair, disheveled and lifeless, framed her face in uneven wisps that. She looked too small for her surrounding bedroom her thin, trembling arms wrapped tightly around herself as if they could shield her from the invisible threat.

Lola Chapman still had no smartphone, but did have access to her laptop. While Lisa was still at work, Lola rushed home from school, eager to catch up on messages and unwind. But when she opened her inbox and saw the new messages from “El Admirador,” her heart stopped and her blood ran cold as if ice had replaced it, as tears welled in her large blue eyes.

Lola had thought that however had stolen her phone had been unable to access all her stuff. She still had passwords and the like, but El Admirador had evidently gotten into everything.

Pembroke typed his messages on the keyboard. “I’m just reassuring Mr Kuboyashi his report is on its way.” He said slyly to Lisa, although he was really messaging Lola, while listening on his ear pods to her speaking into her microphone at home.

“Please ... please ... whoever you are” she placed her hands over her chest, “don’t spread those photos, please...”

Pembroke drank in the despair in Lola’s baby blue eyes, flicking his gaze then to the next screen, which showed Lisa’s nether regions squirming with discomfort. He shifted his attention back to Lisa herself, her face tense with worry and completely oblivious to her daughter’s suffering at his hands.

He typed his message. “Wow you really don’t have any tits. Your friends were right about you. Look, here are all their contacts. I already have your diary compressed to send out, I don’ think they will be happy about what you said about them. As for you, if I were you I would kill myself if your friends read this, you are so odd and weird. And those dancing videos lol”