52 Chapter 52: Tears Of Regret

After her humiliating experience at the hands of Arias, Barbara stormed off towards the Wayne mansion later that day as soon as night fell, not caring about the risks.

Both Alfred and robin who were present in the mansion tried to stop and dissuade her, asking her to leave and go home so she could cool down from whatever was angering her.

Unfortunately, their attempts to calm her fell on the deaf ears of a young girl who felt betrayed by someone she trusted wholly.

She couldn't get past the two at the main entrance so she just began to yell.

"Bruce! You knew, didn't you?! The same way you track us in our suits is the same way you track us in our daily lives, right?! You knew what was happening but just watched and did nothing?!"

"Barbara calm down! He did it for your own good, the second you were in any danger he would-OW!"

As Robin tried to reason with her, she elbowed him in the gut and backed away from him and Alfred.

"You knew too…you all knew…"

Her voice grew shaky, a greater sense of betrayal quickly overwhelming her entire body.

"Miss Barbara you must understand, Master Bruce would never let anything happ-."

"Shut up! Just shut up! He knew and did nothing! Never let anything happen? Would he have just magically appeared to where I was if he tried to kill me? Rape me? Abuse me? It didn't matter right? That's why you never told me, I'm disposable."

"Enough Barbara."

Bruce Wayne descended the set of stairs leading to the entry way and spoke towards the angry Barbara.

She immediately looked at him with trembly, teary eyes, not sure what to say.

He continued to speak,

"Calm down and think about this, he's messing with your mind, using and lying to you."

Barbara laughed pathetically upon hearing those words.

"Yea, you would know a thing or two about using and lying to others. Then tell me, did he also lie to me about you and catwoman, a criminal, being intimate?"

Although her question strayed from the main issue at hand, Barbara could not bring herself not to ask this question, it was perhaps more important to her than even she realized.

Bruce frowned and sighed, his expression hard to read as it remained largely neutral.

"That has nothing to do with this. What exactly did he tell you?"

That was it.

The very last, fragile string of hope that Barbara was so desperately clinging to had been cruelly cut by the person she admired deeply in her heart.

Her anger fizzled down in that instant, tears began to run down her face in great quantity while a pained expression appeared.

"Barbara…"

Robin couldn't stand seeing her like this and he tried to reach out to her and extend a hand but she swatted it away, showing an expression of both anger and sadness.

"Don't touch me! I trusted you all and…" She choked on her own words, unable to think of what else to say.

In the next moment she took off a watch like device that held the Wayne enterprises logo, before tossing it angrily towards Bruce.

"Find someone else to lie to, I'm done. I don't want anything to do with any of you!"

Her declaration was sudden but her clear eyes showed that she was entirely serious. After ridding herself of the device, she lowered her head and ran away, without looking back, tears still falling down her face.

"Barbara, wait!" Robin was quick to try and pursue her but before he could get far…

"Let her go." Bruce gripped the device thrown to him tightly, a complex expression now on his face.

"But-."

"I said let her go, you'll only make things worse if you try to talk to her now. I underestimated Markovic and how much he knew, this is my mistake, I'll try and fix it once she calms down."

Robin saw an unfamiliar expression on Bruce's face so he could only reluctantly agree to drop the matter and not pursue her.

…

The taxi drive back home was quite intense for Barbara, who only had depressing thoughts to keep her company.

By the time she got home, her anger had reduced, but her mood was still far from stable.

The first thing she did was rush to her room, once there she began to remove all her clothes, not knowing if perhaps some of them had trackers or listening devices.

The same could be said for her room. With this in mind she practically turned it upside down, destroying her computer, tearing her mattress open, making holes in the walls.

At the end of it all, she could only curl up in a corner and continue to cry.

When her father, commissioner Gordon arrived, he was shocked and scared by what he found.

He quickly embraced his daughter and asked what happened but she didn't speak, she only continued to cry.

…

The following day, early in the morning, Arias was once again woken up by an early buzzing from his door bell.

However, since he didn't spend another late-night attempting to kill his masochistic employee, his energy and spirits were high.

He opened the door expecting to see either Harley who he had kicked out or Barbara who should have learned some painful truths. To his surprise, it was neither.

"Commissioner Gordon?"

Arias found the police commissioner waiting patiently behind his door in his usual trench coat attire.

The usually stern looking man had an aged expression on his face and looked to be in thought when Arias found him.

Gordon quickly cleared his throat and held out an envelope towards Arias. "Right, good morning Mr. Markovic. This is the invitation letter for the Washington Gala, without a mayor at the moment the duty to deliver them was passed down to me. Thankfully Gregor already had a list of recipients down."

After delivering the envelope, he tipped his hat and looked ready to leave. "Good day."

However, before he could, Arias stopped him. "You look a bit exhausted; can I offer you a coffee?"

The commissioner looked ready to refuse but hesitated and considered the offer for a bit before agreeing.

"Alright, just a cup."