7. The Ticket
I was a victim of stares. Two sets of eyes, gawking at me in disbelief as I cowered in the corner of my bed, my hands shielding my head, a proactive approach to prevention of blunt trauma to the head.
I saw the twitch in her hand, which was probably itching to grab the nearest item and launch it at my face.
"I leave you to yourself for two days," she extended her hand in front of my face, holding out two fingers. "And you sign up for marriage!" The exasperation in Lillian's tone is valid.
"That is extremely stupid." Rue interjected, nodding in agreement and she crossed her arms across her chest in a calm manner.
I removed my hands from my face, taking deep offense as I scoffed, "You guys are talking as if I had a choice." I sat up.
"Yea yea, good for the fucking business and whatnot." Lillian rolled her eyes.
"Not entirely true." I coated my nerves with a strained laugh, trying to paint the situation in colours that were not as depressing.
Yesterday when I returned from signing my life away with Andrei, my pillow got the worst of it, from stifling my screams to being my punching bag. I ignored all work calls and ignored my father when he acted like a nosy neighbour, trying to extract all the details of what happened.
It was only when I woke up in the morning that I decided to share my burden by talking about it, dropping a message in the group along the lines of 'I did something not good.'
"Now what is that supposed to mean?" Lillian narrowed her brows, glowering as I tried to tone down how stupid I would sound with my next sentence with a toothy smile.
"He thinks I stole from him."
"Thinks?"
"Did you?" The two questions overlapped as they froze me in place with their questioning gaze.
"Who do you think I am? Robin Hood?" The offense in my words was as bright as the rays that shone through the windows of my room.
"Then why does he think that?"
I looked down, unable to meet Lillian's gaze as I physically winced at my explanation. "Because he has a video of it."
Rue, with her swift steps, became a high wall between myself and the raging beast that I had just unleashed with my winding answers.
"What the heck, Eleanora? Are you trying to ruin your life?" Lillian, perplexed as she should be, peered her head from over Rue's shoulder.
"It wasn't me, okay!" My voice hiked up without my permission, coming out of pitch. My body was quick to succumb under the weight of the events that had unfolded these past few days as I fell back towards the bed. "I didn't do it. I barely remember the night of the event."
"Baby, you need to tell us everything, from the time I left you during the event until right now." Rue sat down next to my legs, her hand resting on my knees in an attempt to comfort me. Lillian sat on the other side, he arms crossed against her chest and her lips thinned to a straight line but I didn't miss the concern that flashed behind those browns.
It was always like this, Rue was always the calm one, Lillian the raging one and I was the in-between who morphed herself into multiple emotions according to the situation and the person opposite to me.
If it was my father, it didn't matter how enraged I would be by his words or actions, it ended each time with me crawling back into my shell, being the scared little girl yearning for her daddy's approval. With his employees in the office, I was firm, but much more approachable than Edmund Pierce himself, who would rather drop dead than smile or greet them warmly when walking by.
But it was different with these two, who brought out more of me. If it was Rue, I would mirror her calmness, and with Lillian, we had our throw-downs, which ended with a hug and apologies each time.
With a deep breath in, I started, my mouth vomiting out the words and feeling I had caged since that day, letting out the storm that had been brewing inside me for the last few hours.
"So what? You're a wife now to this billionaire just because he said so?" Lillian seemed confused, her tone clipped.
"I'm not a wife, not yet at least," I shrugged my shoulders. "It's complicated."
I quite deliberately left the contract I signed out of the conversation, respecting his request to keep it between the two of us, explicitly. Or maybe I was just too on edge with him, knowing that if he could cage me for something I didn't do, he could do a lot worse for something I did do, mind and body present.
"Fuck complications-"
"Fight it, Eleanora." Rue interrupted. "If you did not do it, take it up to the authorities with identity theft or whatever you can. You cannot just-"
"Settle!" Lillian finished. She took a deep breath in, attempting to calm her nerves before she began again. "Look, I will hire the lawyers personally. If your daddy dearest doesn't help you with this, Rue and I are willing, Ele." It was a plea and I was tempted to my core to grasp at it and never let go. But I couldn't.
"He has proof. It looks exactly like me. Even if I did take him to court, I would be the one getting the guilty verdict."
"Did the camera capture your face?" Rue tried being optimistic.
"No." I shook my head, looking down at my lap. "But everything else was the same. The way it walked is just like I do, the hairstyle, the dress, the heels, it was all the same in that video." My hands came up to cover my face, dwelling in my thoughts. "And I was a little drunk, but not that much that I'd commit a crime!" And my denial began with tears of frustration stinging the corners of my eyes.
"I fucking hate men!" I exclaimed, my heart beating in my ears and my voice coming out pitched as the emotion overflowed. "First it was my father who dictated my every step and now it's gonna be another man and all for what!" My tortured gaze swept over the only two friends who were trying their best to console my tormented heart and soul, expecting them to answer but none did.
"Good for the fucking business, that's what." My tired but angered whisper prompted a comforting hand rubbing circles on my back.
"Elenora, we are here." Lillian began, turning her body so she could fully be my focus. "Just say the word and Rue and I will, without question, do everything to-"
"It's not going to work, Lilli." The shake of my head was the depiction of my defeat because I, with all my senses present, bound myself to him and he had my haunting signature on a piece of paper that laid out the next few years of my life as proof.
"Why?" Now even Rue let her nerves out. "We will make it work. We will drag his ass in court and we will win."
The unwavering optimism I was being bombarded with stirred the sickness of regret in my gut. Why did I not talk to them before meeting him? Now it seemed a little too late.
"Because it won't. I know it." A pity chuckle escaped from the back of my throat. "It's going to be the same old life. Same shit, different man."
"You're not telling us something." The accusation sucked a breath out of me as Lillian pointed a finger. "There's something else."
I tried shaking my head, my eyelids coming down to obstruct my vision, knowing well that I couldn't meet their steely, suspecting gaze without breaking under the pressure.
"I knew it!" Rue's loud realisation snapped my head in her direction. "You are hiding something. Out with it." It stood as a command.
"It's-" The loud knock on the door interrupted the excuse that was sputtering out my mouth.
"Miss Pierce, your father is asking for you in the dining room." Grace's hurried voice travelled through the wood of the closed door. "He says it is urgent and to be presentable. There's a man here to meet you." The last part was whispered low as if she was saying something she wasn't supposed to disclose.
"I'll place my bets on the man you're marrying against your will." Lillian rolled her eyes, getting up from the bed before taking my hand and pulling me up as well.
It wasn't exactly against my will. I was doing it willingly, with some added pressure from him, but somewhat willingly. And besides, I'll be richer by the end of it, or whatever excuse can calm those stupid nerves of mine.
"Look at me, both of you." I knew it was of no use trying to convince the two to stay inside the room and let me deal with it alone so I laid out the rules. "No talking, please. Don't jump him, Lillian," My finger pointed at her, a silent pleading glossing over my hazel orbs. "And Rue, don't question him or my father. Just no interference. Be anything but my friends right now."
"How can you expect us to stay quiet-"
"He has something on me that I cannot talk about with anyone just now or I'll just dig a deeper grave." I moved towards the door, wiping my clammy palms at the hem of my blouse without meeting their bewildered stare. "Please believe me if I could, I would. But I can't."
"Well, at least you get back to painting once you're out from under your father." Lillian huffed, pointing out something that even I had forgotten. Something that warmed me from the inside, oddly enough. Something I loved.
It had been years since I had even held a pencil with the intention to sketch. I still vividly recall the day my paints along with all my other art supplies and the passion I had for them were ripped from my hands and locked away just because my father decided I would work for him and be his heir for the business. He made it clear it was a waste of time and material and he wanted no daughter of his to waste her time in useless endeavours and focus on what satisfied him; his profits.
A shiver crawled up my spine as the memory flashed before my eyes. His loud voice boomed in these very hallways I was walking down as he threatened to burn all my paintings and sketchbooks that were locked up in the furthest room of the house if I ever brought it up again.
"I'm still waiting on that portrait you promised me," Rue said from beside me, a smile on her face as her hand came up to pat my shoulder.
"Don't get your hopes up," I looked over my shoulder, "The man in that room might not be any better than my father. Maybe even worse." I whispered as I pushed open the dining room.
Their head turned as soon as we entered, and the heavy stares from the two men made me wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole or for a shovel to appear in my hands to dig a hole and crawl into it to get away.
"Hi, Mr. Pierce." The faux sweetness was dripping from her tone, all for show as it always was for my father. "It's so nice to see you again." I felt Lillian's hand pressing into the small of my back, nudging me to walk again as my apprehension inadvertently got my feet stuck to the smooth marble tiles.
Hold your ground, Eleanora. I took a stealthy deep breath in, held my head high and walked up to one of the chairs tucked under the dining table.
"Yes, of course it is." My father's acknowledgement was simple but anyone could see how it lacked sincerity.
Father's calculatingly eyes left Lillian's frame and took in my every move as I took a seat, unknowingly in front of the suited man who had his questioning blues set on the two women who stood next to the door, the ones dragged in with me.
"Are they staying?" My father questioned, his features showcasing the distaste.
"Oh don't mind them," I waved my hand in a careless manner. "They can't even hear what we're saying."
"Not a word," Lillian whispered in our direction to which Rue not so discreetly kicked her leg.
"I don't mind." The voice carried authority in those three simple words as he straightened his back and my gaze unwillingly found Andrei, his eyes already on me.
The heavy stare made me dust off my trousers under the table, keeping my hands moving to keep me calm. "Grace said you called." I looked at my father who shifted his glower from my figure to Andrei.
"He said he wanted to talk-"
"I'll be leaving for Manhattan soon." Andrei cut in to get straight to the point.
"Good riddance." I tried to ignore the mutter from the blonde at the door.
I caught the roll of his eyes at the comment before his hands moved, pulling out a neatly folded paper from the inside of his dark suit blazer. "I wanted to drop off your ticket." The storm raged in the ocean blues of his gaze, waiting for me to respond but before I could blink, my father erupted for me.
"Ticket? For what?"
"She's leaving with me." He challenged me with his gaze that didn't falter from mine as I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Bold of you to assume I'll let you take my daughter away," he stepped closer to Andrei, his brows furrowed in anger, "I don't know what terms were in that contract but I won't allow her to leave."
"You know what's bolder, Edmund?" Andrei, painstakingly slow, slid his attention over, standing up to his full height. "It's thinking you can take something from me without the consequences."
There was a moment of silence as the two probably thought of ways to skin the other, the tension thickening the atmosphere in the room, making it hard to breathe.
"You cannot-"
"I'll personally come to pick you up," Andrei leaned over the table, his fingers dragging the paper across the table to me, giving it a tap as he mapped out my features with his glare before moving it to the fuming man who wanted to punch him. "If there is any resistance, I have the contract and the video, and I will surely not hesitate to involve the authorities, Pierce." It was a warning for us both.
Andrei walked out without another look and I couldn't do anything but eye his back with such intensity that if I were in a cartoon, he would've exploded right about now without the satisfaction of leaving us in the suffocation of the room.
My troubled mind found my support already looking at me like a wounded soldier as my father stomped by them with a face red with rage.
I think Lillian, Rue, and myself deserve a medal for not reacting or clawing their faces off before they left.
***
Hello, lovelies. Hope you're all doing great. Here's another chapter of Damsel in Business and really do hope you enjoy it.
As always, feedback would be highly appreciated and do let me know what you think.
Always stay safe and happy.
Yours truly;
J. N. Light.
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