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Chapter Twenty
The day dragged on with Bre in a foul mood. Yesterday began so wonderfully, only to end with Bre in tears. The fact that she allowed Sienna to crawl into her mind and make her feel terrible, did not sit well with Bre, but what made it even worse was that Bre knew the truth behind Sienna’s words.
Now, Bre needed to leave work early to go have tea with a group of women who hated her. If she weren’t so desperate to show them all how little they bothered her, she would use work as an excuse to blow them off, but now that Sienna was involved Bre needed to be present.
Bre knew Priscilla set up the charity board tea to take place during Bre’s working hours, to make it as difficult for her to be involved as possible. Priscilla clearly wanted control over what she deemed her families interest.
“I’m sorry I’m so late,” Bre breathed out flustered as she took her seat amongst the board of woman Priscilla Rochester put together. “There was a crisis at work,” she told them lying. In reality, she dragged her feet, content to get in and out of this informal meet and greet as possible.
Each of the six women sitting around the table looked beautifully poised and put together. They each wore an identical look of disdain on their faces as they took in Bre’s appearance. Bre was dressed professionally in her general blazer, blouse, and skirt, but apparently, she was not appropriate for tea. Somehow Priscilla managed to wrest control of the board away from Bre and appoint the people she felt most appropriate for the job, essentially all of her friends who hated Bre’s guts, and they were indeed not scared to make it known.
“Not to worry dear,” Priscilla said kindly sipping her afternoon tea. “We decided to begin. I hope you don’t mind. I tried contacting the office, but Matthew told me you’d take the afternoon off.”
Bre gritted her teeth at the assumption that she shirked her duties to the charity and to her day job. She wanted nothing more than to tell Priscilla to screw herself, after all, Bre’s absence from the office meant that she was clearly on her way to this very out of the way charity meeting. Instead, she decided to fall on her sword, determined to be the picture of grace and humility.
“I apologize again,” she said. “Please, continue, and I’ll be sure to catch myself up.” She pasted on the fakest smile she could manage.
Before the words were even out of her mouth, the women continued onward. As Bre took out her notebook and prepared to jump into their first board meeting, she realized quickly that they were discussing planning another event.
“Shouldn’t we invest the money raised back into the charity?” Bre questioned flabbergasted that they wanted to essentially re-spend the money she raised at her kick-off dinner, on another, grander event. “I’ve been reaching out to some of the local public schools to see how we could support some of their art programs. One school has an active program. It centers around photography but—” Bre stopped speaking when Priscilla raised a hand to halt her.
“Breanne darling,” she said her voice overtly sweet. “The money you raised will barely cover the cost of maintaining the foundation’s operation. The ladies and I are discussing how we can maximize our capital, too, be effective.”
Bre’s confusion grew, “This charity is under the Rochester Family Foundation. Isn’t the overhead covered under the foundation umbrella?”
The group’s laughter caught her off guard, and her cheeks flamed up in embarrassment. “No, darling,” Priscilla said. “Henry wanted this to be your separate venture, which means separate overhead, which in turn means more money is required to cover overhead. After he spoke with me this morning, I ran the number with an accountant, and before we can invest in any sort of charitable endeavors, we must break to at least half a million dollars.”
Bre’s mouth dried up, “Half-a-million?” she questioned flabbergasted. She’d thought one-hundred thousand had been a win, but if what Priscilla said was true, that money was basically a drop in the bucket. As Bre considered all of this, she felt betrayed by Henry. She wondered if Henry knew but neglected to tell her as some sort of trap.
“Yes, which is why the ladies and I are considering another event. Something to coincide with the Royal Ascot. People love themes, and Ascot parties are notoriously dull,” Sienna said, jumping in with her two cents. “What if we do a luncheon at the track?” Sienna suggested not missing a beat. “We’d need permission from Her Majesty, but as a large charitable donor herself, I don’t see her saying no to such a worthy cause,” she said excitedly.
“That sounds marvelous!” Priscilla practically clapped her hands in gratitude. “Aren’t we just so fortunate to have your insights?” she asked rhetorically. Bre scowled, ‘Fortunate, my ass,’ she thought. If Sienna wanted to upstage Bre, she was doing a hell of a job, and if her smile was any indication, she knew it.
“Breanne, perhaps you can work on mock-ups for a public release,” Priscilla said as they began fleshing out ideas about food and invites. Bre marveled that not a single one of them took out a phone, piece of paper, or an assistant. They really were pros when it came to party planning, and they wanted her to know it. Despite being the charity President, Bre had been relegated to the graphic designer. No one asked her opinion, content to let Priscilla run the show with her trusty sidekick.
“Oh, that’ll be wonderful. What a way to tie Breanne back to the organization. A press-release created by our own future-Duchess,” Sienna stated her tone so syrupy sweet it nearly gave Bre a cavity.
“I’ll draw something up to be put out ASAP,” she told them not falling into Sienna’s trap by responding.
The ladies all twittered about fawning over how amazing the ideas were and asking Sienna if she thought she’d be able to entice members of the royal family into joining them. They continued to ignore Bre, treating her like a fly on the wall. Bre sat there taking it, absentmindedly doodling in her notebook.
“Breanne, I’m sure developing the press release will take you some time. Do not feel obligated to stay,” Priscilla told her. On the surface, her words seemed innocuous, but they effectively dismissing Bre from the meeting. A piece of Bre felt embarrassed by her future Mother-in-law’s very public dismissal, but a secondary part felt happy to get up and walk away from the harpies at this table.
“Oh and Breanne, be sure to send any mocks to my personal secretary for my approval,” Priscilla told her making it clear to everyone that while on paper Bre appeared to be in charge of the charity, Priscilla and her friends called the shots.
* * *
Since the night Henry and Are agreed on the contractual terms of their fake engagement and he presented her with the charity paperwork, drawn up in her name, Bre stayed at Rochester House. She enjoyed sleeping next to Henry, as well as, the mindblowing sex that he liked to wake her up with every morning. Tonight though, she needed space. Yesterday’s event and her time with Henry’s mother left her feeling weak and vulnerable, and she wanted to lick her wounds in peace. Henry swore he knew nothing about his mother’s overhead costs and promised to look into her claims, but Bre felt herself growing more and more distance and distrustful
“Are you certain you don’t want me to stay?” her flatmate Emily asked as she readied herself for work. “The pub will run without me, and frankly, you look like hell.”
Bre knew she did. Sleep did not come easy in the past twenty-four hours, and the continuous stress was beginning to show on her face.
“I’m fine,” Bre said, sipping a glass of her favorite wine. The perks of living with a bartender meant a stacked liquor and wine cabinet. “Honestly, nothing a night alone won’t fix,” she told Emily. Bre longed for girl talk but struggled to explain her troubles without spilling that her relationship was fake.
“Are you certain?” Emily asked concern again, coloring her face. “It’s been a while since we’ve partaken in a girl’s night. I’d offer you a spot at the pub, but a bunch of rowdy men might not help.”
“Probably not,” Bre told her. “But you are right. We need to have a girl’s night sometime soon.” Bre felt like she’d neglected her life outside of Henry. Since the beginning of their “engagement,” Bre devoted all of her time to him. She felt like she needed to grasp every minute they had together because she knew eventually those moments would dry up.
