Page 41 of Right With You
“I voiced what I needed to. She’s a gold-digger and I could see it a mile away. I’m shocked you couldn’t, but maybe it’s because you’re being led around by your?—”
“I’ll go check on her,” Aurelie said, cutting off Grand-père’s crass words.
“Thank you.” I watched Aurelie exit and turned to the man who felt so much like a stranger. “You’ll apologize for being rude when she gets back.”
Only a slight head shake, as though he couldn’t be bothered to execute the full gesture. “Non. I will not, Jean-Luc. It is time you come to terms with reality.”
CHAPTERTWENTY
Elise
Braced on the counter, I breathed through my nose and forbade myself from crying.
Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t let that dried up old raisin make you cry.
Everything in me pushed against the tears welling in my eyes, and I reached for a tissue from the shiny gold box on the counter. Dang, this place was classy. I hadn’t been to the resort in a while, and I’d forgotten how nice and detailed every bit of it was.
The door swung open as I dabbed at the corners of my eyes trying to save my makeup.
“Are you okay? He’s such a jerk.” Aurelie let loose a volley of what I assumed had to be insults or curses in French. “I am so sorry.”
She stood next to me and held my gaze through the mirror.
“I’m okay. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy—Luc warned me. He just… he kind of went for the jugular, and I’m not even sure he realized it.”
Aurelie scoffed. “Oh, he realized it. He knew. He probably ran a background check on you before he stepped on the plane.”
The crush of embarrassment and sadness hit again, and I cleared my throat to banish it. Luc had warned me, hadn’t he? Or, he’d tried. Who knew why I thought it wouldn’t hurt to have that bruise pressed on.
I needed to explain, though. It wasn’t all her grandfather’s fault.
“It’s just… my mom. She is one of those women who trades husbands for a bigger paycheck. She’s probably the very thing your grandfather is scaredIam, and I can’t blame him if he looks at my family and sees a glaring red flag.” I sniffed, begging my eyes to stop leaking. “It’s silly I should care so much—” I stopped myself before addingwhen this is all an arrangement, it’s not even real, just in time. The truth was, “It has me wondering if I’m like her.”
My words were all but air by the end. She reached for me then, her hand finding mine, and she turned me toward her by the shoulder with her other one. She held me by the upper arm and dipped her head to speak right into my eyes.
“You are your own woman. I don’t know what kind of person that is, but I know it’s someone who loves my brother. I know it’s someone who didn’t ask for this treatment and who didn’t propose tohim,didn’t initiate it for financial gain, and to me that means you aren’t like her.”
I sniffled again but kept my jaw locked tight, afraid if I opened it to speak I might let loose a full-on sob. The combination of my shame, her kindness, and the overall opulence of the setting driving home the stark disparity in my life and Luc’s… it hurt.
“My grandfather’s motives are clear. He doesn’t want Luc with anyone but the person he chose. That’s why he’s leveraged the trust, let alone forced the issue by coming here. He should be respecting Luc’s choice and respecting you, but I’m sorry to say he isn’t. I’ll be having a word with him about that, but for now, please tell me you’re okay. Tell me you believe his nastiness doesn’t mean anything about you.”
With a huff, I tried to absorb some of her certainty. “I’ll try. I really will. I don’t want—” My voice cut out again, but I cleared my throat and willed myself to get through it and lock up those tears. “I don’t want Luc to suffer because I’m upset. I just want him to feel like he’s done what he needed to do.” Maybe that was too close to the truth…
Impossibly, Aurelie’s gaze softened even more than it already had. “I don’t know your mother, but I suspect you are two very different people.” She squeezed my shoulder and dropped her hand. “You’re a strong woman for doing this, Elise. A few tears don’t change that.”
Thisto her must be dealing with her family. I wondered if she’d be so charitable if she knew the truth—that I didn’t love Luc and he didn’t love me. Didn’t that make it worse?
She leaned toward the mirror and checked her lipstick which was perfect. When she leaned back and found me watching her, she winked. “Thank you for being here for my brother. Now, are you coming?”
With a fortifying breath, I nodded. “I’ll be right out. Just need another minute.”
She left without another word, and I took a moment to wash my hands and go through the familiar routine of drying and tossing the luxurious paper towel in the trash. Voices just outside the door had me taking my time—I was not interested in running into anyone before I was fully ready to rejoin the dinner. I’d regained my composure and felt like I could reasonably return and plaster a smile on my face, and maybe even withstand another round of sly questioning from Mr. Devereaux.
I’d fallen into a familiar trap of thinking about myself this way—poor me and my gold-digger mom, right? But Aurelie was right, and she hardly knew me. I wasn’t the same person as my mother. I didn’t have a secret motive to get money from Luc let alone marry him for his wealth. In the end, this was all fake and it was all because he’d asked. I wasn’t getting paid for this—somethingI’dinsisted on. He offered and I refused—absolutely the opposite of what my mother would’ve done.
Luc needed to be the focus. I could lean into this messy situation and help him and stop feeling sorry for myself—about my mom’s choices, my financial situation, my stupid ex, or my awareness that I didn’t fit in this world or this role Luc had asked me to play, but if he still wanted me for it after tonight, I’d do it.
Wasn’t I done letting men push me around? I’d vowed I’d never be in that situation again. It was one more reason I had said no to Luc’s offer to pay me. So why was I letting his grandfather make me feel small? Why would I allow that man, someone I didn’t know or care about, affect me in any way, or keep me from doing what I’d come to do?
