Oddities I
"I more or less understand what you want to achieve. You wish to lead the case with fake evidence".
"I would not call it fake evidence darling. Let's just call it recreating a story~"
The yoga was done and Beatrice was in a rush to return to Andrew's side but first, she needed to know what would happen as -for her- the fall of the Belle Family was all too convenient for Gloria.
Gaby followed behind in silence, deep within her own thoughts.
"But how are we going to do it? Just the girl's corpse is not enough to incriminate them" Beatrice remarked her main worry. Upon reaching the street in front of the mansion, she witnessed a rather attractive car parked outside with a man sitting in the driver's seat.
He seemed to catch onto their movements and left the vehicle.
"We have physical proof and the perfect witness to easily take down the Bufford Group and the Belle alongside them, by the way… he's standing just right there" Gloria snickered, coming face to face with the man in question.
"Ma'am" he addressed her politely, his demeanour and built body made Beatrice believe he was some sort of bodyguard.
"You're here right on time, Rocco".
Gloria patted the man's shoulder and he nodded in utmost respect.
"I live to serve".
"Is he another one of your puppets?" Beatrice groaned, watching how the bodyguard resembled more a servant than anything else. Gloria giggled at the comment and 'Rocco' seemed unaffected.
But someone else didn't like it, Gaby.
"What do you mean 'another one' I'm not this woman's puppet!" She adamantly reaffirmed her position.
"Then what are you?"
"An… A-Associate".
"Sure… what now? where are we going?"
"You're worried about Andrew, aren't you? We're going to subtly sneak in his date and stalk him and the girl a little, nothing too bad" Gloria snickered matter-of-factly. And except for the stupefied Beatrice, everybody seemed to agree.
"Sneak on them in a black sparkling Rolls-Royce? is this your idea of sneaking?" Beatrice's eyes rolled in sarcasm, one thing she couldn't allow was for Andrew to SEE her stalking him.
"Everything I do, I do with class darling. Now let's go, we're wasting time here. Gaby, you can be in your way" Gloria waved her hand as if she was dismissing her dog, much to Gaby's irritation.
"I'm coming too, I already missed my appointment thanks to you, the minimum you can do is get me some expensive top-of-the-range lunch" Gaby rubbed her temples.
"You're just bored, right?"
"Correct~ I plan to meet Andrew right after his date is finished since I'm free today. We can then talk about our future together".
"…" Beatrice's glare said it all, 'I don't like the way you worded that, auntie'.
"As business partners of course~"
…
Before Gloria could get her party started, however, a not-so-odd occurrence took place just like another street in New York.
Another Rolls-Royce, white and even more luxurious, parked right in front of the mansion, behind Rocco's.
She didn't need to see the person physically to know who this was.
The front doors opened to give way to a pair of bodyguards who immediately caught upon their surroundings, giving Gloria and her group quite the bad eye.
However, upon checking up on Rocco and his car, Gloria, Gaby and Beatrice… lowered their guard. At the very least they didn't look like crackheads.
The bodyguards opened the backdoors and headed two individuals at the beginning of their older age and departed the vehicle shrouded in the luxury of their status. Upon glancing at them, Gloria's gaze particularly settled on the lady with blonde hair in a bun.
"I didn't expect you to be here right at the moment I arrived, a bit of misfortune, innit?" The aforementioned lady said after releasing a little giggle.
"It is not a pleasure to see you either, Gemma~"
The two ladies embraced one another while Beatrice sighed, looking at the two 'troublesome' individuals she didn't want to deal with right now.
Gemma Wingfield and Christian Mayers.
For his part, the man seemed to 'politely' ignore Gloria and instead focused right on Beatrice, sizing her up and whistling.
"It has been a while, Beatrice... you have grown well, this is what she would have desired for you. How are you?" He gave her a polite hug which Beatrice returned kindly.
"Everything's perfect, Mr Christian... it is nice to see you have arrived. Busy with business?".
"You have no idea. We're staying just for a week. Where is Andrew?" Looking left and right, Christian Mayers found nothing of interest.
"He's on a date with Clare Euston, having some discussions regarding the matter you already know".
The man's eyebrows lifted as if he had listened to something unbelievable, "Oh? I guess things are moving forward then".
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I hope those two get married, after all, I have already spoken to her father August and he agrees, the faster they get together, the better".
!!!
'W-What?' Beatrice gasped, confused and also feeling a little faint. Realising that all along, given the behaviour of the two... such an arrangement should have been in the mouth of both of them for a long time now.
Gloria's ears perked up, for the slightest moment there was a wisp of annoyance which only morphed into a smile right after. Gemma pulled her wrist with an inquisitive gaze but no words were uttered except for praises.
"Oh really? No wonder, they're really a match~"
'They're not!' Beatrice yelled inwardly, aware that she couldn't utter those words no matter what, there was, however, something else she could say.
"I don't think is wise to push a marriage agenda on him so soon, he's still in high-"
"Hmph, getting married to that young lady is the best thing that could happen to Andrew, or could it be that you intend for him to be alone and poor all of his life?" Gemma's wicked tongue knew no bounds, even when she sensed Beatrice's unhappy glare, her poisonous gaze never receded.
While the bodyguards took their luggage into the mansion, the atmosphere had turned cold, all they wanted to do was rush away from the issues between millionaires.
"Gemma… mind your words" Christian wasn't content with his wife's behaviour, a private issue they always held was Gemma's open hostility against Andrew. Even to this day, she hadn't fixed her bearings.
Usually, Andrew would just shut up and swallow, Beatrice knew... but that was the past. She stood up rather defiantly in front of Gemma -whom she owed absolutely nothing to- and challenged her.
"With all due respect, Ms Wingfield. Andrew is the heir of Archonte, he'll never be poor and once he turns eighteen he's going to inherit that empire and manage it better than even his father did. For that sake, he has been working hard and preparing".
"..." Rather than openly scorn her, Gemma crossed her arms and snickered with ridicule.
"That's not something you can stop".
Beatrice knew exactly why Gemma was so against it, it was a bank of wealth she was unable to touch, yet she wished nothing but to put her claws on it.
"We never know if he will do well or not until the time comes, Beatrice. Mismanagement of funds could be wicked beyond words for any corporation".
"How about we have a cup of tea and stop with this nonsense?" Christian realised that things were starting to heat up a little bit and he couldn't just stop Beatrice, especially when she was right, if anything he felt vindicated that someone was finally putting Gemma in her place.
As for the latter, she brushed her hair away and threw Gloria a subtle glare that wasn't answered, instead Gloria's sight was placed in the distance, as if she could see something that no one else had ever seen.
'Nothing personal, Gemma... your contract is not with me'.
"As much as I'd like to follow along with your little plan, the two of you can have a lovely date in New York, we have other matters to attend to" Gloria pulled both Beatrice and Gaby, intending to take them quickly into Rocco's car before Gemma had the urge to chat further.
"If it is related to the Belles, I must be there… Andrew can't face this on his own". Christian stepped his foot down.
"You don't need to worry, Andrew is quite the valiant boy, moreover… he has connections".
"What connections?"
"I proposed to him the same I proposed to your brother back then".
"And what did he say?" Christian's glare didn't defeat Gemma's in the ominous contest. In the meantime, Gloria shrugged her shoulders.
"He hasn't answered yet, but with how good I am at convincing people, that's in the bag".
"I didn't think you of all people would be interested in Andrew" Gemma pinched Gloria's hip making the woman twitch her tongue and release herself from the grasp.
"A young talented and virgin boy… why wouldn't I be interested?~ now if you excuse us, we have matters to attend to. Expect Andrew back home by eleven".
"... virgin?"
Before questions could be asked, Gloria pulled Gaby and Beatrice into Rocco's car and they quickly shot off, leaving Christian and Gemma to wonder what Gloria's true intentions really were. Both looked at one another one last time before holding their respective phones and starting to make some calls.
It wasn't a holiday after all.
…
"I want you to settle down with Andrew, Gemma… I don't understand why you're always like this, he's my nephew".
The woman merely rolled her eyes, walking into the mansion, the place they would be staying for the following week.
'You will don't understand that kid is the only barrier between us and billions! Bloody ignorant! I just can't deal with this tosser'.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone