Authors: Annabelle Eaton
“Definitely.” I’m more ready to see Aden
again.
Mum strokes my hair and a lump the size of
a football appears in my throat. It’s the most affectionate thing she’s done
since I was a child and I feel like crying again.
Get a grip!
“Let’s go then, sweetheart.” I nod, unable to say
anything because I’m so overwhelmed with her being a ‘proper’ mum. I smile and
follow her off the plane.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
My heart leaps as soon as my eyes land on
Aden. His face lights up as he smiles, and he immediately makes his way to me,
walking fast, as eager as I am. I jump into his arms and hug him tight. My
family and his too probably will no doubt frown at our exchange, but I can’t
care less. I’m too happy to see him again.
“I missed you,” he murmurs against my neck
as he inhales.
I hug him tighter, wanting and needing more
of him. “I missed you too.” No more going away and leaving him, not for a whole
week at a time anyway.
Turning around after letting Aden go, I see
my grandparents, my mother’s parents at that. My grandma is like Mum on
ecstasy. I smile. “Hello, Grandma, Grandad.” I turn and give Collette and
Richard a quick hello too.
“Amelie, welcome back. We trust you enjoyed
your holiday,” Grandma says. Before I can reply and continue the painful small
talk, she adds, “Shall we eat? We’ve been waiting for you and your mother for
half an hour now.”
Jesus, she sounds annoyed at us. We weren’t
the ones in control of the bloody plane. “Of course, Mother. Let’s go through,”
Mum says and ushers us through with her steely look. Grandma does it better,
but Mum definitely learnt it from her.
The cook has made a lunch buffet of tiny
rolls that are so small they shouldn’t even have a name and the fillings sit on
top. I pick up two and place them back together before putting it on my plate.
Rolls belong together. Aden tries to hide his smile beside me and picks up two
halves, but the pussy leaves them separate.
Chilled champagne is poured, and I take a
long gulp. I don’t even like it that much so I don’t know why I drink it. Free
booze, I suppose. “Did you get the hang of skiing in the end?” Aden asks as
everyone else falls into conversation.
“I didn’t fall so epically as the first day
again, but I’m still not very good.”
“It takes a few times, babe.”
“So when do you think you’ll be giving up
work then, Amelie?” Grandma asks, cutting into my conversation with Aden.
I frown. “Giving up? Why would I do that?”
“Oh come on. I think it’s been going on
long enough now. This was only supposed to be temporary. You can’t seriously
tell me you would rather be at work?”
Temporary? I’ve never said that. “Why did
you say temporary?” I ask.
“Oh come on now, let’s not get into that,”
Mum says. “Eat up everyone.”
“No.” She’s hiding something. “Grandma, why
was it only supposed to be temporary?” The room falls silent, and I start to
feel sick. What the hell is going on? I look up at Aden for answers and
reassurance, but he looks just as confused as I am. “If someone doesn’t tell me
what’s going on right now-”
“Alright, alright,” Mum snaps. “There’s no
need to cause a scene.” I’ll be the judge of that in a minute. “When you told
your father and I that you want to work we decided to help. We only wanted to
protect you, Amelie.”
My throat runs dry. “How do you mean? What
did you do?”
“We spoke to Richard, who we knew was
interviewing PAs for Aden, and asked for his help.”
My jaw drops. “You
asked
him to give me the job?” Oh shit I can’t believe they’d do
that to me. They got their friend to give me a job and let me think I’d earned
it. My cheeks heat up, and I want the ground to swallow me. I’m humiliated.
“Please do not overreact, Amelie. We wanted
to protect you. We knew that when it all…came to ahead, it would be better to
have someone that would bury the problem.”
“What the fuck does that mean, Mum?”
“Now there is no need for that.” I close my
eyes as my heart breaks. I thought we were starting to get along. When I open
them again, Mum looks unashamed. “We knew it would never last and you would
eventually come around to our way, and when you did we wanted your boss to
remain silent.”
“We were getting somewhere, Mum. I thought
we were finally starting to get along. How could you do this to me? Do you have
absolutely no faith in me at all?” I say, my voice betraying me and breaking
midsentence. Why can’t she just be a mum? If I fall, so what, at least I tried.
She should just be there.
“Don’t be so melodramatic, Amelie.” She
shakes her head as if I’m overreacting and what she did is perfectly fine. Does
it mean nothing to her that she’s hurt me? I can’t do this.
I stand up and run from the room as fast as
I can. Tears swim in my eyes, blurring my vision. I have never felt so betrayed
and worthless in my life. How could they both think so little of me? Their
image and reputation means more to them than their own daughter.
I should have never gone away with Mum or
even tried to get along with her. I knew it was too good to be true.
So stupid!
Swiping my handbag from the
side table by the door, I sprint outside towards my car. What is wrong with me?
“Amelie,” Aden shouts after me. Ignoring
him, I jump in my car and shove the key card in the ignition. I know I should
wait for him, but right now I just want to be alone. He’s running towards my
car, but I drive off.
I don’t have anywhere to go. Will would be
at home but then I’d have to talk about what’s happened, and I’m too hurt and
angry for that. I feel as if Mum’s just stomped all over my heart. She didn’t
even see anything wrong. Her lack of faith in me is crushing. I can practically
feel the huge knife jabbing in my back.
Swiping tears away with the back of my
hand, I drive on aimlessly, turning down random roads and trying to take deep
breaths. A hotel is my best bet. I need to be alone and think about what I’m
going to do next.
Aden will probably be looking for me, but
his car was blocked by my dad’s, so there’s no way he would have been able to
catch me up. I pull into the car park of the first hotel I come across –
a Premier Inn – and park out of sight. Not that anyone will look for me
here.
My phone buzzes in my bag, but I ignore it.
I’ll text Aden when I’m in my room and have calmed down a bit. If that is
possible right now. If it’s Mum calling, she can just go straight to hell. Who
do they think they are to make decisions like that for me? They asked their
friend to give me a job so when I fuck up and leave – or get fired
– we’ll be able to keep it quiet. I knew they didn’t believe in me much,
but I had no idea it was so little.
I swallow the lump in my throat and wipe
under my eyes, hopefully wiping away smudged mascara in the process. I’m done
with them. There is no going back from this. I knew I shouldn’t have tried
letting Mum in; I knew something like this was going to happen.
“Do you have any rooms free?” I ask the
receptionist, putting on my best fake smile.
She smiles and taps away at her computer.
“We have two doubles left. Would you like one?”
No, I’m just asking. Jesus I’m standing her
looking like shit – probably like I’ve just found my boyfriend in bed
with another woman shit – and she asks if I want a room. Why else would I
be here! “Please,” I reply.
Within minutes, I’m booked into a room and
handed a room card. “You’re on the ground floor. Room twenty-three. Just follow
the corridor to the left.”
“Thanks,” I mutter and walk along the
corridor. This isn’t how I imagined today would go. Lunch was always going to
be a challenge, but I had no idea it would be so humiliating and heart
breaking.
My room is at the end, which was good
because I want to be out of the way of everyone and everything right now. In my
bag, my phone starts ringing again. Aden will be worrying. I open my door and
let the phone ring off before I send Aden a quick text letting him know I’m
okay. Lie.
His reply comes seconds later: I need to
know you’re OK. Please answer.
Sighing, I turn my phone to silent and
throw it down on the bed.
Please just
give me a couple of hours.
I fill up the tiny kettle and pour the
sachet of instant coffee into one of the mugs, wishing I had picked up a bottle
of vodka on my way out. A steady stream of tears trickles down my face and I
make no attempt at wiping them anymore. My phone vibrates on the bed, confirming
Aden hasn’t got the message.
I sit down on the bed, holding my half size
mug of coffee and staring into space, trying to work out what the hell I’m
going to do now. Allowing Aden talk me into giving them a chance was a huge
mistake. I should have listened to my gut feeling and then I wouldn’t feel like
this. Mum may love me – in her way – but it’s not real or meaningful.
My phone rings again, and I groan in
frustration.
Fuck off!
“What?” I snap.
“Millie, finally. Where are you? I’m so
sorry about what happened. I really am. Just tell me where you are, and I’ll be
there as soon as I can.”
My eyes sting, and I put my drink down,
curling up on the bed. “I told you I didn’t want any part of that life.”
He sighs. “I know.”
“You pushed.”
“I just want you to be happy. I know you
love your parents, and I wanted you to have a good relationship with them.”
“Some people can’t have a good relationship
with their parents.”
“I didn’t want you to be one of them. All I
want is for you to be happy. Baby, you’re my whole world.”
“Leaving would make me happy. I told you
that so many times.”
“Okay, I messed up. I’m sorry. Please just
tell me where you are. I need to talk to you and fix this.”
“Chocolate and flowers won’t do it, Aden.”
I hang up and then feel bad because it’s
not his fault. My heart breaks again, and I text him the hotel and room number.
When I hear his reply beep through my phone, I press my face in the pillow and
sob, knowing I don’t need to read the text because it’ll just be him saying
he’s on his way.
There is no way I want to talk to my
family. Harriet and Isabel probably knew. I want to call Oliver and ask if he
knew too, but I’m scared he’ll say yes. There has to be one person I’m related
to that isn’t waiting for me to fail.
Twenty minutes later, there’s a knock on
the door. Time to face Aden. I push myself off the bed and open the door, not
bothering to try and make myself look better.
Aden smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Hey, baby.”
I step back so he can come in. “You want to
sit?” I ask, pointing to the small table and two chairs in the bay window.
“Sure.” He makes no move to hug me, even
though I can tell he’s itching to by the way he hangs around close by. He’s
scared of how I’ll react if he does. “On a scale of one to ten, how mad at me
are you?”
“Fourteen,” I reply, though it’s myself I’m
mad at really.
He nods once and sits down, resting his
arms on the table. “Right. That mad.” He pushed me towards it, but he’s not
responsible for the outcome. “Look, Millie. I… I don’t know what to say to make
it better. I’m so sorry for what they did. I can’t believe they planned it. Have
you spoken to them since?”
“No, and I’m not going to. I don’t want
anything to do with them.” My face suddenly falls as a horrible thought enters
my head. “Did you know?” I whisper. Aden’s dad is the one that hired
me but on Aden’s behalf. Was he in on it too?
“No, of course I didn’t. Millie, I would
never
do that. I believe in you, baby.”
His gorgeous blue eyes look so hurt that it makes my heart ache. Aden can be an
idiot sometimes, but he’s nothing like them. He genuinely wants the best
for me.
I rub my temples, feeling a banging headache
coming on. “I know you wouldn’t. I’m sorry. Everything’s changed now. I can’t
work for you anymore. You know that, don’t you?”
“Come on, you don’t need to do that.”
“I do.” I didn’t get the job because
Richard thought I was the best candidate. I got it because my parents asked for
his help to try and make me fall on my arse so I’d crawl back to them. There is
no way I can go back there knowing that. I want a job someone believes I can
do.
He sighs and even though he doesn’t like
the idea of me quitting, he understands why I can’t stay. “Will you let me help
you find something else?”
“No. Thank you but I don’t want anyone else
involved. I can do this by myself.”
“Okay,” he replies. “Millie, I don’t know
what to do. I feel like you’re about to tell me to get the hell out of your
life too and it’s fucking terrifying. Tell me how to make it better. I love
you, and I’ll do anything. Please, baby.”
My heart shatters. I push myself up and
straddle his lap. I don’t ever want him to feel like that. I just need to
forget them, to cut them off.
“Hold me, that’s what you can do. You’re
all I need.” He holds me tight, picking me, walking to the bed and laying me
down. I grip hold of him and bury my head in his chest. Their betrayal hits me
again and I brake down, sobbing against Aden’s top and soaking it through.