“You always spring these things on me, mother. I’m not doing it. I told you. I have plans I have to honor, and they matter more to me than this meeting with your newest girlfriend for me.”
Her veneer of politeness dropped. I saw her jaw work and she squared her stance. “Have you forgotten what you did?”
“What?”
“Annaliese Barringer. I spent a whole afternoon talking to her mother, trying to explain, making sure we weren’t completely blackballed from their company. You humiliated me. Do you know what a slight like that could have done to your, and in turn my reputation?” she asked. She poked a finger into my chest. “Frankly, young man. You owe me.”
The wind went out of my sails. Annaliese Barringer hadn’t crossed my mind in weeks. Since reuniting with Brenna, she had become my number one focus. I knew that I was going to pay for what I did, and this kind of punishment wouldn’t have come as a shock if I wasn’t trying to make things work with Brenna right now.
She was going to have to hear about Brenna at some point. I wasn’t ready for that. There was nothing she could do about it, but I already knew her reaction wasn’t going to be happiness. We’d have to cross that bridge when we got to it. There was still time before Brenna started to show.
“I can’t do this, mother. Something else some other night but tonight, I can’t cancel my plans.”
“I expect to see you there. Do not embarrass me again.” She turned and started to walk out, then stopped. “Or I’m moving in here and parading a new woman in from of you every night until you choose one.” She left.
I sighed, clutching the bridge of my nose. Tonight, was going to be a long night.
16
Brenna
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I would have known that voice anywhere. That woman almost ruined British accents for me. Seven years, and she was back too. I didn't know why she hadn't crossed my mind this entire time. How the hell was I going to have Charlie back in my life without her?
Oh my God, Aunt Veronica. Niall kept going on and on about his aunt Veronica, how did I miss that? Charlie didn't mention her though. I wonder why, I thought cynically. I plastered myself to the wall and edged down a few more stairs so I could hear better. I missed the beginning but I was pretty sure she told him earlier that she wanted him to go to a charity auction or something, tonight.
“Annaliese Barringer. I spent a whole afternoon talking to her mother, trying to explain, making sure we weren’t completely blackballed from their company. You humiliated me. Do you know what a slight like that could have done to your, and in turn my reputation? Frankly, young man. You owe me.”
“I can’t do this, mother. Something else some other night but tonight, I can’t cancel my plans.”
“I expect to see you there. Do not embarrass me again. Or I’m moving in here and parading a new woman in front of you every night until you choose one.”
The front door slammed downstairs. I rushed into my room and closed the door. I stood against it, feeling my emotions rush over me. I barely knew the woman and she had the power to turn me back into a nervous, embarrassed nineteen-year-old. I listened for Charlie on the other side of the door. He wasn't coming up here to get me, was he? No, he couldn't be because he had a charity function to go to to meet some woman his mother wanted to set him up with.
My stomach turned. I felt resentment and intense dislike ball in my chest. It all came together. Niall was drunk which was why I didn't really think too much about what he had said to me, but he was right. All that stuff about Charlie's mother essentially hiring women to go out with him was true. Charlie, the most eligible bachelor in New York was being pressured into an arranged marriage by his bitchy, entitled mother. Guess you never really knew a person, huh?
Wait a minute. If she was still trying to set him up, that meant she didn't know about me.
I laughed. How fucking perfect. The thought was so absurd. I had that woman's grandchild in my body right now, and she hated my guts. Sick satisfaction ran through me. The things she said to me seven years ago completely broke me, I was reeling from them for years. The vindication was sweet.
After the night Charlie and I had sex, we were completely inseparable. Right after, when we were both spent and cuddling on top of the sheets, I asked him what this meant for us. He looked at me completely shocked, like it was obvious we were going to be a couple, what had I had in mind?
It just didn't seem real. the day before, we were still nervously flirting with each other, trying to find ways to spend the last few moments of the summer together and then boom, we were a couple. At the time, he was a lot more forward about it than I was. He felt nothing walking up off of the beach to the beach shack and kissing me in front of everybody. He'd hold my hand when we were together like it was no big deal. I blame my lack of experience with guys up to that point for how nervous and awkward I was, but then again, it was Charlie. It took a little bit more time together, by which I mean a few more times having sex, for me to be as comfortable with him as he was with me.
I was a virgin when I met him, but we made up for the lost time. We spent all the time together during the day that we could and most nights too where we did a lot more than just sleeping. It was amazing. It was the first time in my life that I felt like that about somebody else. I was in love with him, one hundred percent. It was like being in a dream. It wasn't just that this hot guy had picked me out of everybody else he could possibly have; it was that I felt so comfortable and safe and understood when I was with him.
He even gave me a key to his place. I'd go there almost every night if I wasn't doing anything else. One night, I went to his place and let myself in. The light was on inside and I just figured that it was Charlie.
Finding Charlie in Charlie's house; didn't seem like that much of a jump. I walked in and there was a woman on the couch. I stopped and looked at her, afraid for a second that I had walked into the wrong beach house but that didn't make any sense because my key had opened the door.
She was a beautiful woman, that was what I noticed first about her. She was older, but it was clear that she took very good care of herself. I could practically smell the money on her. She was fashionable and dressed in clothes that cost more than all of the money I had made in my life. Too bad her attitude stank. She was looking at me like some sort of home intruder when I had obviously used the key to get in. The resemblance wasn't apparent to me at first. She was also blonde and had blue eyes, but I guess Charlie took after his father more than her. It didn't even cross my mind at the time that she might be his mother. When he said the home belonged to a relative, I was thinking an aunt or uncle.
“Hi, I'm looking for Charlie Hampton. Is he home,” I started to say, but she cut me off.
“What are you doing on this property?” she asked me.
“I'm looking for Charlie.”
“And who are you?” she asked.
“I'm sorry if there's been some sort of misunderstanding. Charlie is my boyfriend and he gave me a key. He said this place belongs to a family member of his.”
She stopped looking disgusted only to start looking shocked. “Your boyfriend?” She laughed. “Darling, you and my son are not together.”
“Oh, Mrs. Hampton. I didn't realize you were coming to Dana Point. Charlie didn't say anything to me. It's nice to meet you. Even though these are slightly odd circumstances.”
She looked me up and down with an expression on her face like I was something stuck on the bottom of her very expensive shoe. I felt like I shrunk two feet.
“You're right, Charlie did not say anything to me about you. I think that in itself speaks volumes.”
“It probably just slipped his mind.”
“No, it didn't. Because you are not his girlfriend.”
“I get that he might not have told you about us yet. We haven't been together for very long.”
“No,” she said with a sneer on her face. She sighed. “How do I explain this so somebody like y
ou understands. You are not dating my son. My son is Charles Hampton, one of the richest men in the world. He is descended from British aristocracy on his mother's side and American Captains of Industry on his father's side. He does not date women like you.”
Out of all of the ways that I could have found out that Charlie was rich and royal-adjacent, this was the worst. It never came up when we were talking. When we talked about his family, he didn't really go into detail that much, and he never mentioned any wealthy or aristocratic connections. Maybe he thought it would change the way I thought about him if I did know that he was wealthy, and honestly, maybe it would. I knew I wouldn't have been as open with him if I knew his pedigree.
The thing that drew me to Charlie, riches or not, was the fact that he seemed so accessible to me. He seemed so regular. Even if he was rich, he didn't act like he was better than anybody because of his background. He was cute, funny, chill, goofy… he was just a guy, or so I thought.
I tried to defend myself against her. “Charlie and I are together,” I said. “If he's not supposed to be with a girl like me, then he didn't get the memo.”
“Darling,” she said, “you're mistaking him for a man with no options. For now, while he's young and sowing his wild oats, a chubby little beach rat with no prospects could do just fine. But I’m referring to his future. To the woman he brings in to be part of our family. Only a woman from a similar social standing will do and he’s perfectly aware of that. Sorry love, he must not have told you but once this summer is over, Charlie will marry the princess or heiress of my choice.”
“That's not true. Charlie would have said something to me.”
“I don't think you understand, dear.” That way she had of speaking sweetly while completely eviscerating whoever she was talking to was evil. “Charlie has no use for you beyond this summer. He's having a little fun, that's all. He knows that I would never accept you as a daughter in law and he would never insult me by trying.”
“I don't believe you.”
“Then don't,” she snapped. “I'll wait for you to hear it from him yourself. When he finally cuts you loose because he has had his fill of... whatever it is you're offering him, he'll break your heart. Judging by your reaction, it's clear he hasn't been fully upfront with you about his intentions. Consider this a favor. You didn't have to hear it from the man that you are completely besotted by.”
I was crying at that point. I didn't want to appear that week in front of her, but her cruelty cut me right to the bone. The way she called me darling was soaked in disdain. I wish I was stronger. I wish it happened now instead of when I was nineteen. I would’ve said something. Defended myself better. Put her in her place. Instead, I just dropped my key on a table with a lamp on it and turned to leave.
“Don't tell Charlie that I came by,” I said to her.
“Of course not, darling,” she said. “I think it would be better for all of us, Charles included if we pretend this little dalliance of his didn't happen.”
That was the first last and only conversation I had had with Veronica Hampton. The shock that Charles was related to British royalty was almost as bad as what a bitch has mother was. It just didn't make sense to me. How could a man who was as kind, sweet and non-judgmental as Charlie be related to a woman whose main problem with me was the fact that I wasn't rich?
Her threats worked. His mother played a big enough role in his life to have a say in who he ended up marrying. I tried my best not to think about the two of us ever going the distance like that, but during that time when we were together, completely blissed out and in love, I did indulge in a couple of fantasies like that. Fantasies were all they were ever going to be. At the time, it crushed me.
I walked away. I left that summer, that time, that beach, everything like it never even happened. I completely ghosted him, which I can admit was wrong and foul. I wish I never did it, but reeling from the shock of that confrontation with his mother, I was humiliated and even a little scared.
Her attack hit me right where it hurt, and I knew that that was intentional. I couldn’t stand up to her. Who the hell was I? A chubby beach-rat who was at this summer job because I actually needed it. Who had grown up poor and been working most of her teenage life already. Whose usual suitors were nothing compared to her son in terms of rank and wealth.
And she was descended from royalty. She had tons of money and power, I didn’t stand a chance. And on top of that, she was Charlie’s mom. Who was he going to pick between her and me, realistically? He was a dutiful son back then and he was one now.
I believed her. I started thinking that Charlie was just with me for a good time before he leveled up to a woman who was wealthy and wore a size zero.
I was still mad about that. After seven years you would think the ache would have healed a little, and it had, but now, it was back with a vengeance.
For a long time just thinking about him would bring tears to my eyes. When I stopped having such an emotional reaction, I thought I was over it but clearly not. What was I thinking getting involved with him again? We were right back where we started. Me, involved with Charlie Hampton again just so his mother could come and ruin things. Why did I think things were going to be different? Why didn't I think about this earlier? I thought that maybe since he was so much older now yet still unmarried, maybe he had stood up to her, but he hadn't. She still had the same expectations of him. Even worse, he was still doing his best to live up to them.
Right now, he was getting dressed so he could go to some rich people party and be introduced to a woman suitable for him to marry. The socialite with generational wealth and a twenty two-inch waist. This was nothing to him. whatever he thought he was doing with me now; it wasn't going to last. He was going to, eventually, do what his mother wanted, and then what was I supposed to do?
I couldn't get sucked back in. We had a contract so I had to stay with him right now but once the baby was gone, I was out. The money was the real reason that I agreed to do this, and it would have to be enough. I couldn't believe that I let myself think he was serious about us trying again. It must have been the baby. He was just delusional, feeling close to me because I was pregnant with our kid.
No, with his kid. My hand went to my stomach. I felt ill. After this was over, I was out. I didn't want to be back here again, but at least this time, I knew my way out.
17
Charles
I watched the man’s lips moving as the words he said turned into a monotonous drone in my mind. My eyes glazed over.
“Don’t you think so?” he said. I snapped back into attention; the decorated hotel ballroom, the charity auction, the man in front of me who was telling me why this flightless bird from the forests of southeast Asia was worth saving.
“Yeah, of course, you’re absolutely right. One second, I’ll be right back,” I said, walking away from him.
What the hell was I doing here? How did I let my mother drag me out tonight? I should have been home with Brenna. We could have gone out tonight. We could have stayed at the house, ordered pizza and just watched a movie. Anything would be more interesting than listening to someone telling me about the mating habits of a bird that was going extinct.
I did my part for the environment, but tonight was not the night. I used to have a far higher tolerance for these sorts of things, but my priorities were a little different these days. Tonight just wasn’t the night. Sue me.
None of this was real. The relationships between all these people, the conversations, the way everyone pretended they were happy to see each other and were going to stay in touch; spoiler alert, they didn’t. It was completely false. They just wanted to know the ways that they could be useful to each other. That was it. They didn’t even care about the fucking endangered bird.
I grabbed a flute of champagne off one of the roving waiters and downed it in one swallow. I was ready to leave. I had shown up, said hey to the Thomases and laughed and smiled with people I never wanted to meet again. That felt lik
e more than enough to me. My mother was doing the rounds, socializing. Networking. She had done this all her life, she was great at it. I should have been better at it but guess I had no choice but to disappoint her some more.
I didn’t want this life. She thrived in this environment. I didn’t. She wanted this crowd. I would rather live in solitary confinement than deal with this particular crowd again. I couldn’t see myself doing this for the rest of my life and fuck if she or anyone else said I had to. I wasn’t going to. I wanted, no I needed something real. Brenna was real. She wouldn’t want to spend a minute with these people and wouldn’t allow herself to be coerced to come to something like this.
That was it. I was out of here.
“Oh, Charles, there you are,” I heard my mother’s voice behind me. I turned around, seeing her with a woman on her arm.
“Mother.”
She gave me a look. The look. The one that she gave me when I was doing something to embarrass her, but we were in public and she couldn’t make a scene. “You weren’t on your way out, were you?” she asked.
“Actually, I was. I was going to ask where to leave the check and head out,” I said. Her false smile didn’t drop but I saw the irritation in her eyes.
“Well, we caught you just in time then,” she said. “Elizabeth, this is my son, Charles. Charles, this is Elizabeth Thomas,” she said.
I looked at the woman and gave her a polite smile. She was just my mother’s type. Tall, almost as tall as me in heels, light brown hair and eyes, flawlessly applied makeup, runway-model figure and predictably, a sky-high net worth. They were in real estate and basically ruled the Lower Westside. I wished my mother knew how little that kind of stuff impressed or even meant to me. She flashed a dazzling smile at me.
Admit You Miss Me: A Surrogate Pregnancy Romance (Irresistible Billionaires Book 1) Page 10
