Earn My Trust

Chapter 26 - The Charity Gala Part Two

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The couple were stopped a couple more times on their way to the entrance, but they finally made it to safety inside the building and joined the queue that were waiting to be shown to their seats.
"Cor, that was intense." Hannah wheezed, fanning herself while she looked back to see Una chatting with a reporter herself. "Shouldn't we wait for Una?"
"She will catch up." Ethan assured her.
"But aren't you red carpet dates?" She asked, feeling like she was being selfish.
"Yeah, we are. But for those moments, we are separated anyway. We get different reporters. Hers are music orientated, and mine are gossip and business." He scowled for a moment before his face brightened up. "But that school reporter was a nice change."
"He was lovely!" She smiled widely. "It's great that he's doing this for the children at his school." She then gave him a curious sideways look. "How did you feel sharing your story like that? I hope I didn't put any pressure on you."
He chuckled and shook his head. "It was alright, actually. To be honest, I've given up trying to get my story across to people, particularly when they mostly focused on my love life."
"They see you as a Prince Charming saving a girl from rags, that's why." She joked. "You saved me and Bea."
He looked down at her. "I think you'll find you saved me."
She reached up and pulled him down for a tender kiss when someone shoved into her from behind, forcing her to collide with Ethan.
"Really?!" Ethan snapped sourly at the person responsible.
Hannah looked around to see Christine smirking at the both of them.
"What? It's a tight squeeze in here." She sneered before strutting away towards a door on their right.
"Fucking bitch." He snarled after her. "Doesn't have anything better to do than cause trouble."
"What's life without a little bit of drama, though, right?" Came a voice neither of them wanted to hear.
The couple turned and scowled at Bianca.
She had her arms folded and a sly smile on her face. She looked Hannah up and down like she smelt something bad under her nose.
"We weren't introduced earlier. I'm Bianca McMillan. Nice to meet you." She faked pleasantries.
"Hannah." Hannah nodded coldly.
"Hannah." Bianca repeated like she was committing it to memory.
"What do you want?" Ethan snapped, not even bothering to fake being nice to her.
"Oh, that's nice!" Bianca laughed humourlessly. "I'm just introducing myself as you cruelly decided to blank me earlier."
"I thought I had made it clear that I never wanted to see or speak to you ever again." He spat back. "Or do you need one more reminder?"
Bianca rolled her eyes and turned back to Hannah, forcing herself to smile sweetly. "He's such a cold bastard, isn't he?"
"No." Hannah replied blandly. "No, he isn't."
Bianca blinked at her, realising that the bitch wasn't one to keep facades, so dropped her fake sweet attitude for her true nature.
"I see you like to steal fashion tips." She slurred cruelly.
"What are you fucking talking about?!" Ethan said incredulously. "I don't know if your eyes are working anymore, but her fashion is a lot more tasteful than yours!" He pointed at the dress she wore that left little to the imagination. "Unlike you, she doesn't have to rely on her body to bring in her paycheck every month!"
Hannah's eyes widened as she stared at Ethan's cheek to openly insult his ex. She understood that she deserved it, but she'd thought he would have a lot more decency than to play along with her games.
Bianca glared daggers at him for a moment before scoffing. "I bet she relies too heavily on you to bother working towards a paycheck."
"Contrary to belief, she works harder than you have ever done in your entire life!" He snarled, ignoring Hannah, who was now trying to calm him down. "She doesn't have to rely on removing her false teeth to suck off directors to get roles in movies!"
Hannah gaped at him, shocked beyond words!
Ethan turned himself away from Bianca before she had anything else to say.
"I think you've overstayed your welcome, Bianca." Una appeared beside Hannah, staring at the actress with a cold expression.
Bianca turned on her. "Like you can talk! You're only here, thanks to me!"
"Actually, I'm here because I have real talent that led to me being signed." The singer replied smoothly. "As many of the rest of us can relate to."
"That rules her out then." Bianca sneered, pointing at Hannah.
Hannah rolled her eyes. "I may be here as a guest, but at least I'm not trying to force my way into a limelight I don't belong!"
The people around them grimaced comically at her brave comeback, some even cheering her on and agreeing with her.
Bianca stared at her with a deadly look. You could almost see the cogs turning in her brain as she tried to retort with her own clever comeback, but Una didn't give her the time.
"Times up, sweetheart. You have lost this round." She smiled in a sickly, sweet way before taking Hannahs arm and strutting closer to Ethan so they could turn their backs to the stuck-up actress.
Ethan immediately reached out for Hannah and pulled her close to him, holding on to her tightly like he was afraid she would vanish.
"I'm so sorry." He muttered sincerely into her ear.
She reached her arms around his neck and let him nuzzle into her neck, his favourite place to find comfort.
"We will get through this together." She reminded him. "Are you sure you don't want to go back out to the reporters and give in to those intrusive thoughts?"
He huffed a chuckle and pulled back slightly so he could see her. "It is tempting."
"I'll say." She smirked.
"You know, it's true about her false teeth..." he whispered snidely.
She blanched at him. "Fuck off!"
He sniggered and shook his head. "Nope, I paid for them in Turkey."
She gaped at him before squeezing her eyes shut. "Must... resist... must resist!"
He laughed and pulled her closer before looking at Una.
"You ok?" He asked her.
Una shrugged. "I'm used to it by now." She sighed, looking at the contents in her clutch distractedly. "At least she didn't try to swipe at you this time."
Hannah snapped her head round to stare at her. "She got violent last time?!"
Una nodded, looking fed up. "She always tries to get in the last word but keeps falling flat."
"I couldn't believe that she would think you were here all because of her." Hannah scoffed. "How conceited can she get?!"
"She thinks that because Una was originally down to be our wedding singer." Ethan explained exhaustedly. "Back then, Una was singing on Tiktok and had gathered a huge following. Bianca found her and was determined to have her sing for us."
Una laughed and nodded. "It's how we met, you know. Before, I had only spoken to their wedding organiser until Ethan called me himself the day before the wedding was meant to happen. He kept saying sorry for not letting me know about the cancellation sooner, but the organiser had suddenly quit due to being given mixed information."
"Yeah, apparently, someone was in denial that the wedding was cancelled." Ethan slurred sourly.
She smiled at him. "He actually put my name forward to a couple of record labels as an apology."
Hannah gaped at her and looked back at Ethan. "You big softie." She teased him sweetly.
"Hey, I had to make it up to her somehow!" He shrugged modestly.
They were finally called forward to find out their seating. Ethan immediately cut across the organiser to scrutinise the seating plan.
"I want to make some changes as I'll be damned if I'm staying only to be sat with that bitch." He explained bluntly to the organiser.
The female organiser had seen the dispute thay had happened a few moments ago, and nodded in agreement. "Of course, sir."
Ethan swapped a few names around and stepped back, looking satisfied.
"Done." He grinned.
The lady looked at the rearranged seating plan and beckoned them forward to their newly designated seats.
"Enjoy your meal." She told them once they had been seated.
Hannah was pleased to see that Ethan had swapped their places around enough that Stephanie, the model they had met earlier, was now sitting at the same table.
Stephanie rushed to join them not even five minutes later, looking overjoyed at being given a seat with them.
"What luck!" She exclaimed as she sat in the seat beside Una and leaned forward, grinning ear to ear. "I thought we'd be given separate tables!"
Ethan shrugged mysteriously. "Funny that." He mused, smiling to himself as he settled down, determined to enjoy the rest of the evening.