(Here you go! After two weeks and I am sure that you are tired of hearing me constantly apologise. You guys are just way too nice and supportive to ever really get angry with me or at least comment and tell me. And that still means something to me. I will try my very best to try and update next week. I finished what is probably one of my favourite chapters last night (C54), which means I am almost finished with this book! Also, I would like to thank @leonettahearts4 for helping me with the last chapter, I hope that all of this mistakes are fixed. You were (are) a great help! My progress aside, Enjoy! xx)
"SO VIOLETTA HOW is your marriage?" Kaila asks.
That was a little intrusive for small talk but I shrugged it off. I had to give her credit for trying to start a conversation after a few minutes of thick silence. But I honestly would have preferred another question.
"Well I am sure like the rest of your marriages it is beautiful and full of love," I say and they share an inside look.
Did I say something wrong?
I guess I should have taken a lesson on how to speak to these people. I assume the cliche "spot-of-tea" kind of speech would not quite suffice with these women.
Why was I here again? Was it because of Diego's idea of a perfect wife or maybe it was Gregorio's. Maybe he still had the biggest voice in our marriage and I had just forgotten.
"Why do you think we have so many of these parties?" Tiana laughs and my eyes widen. The rest of the ladies giggle.
"I prefer it when they are busy with their work or else they care about us too much. How am I supposed to have fun?" Julia says sending me a sly wink.
And I will never get that image out of my head.
How do they even get guys at this age? I look at them all again. Okay, I will admit they are all beautiful but in a somewhat mature way.
"You're still young, surely you have some kind of fun," Hailey says and I shake my head frantically.
"Definitely not," I say firmly.
"You actually love each other?" Abigail presses.
"Yes."
They share an inside look yet again. Emily sits quietly in her chair, I hadn't heard a word from her yet. The look they shared was slightly judgemental.
Was it an assumption that every single extremely rich couple had marriage problems? Was that the only reason they invited me? Oh, Diego will get a kick out of this.
I will admit that Diego and I didn't necessarily love each other and these feelings that I had were probably one-sided knowing him. But he did say that his parents were completely and wholeheartedly in love with each other.
"Well Diego does look like a sweetheart," Emily finally speaks.
"The only good thing about our husbands is their money," They break into giggles again and Emily slumps back.
It seems like she had a fairly good relationship since she doesn't participate in the husband bashing.
So the Frazier Foundation was actually a group of gold diggers. Interesting.
"We do actually give money to the less fortunate right?" I blurt out. Julia looks almost offended if facial expressions were even possible under all that makeup.
"Of course, we are horrible wives, not horrible people," She says with a narrowed gaze.
I felt small under her glare and turn to my plate. I take a brownie coated in white sugar and take a generous bite. I keep in a sound of satisfaction as the taste settles into my mouth. This was amazing. So, so amazing! The chocolate practically melts in my mouth.
I pop the other half into my mouth completely forgetting that I was not alone in the room and that my mouth was probably covered with dark chocolate. My phone buzzes and all the women turn to me.
While I am still chewing with my mouth full.
I choke back a cry as I discard all the contents from my mouth into a napkin.
"Sorry,"
I turn my phone around and answer.
"Hello?" I say before licking my teeth trying to savour the brownie.
The girl that let me in takes the tissue and I send her an apologetic look. I really didn't want anybody to touch something that held a partly chewed brownie from me. Julia looked unfazed.
"Hey love, just checking up on you," He says and I roll my eyes,
"You understand that I am in the middle of something," I say under my breath.
"I kinda expected you to walk out the room," Diego says.
"That would be kinda rude," I say in my hushed voice.
"Ruder than what you are doing now?" I can feel his smirk.
I glare at my empty plate and end the call with Diego's laughing as the last thing I hear. I turn back to the Frazier Foundation and see them staring at me. Emily looked at me sympathetically.
I was about to be kicked out, wasn't I?
Well, it was fun (not really) while it lasted.
"Do you always answer his calls?" Donna asks me.
"Yes, because just in case it is an emergency. If something happened and he called and I didn't answer I would never forgive myself," I say easily.
Deep down it was true.
I guess it was something that I got from my parents. Even if they were in meetings they would answer my calls as a parental duty. They told me that I was more important than any business representatives in that room with them, that they could live with the deal but would never be able to live without me.
I could probably survive without Diego but it would take me a while to be able to live without him.
"Sweet," Donna says and I can sense the pretense in her voice.
I wonder what the characteristic about me that was so off-putting for all of them.
I take another treat forcing myself to avoid lunging for the brownie. It was so good and I only got to treasure half of it. I would never forgive Diego.
"So Violetta, this meeting's main aim was to get to know you. What is your hobby?" Emily asks trying to ease the tension.
"I love to read. I am a total bookworm," I answer quickly. I don't know what kind of reaction I was expecting but I wasn't necessarily expecting complete silence.
"Sounds great," Emily says weakly.
Maybe I should just try and get myself kicked out?
Or wasn't I doing that already?
I doubt it was good for their overall image to actually disinvite me from the Foundation. They were supposed to be the kindest people in the country. Beautiful, rich and caring. What could be better right?
The silence continues and the only sound is my loud chewing. Don't ask me what kind of witchcraft their chewing was. They ate so elegantly and there were no crumbs on their plates. Compared to mine it was spotless.
I could tell that this arrangement was not going to last very long.
"So when is our next fundraiser?" I ask wiping crumbs from my mouth.
"In two weeks we will have a dinner and dance," Julia informs me.
The rest of the members whip out their phones and add the date to their events. I feel awkward taking out my phone again so I just repeat it a few times in my head.
"And wear something nice," Julia adds on and Tiana snickers. She glances at my outfit and I bite my lip. Okay, definitely not the right outfit.
"Nothing could be worse than what Harriet wore," Donna says shuddering as she speaks.
"Speaking of Harriet, let's not invite her please," Abigail says.
I felt excluded from this conversation considering they were speaking about people I had never even heard of that attended an event that I was not invited to. I just listened intently, maybe their criticism could give me a hint at what I should be wearing.
"What's wrong with Harriet?" Emily inquires. Julia rolls her eyes annoyed.
"She donated more money than Abigail and she was so nice it hurt," Julia snapped.
"And what's wrong with that?" I turn to Emily expecting to see her outraged but instead she is staring at me wide-eyed.
Oh shit, that was me.
"Well I mean isn't it good if people donate, that's what you are doing it for after all," I say trying to sound more polite.
"Well, she is not a member so she made the Frazier Foundation look bad. And she cannot be that nice because then again she is casting a shadow on us. And we are supposed to be the stars if the show," Julia explains with a tight voice.
I knew that I was treading on thin ice right now. She was evidently trying very hard not to claw at me. But I couldn't help it, and I still had a lot more words for them.
"Because giving back to the less fortunate is a show?" I ask incredulously.
"It is of some sort. I mean you are aware of the Frazier Foundation aren't you? Everybody that lives in this country knows who we are. You don't think that this happens by simply going straight those in need and giving them the money do you?" She pauses to chuckle.
"It happens by throwing these extravagant evenings and getting a lot of publicity for it. And we only get publicity if the entire Frazier Foundation looks good." Julia says slowly.
I shake my head slightly. I discreetly switch my phone on and turn on the camera. I pick it up a little to ensure that Julia can be seen.
"Okay, I understand," I say sweetly, "can you just repeat so that I know exactly how to act." She smiles proudly.
"While we do give the money back to the community the part that is a little more important is the publicity. You need to ensure you give a good donation to make us all look good. Our public image is everything which is the reason for these big events. Not as much to raise money," She pauses.
"Oh yes, you must remember to always make everything you do a show. And a reminder to never do charitable work in a small manner. It has to be big. It has to promote us. We have to be the kindest people that the country has ever seen even if we aren't." Julia concludes.
"Which we aren't," Kaila laughs.
"So you have never actually done any projects in the sole interest of the people?" I ask.
"Well I think once when we started but when we realised how good we looked well that became the goal," Julia shrugs.
"Brilliant," I smirk.
Hailey raises her eyebrow and she glances at me and notices the phone.
"You traitor! She was videoing the whole thing!" Hailey screams.
Emily snorts while the rest of the women shriek. They lunge for me and push the chair backward quickly.
When the first pastry came I thought I must have been dreaming. Surely they wouldn't resort to throwing food at me. Right? Well, that was until the another five came hurtling towards me. I barely managed to save my hair but my clothes were hit.
Emily grabs a brownie and I frown. I thought she was different. She smirks at me before throwing it at Julia's face. It slides down her cheek leaving a trail of chocolate sauce.
Now that was awesome.
That was really started the fight. Emily looked like she was having a blast throwing all the delicacies. It did break my heart to ruin so many beautiful crafted treats but well I did need to get out of here.
I duck behind my chair and call Greg. He picks up after the first ring.
"I'm done. Please come," I say.
"I never left," He says, "Mr. Hernandez told me to stay as a precaution."
"Thank god," I breathe.
I end the call and get up. I run for the door and Julia stood there. Her elegant hairstyle was ruined, her expensive clothes would never live to see another day. She looked utterly horrible.
And I loved it.
"Give me that phone. If that gets out we are ruined," She says trying a more empathetic approach.
Yeah, not falling for that again.
"I would give it to you but frankly I don't care. And plus, I didn't even pay for this. So see ya!" I call as I push past her and run to the car. Greg looks at me in shock as I jump into the car.
"I know I told you it would be fine to eat in the car but this is a little excessive," He says sheepishly and I laugh.
"I will pay for it," I assure him.
"Back to the apartment?" He asks me and I shake my head.
I needed a news agency. I think about Emily's smirk and I find myself smiling. She won't turn this story down.
"The Sands," I grin.
'Ello! So my Dad was talking about people who do things for fame and I decided to put that to work in here. They were honestly not going to be like this, I mean they were going to be rude but not actually this bad.
The food fight is a result of being in a car for four hours and pretty much just being super bored. Oh well.
I guess in a way this was a filler chapter but it will lead to more which will eventually lead to even more and then we reach a pivotal point in the book. So it has a reason to be here.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading 🙈 Sorry for any errors 💚
~Lexy 😈