8. Power Dressing and Ready For a Fight

Elizabeth

3 am and Elizabeth stood with her bags and belongings all packed, while still wearing the dress from the ball. She took one last look at her room and sighed, realising she probably would not miss living here, and the thought alone saddened her profusely. When she reached the stair landing, she walked towards the kitchen and placed the keys where she knew her mother would see them when she came downstairs in the morning. With her resolve set, she straightened her back and wiped the last of her tears away.

These would be the last tears she ever shed for her mother.

Ever since her sister, Blair, died, her mother had been nothing but cruel to her only daughter. Blair was her mother’s favourite and a musical genius well on her way to becoming a prodigy. She had always shielded Elizabeth from her mother’s mood swings, but now that she wasn’t around anymore, Elizabeth got the brunt of her anger all the time.

On the way from her musical recital one evening, a drunk driver ran a red light and slammed into Blair’s car. Elizabeth was with her and barely survived. Instead of being happy that her daughter survived, Agnes had treated her with nothing but contempt. She knew her mother wished she had died instead.

Pulling out of the Manor driveway, Elizabeth gives it one last look and drives away.

She had booked a suite in a hotel nearby as a temporary residence until she found a home for herself. When she arrived, a bellboy took her bags, and she gestured to the valet to park her car and return the key to the reception where she would collect it in the morning.

Taking the elevator to her suite, she leaned to one side and sighed. “What a night,” she thought. The elevator came to a stop on her floor and she walked to her room. It was modest and had everything she could need, but it was only temporary. And it felt that way too.

She stepped into the bathroom and stripped off the dress she now deemed the bane of her existence, and proceeded to scrub the remnants of the evening away.

After her shower, she curled up in the comfortable blankets and grabbed her phone from the bedside table. She hasn’t checked her emails since she left for the ball, and wondered what lay waiting for her.

The blood drains from her face as she reads. All 24 projects she had scheduled for the next few months had all been cancelled by her clients! She knew that this could only be her mother’s doing, so she takes a deep breath and puts her phone back down. This will be tomorrow’s problem. No use trying to solve something now when she felt this exhausted to the core.

The following morning, dressed in her signature tight mauve dress that ended just above her knees, coupled with her favourite Louboutin heels, she headed out to do battle. But only after breakfast. Mauve was her power colour, and she would be damned if anyone tried to take her company down. Even if it was her own family.

She got into the elevator and hit the lobby button while taking out her cell phone to call her PA, Liza, who she knew was probably freaking out right about now. There was serious damage control to be done and they needed to get on it at soonest. “Liza, please have 2 dozen coffees and cakes delivered to the board room and tell the staff there is to be an urgent meeting at 8 am.” The elevator dinged just as she was done with her request, so she got out and walked to get her keys from reception.

“Thank GOD you called. What is happening? My lines are swamped with calls from the press and new client requests.” Elizabeth chuckled at her friend’s words. Leave it to Liza to get worked up for the both of them. Liza has been by her side since high school and the only real friend Elizabeth had. So when she started up her fashion house, she knew the only one she could trust with the job as her second in charge was Liza. “Don’t worry about all that for now, I have it under control. Now, if you could get those-”

Before Elizabeth could complete her sentence, she found herself walking into someone. Feeling unsteady on her feet because of her high platforms, she staggered back but was quickly caught by an arm around the waist.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I was on my phone and not watching where I was going!” she apologizes while blushing and looking down. Normally she wasn’t this clumsy! “Didn’t I tell you a beautiful woman like you should never look down like that?” Elizabeth felt herself pale at these words, but as she looked up her heart jumped into her throat when her eyes met with a pair that did not match.