Three months have passed since the nightclub debacle and Emily has been dodging all Elizabeth's calls. She hoped that August didn't disclose what had happened that morning. She felt guilty enough already.
It was this particular afternoon after trying to call her again, that Elizabeth had enough and threw her phone down in frustration. Just then, Liza walks in.
"Everything okay, Liz?" She asks warily and walks into the office.
Elizabeth looks at her, exasperation clearly written all over her face. "It's Emily. She's been dodging my calls since the night we all went out and I don't know what I did wrong." Elizabeth hangs her head.
After a minute passes and Liza not responding, she Feels a weird atmosphere between them, Elizabeth looks at Liza, whose head hung in shame and realizes, "But she's been talking to you..."
Liza looks at her with guilt and nods. "But it's not what you think, Lizzy." She starts, but Elizabeth stops her. "I don't think I want to hear it." Now she realizes what Emily meant that night she was drunk.
"No! It's not like that, Lizzy! Please just hear me out." Elizabeth looks at Liza's admittance with sadness in her eyes.
Her best friend. And Emily.
"Em has been dying to call you after that night but she didn't want the Dereons to figure out that she was out with you that night because she didn't want to lose you as a friend or them to attack your business." Liza finishes off.
"And in that time you two have been getting close, " Elizabeth says and Liza nods. Disgusted at her best friend's behavior, she says "How could you two do this, Liza? Emily is engaged to be married in three months time!" She says while viciously running her fingers through her hair, frustrated at Emily and Liza as well as getting angry at her stupid mistake of kissing August Dereon.
Liza looks at her with tears threatening to fall.
"Lizzy, you were right about Emily. She is miserable and lonely. But that's because she doesn't love August!" Liza continues and Elizabeth looks up at the mention of August's name. "She's gay, Lizzy!" Liza exclaims. Elizabeth looks at her with shock as she continues, "And her father promised her to the Dereons after she came out to them, making sure that she'll give them an heir one way or another." Liza finishes off.
Elizabeth takes all this in, and suddenly Emily's drunken muttering made sense. Why she and August were sleeping in separate rooms became clear. They didn't love one another, it was a business transaction between families.
That's why August kissed her.
Shaking her head, Elizabeth says, "I can't believe this. I thought August told her... Nevermind, I wished you guys would have told me sooner. I wouldn't be this unproductive ball of stress if you did." She finishes off, but Liza already caught on.
"What would August have to do with this?" Liza asks, and Elizabeth bites her bottom lip on guilt while looking down.
"Lizzy?! What are you talking about??"
Elizabeth looks at Liza with tears in her eyes. "That morning I left Emily's house, I met up with August in their kitchen. He was talking about my name and Libellule not getting mentioned to his family after the scandal in the online. I got so frustrated, I walked out. He caught up with me at my car... And he kissed me..." Elizabeth finishes and looks at Liza, who looks surprised. "The worst part is that I kissed him back! I've felt so guilty ever since, I've been calling to tell her, but she hasn't been answering." Liza goes to her and hugs her.
"Lizzy, Emily doesn't love August, August doesn't love her either," Elizabeth remembers Emily saying that when she was drunk, but now it all makes sense. "Em won't be mad at you. But our situations are anything but happy. They're fated to marry to keep their family's businesses going. So Emily and I are doomed anyway." Liza ends off sadly, with a miserable smile. And with that, she walks out of the office.
Elizabeth sits and processes the information just given to her. She picks up her phone, finger ready to dial Emily again when there's a knock at her office door.
"Come in, " she responds. Looking up from her phone, her heart skips a beat at the person standing there.
It was August.
August walks over to her desk and sits down. Her throat feels parched and she's lost for words. What was he doing here?She clears her throat and starts, "How can I help you, Mr. Dereon?" August looks at her and sighs. "Don't you think we're past the formalities, Dragonfly?" He replies, and she's taken back to when he kissed her. Blushing, she says "Yes I suppose we are. " sighing she continues, "Why are you here, August?"He looks at her earnestly and replies, "I would like to discuss what happened over lunch with you. It has been over 2 months and I haven't seen you around Emily or over at the villa at all. "Elizabeth looks at him, surprise written all over her face. He thought she hadn't been over at Emily's because of him. He had no idea what was really going on...She clears her throat, "I am booked for lunch today, unfortunately. Maybe we could-""Dinner then?" August interjected.This wasn't going how she p
Elizabeth sat there, dumbstruck. Did she hear him right? Did he just admit to loving her? With tears welling up in her eyes, she finally speaks."August, we can't... This is wrong.." She started but couldn't bring herself to say the right words.August looked straight at her, not wavering. "I know you may think that now. But give me this week, please. I need to speak to my family and arrange for this marriage to be called off in the most civil way possible. Emily will understand as she feels the same way as I do." He finishes. At the mention of Emily's name, she's brought back to her senses."Emily's family will disown her if you do call-off this engagement, August. She'll be ruined. I can't do that to her. " Elizabeth realizes, sadly that she could not do this to her friend. She was betraying her just by being here. The two of them might not love one another but they were still engaged.August senses her apprehension and quickly tries to reas
1 am.Elizabeth lay awake in bed. Thoughts of this evening running wild in her mind. Something felt... off.It felt like a betrayal.She was in love with August, that much she knew, but August was Emily's fiance, and Emily was her friend. Did she really lower herself to this level? The level her mother told her she was capable of.A mistress.Suddenly feeling sick to her stomach, she jumps up and runs to the toilet, her feelings being regurgitated.Dry heaving and exhausted, she gets up from the floor and walks to the sink.She looks at herself in the bathroom mirror and feels tears running down her face.No.As much as she was in love with August, she would stay away from him. This engagement was set in stone by powerful families, God alone knows what they would do to hers if she breaks this engagement.Having composed herself, she heads
Elizabeth decides to bury herself in work. She snaps at her staff and becomes ruthless in her business meetings. Liza has noticed the change in her best friend but decided not to push it any further if Elizabeth wanted to talk to her, she would have. Emily has pushed her out of her life as well, so Liza just keeps her head down, before her heart will be the death of her.The office phone rings and Liza answers, hearing the familiar sing-song voice of Emily on the other line."E-Em?" She stutters. Why was she calling her work line?" Yes, this is Emily Gray. Can you please put me through Elizabeth?" Emily answers, as dismissive as ever." I'm afraid Miss White is in an important meeting at present. Would you like me to set up an appointment for you to meet her?" If Emily was going to play this game, she can do it too."No that's fine. The Dereon-Grays would like to cancel our contract regarding the wedding dress that was ordered. We will reimbur
August stares at the ring in the palm of his hand. It was time for him to stop living in the fantasy world where things go perfectly well. His father did not become the businessman he is today by being naive.So he'll push forward with this marriage, even if he had to kill his emotions.He gets up and starts walking towards the window overlooking the courtyard. Emily's father and step-brother must have just arrived. "Showtime, I guess." He mumbles sadly. Turning to leave, he spots something sitting at the edge of his window.A dragonfly.Holding back his emotions, he turns and walks out to meet his new family.***************"Eldred Dereon, you cannot begin to understand how much this union of our families means to us." Giovanni Russo's booming voice announced while raising his glass in a toast. Eldred Dereon looks on with a malicious smile and raises his glass in agreement. This marriage will give him conta
Two Weeks LaterElizabeth wakes up to the ringing of a phone. Groaning, she turns over and grabs her cell. "Hello?" This had better be a good reason to wake her up at 4 am on a Sunday"Lizzy, I miss you so much..." she jumps up atthe sound of Emily's voice. "Em?!" she responds, choking back tears. "Yeah, it's me! There's so much I want to tell you, but Eldred Dereon is watching my calls like a hawk and is having me followed. Please just know that I love and miss you and Liza so much and I am so, so sorry." and with that, she hangs up.She sits staring at her phone, bewildered. August's father is having Emily followed? What is wrong with that family? As she settles back into bed, the past 2 weeks becominga blur. She missed Emily. she missed the girls' infectious laugh and ditzy personality.But she missed August even more.She hadn't heard from him at all, he had completely thrown her away after confessing his love to he
She arrives at the scene of her life's work going up in flames. Her work was all back up, but that wasn't the cause of her heart break.Libellule was hers. She built it from the ground up, and now someone had burnt it to the ground. Walking toward the building in a daze, suddenly she gets grabbed by someone and pulled back."Ma'am, you can't go in there!" It was a police officer and he was looking at her like she was crazy. "This is my building." She replies flatly, pulling her arm back. He looks surprised and clears his throat, " If that's the case, Ma'am, I'll need you to come down to the station with me. "Of course, formalities. It wasn't like her life was going up in flames or anything.First she lost Emily. Then August. Now her building.She wasn't sure what she did to deserve all the bad luck coming her way lately. She nods at the officer and tells him she'll be down at the station shortly then heads to her car.As she gets in, she ca
After making the necessary arrangements with Liza and informing the police that she would be going overseas for a while, Elizabeth books a plane ticket to Paris.She sits at the edge of her bed and thinks. Since she's seen August earlier, she hasn't really had time to think about everything that has happened. Her building burnt down, and somehow she knows Eldred Dereon was responsible for it. But why would he attack her? What reason could he possibly have? She barely even had time to mourn her loss, when August sprung going to Paris on her.Would leaving be a wise choice?She falls back onto her bed and finds herself thinking about her mother again. Strange. She picks up her phone and scrolls down to her mother's contact. Staring at her phone, she contemplates dialing the number. She may not be on speaking terms with her mother, buy that doesn't mean she doesn't love or care for her, unlike her mother. She decides to dial and waits for her her to ans