Page 2 of Shattered Saint
My mother seemed pleased with my response even though there wasn't a hint of joy in my words. I joined her in the hallway and together we walked toward what would be one of the most challenging days of my life.
At first, the only thing that could be heard was the clicking of our heels along the marble floor, but the closer we got to our destination, the more sounds I heard. The clinking of glasses and soft murmurs could be heard as we walked toward the stairs.
In just a few moments, I would be paraded in front of a bunch of rich people as Van Henson's daughter. It would be quite the spectacle because my father was mayor of Brentson, and he was also one of the richest men in all of New York.
That came with a price on multiple fronts.
My father was ambitious. He wanted more power and more money. He had higher aspirations than just being mayor of our town, and there was nothing better than growing his wealth. My mother was pretty much along for the ride and would do what she could to help him achieve his dreams.
Hence why I was all dressed up tonight and walking down our grand staircase to the party below. When we reached the bottom, the first thing that greeted me was the smell of delicious food being prepared. Of course, my parents had pulled out all the stops to treat their guests as if they were royalty. What made this comical was that I was willing to bet my parents couldn’t give two shits about most of the people in attendance tonight.My parents were fantastic at putting on a façade and more often than not, talked trash about most of their guests. To be honest, I would be surprised if the feeling wasn’t mutual.
But our true feelings didn’t matter. Tonight was meant to go perfectly. After all, we were the picture-perfect family that everyone strived to be.
My mother tapped me on the back, a small warning to me to straighten my posture because we'd reached the main floor, arriving at our stage for the night. We needed to have our masks on because any hint of a scandal could set off my father's friends, adversaries, and everyone in between.
Most people thought that New York City’s elite were vicious, and that was true. Many of Brentson’s citizens had moved here from New York City, meaning those attitudes carried over here sometimes.
How did I know this?
Because I had to drift between these different sectors, and it made things… interesting, to say the least. Not to mention the political landscape we also needed to navigate, and the procedures we needed to follow because of my father’s job and to prevent any hint of scandal. A misstep in that arena could lead to dire consequences that I would never hear the end of.
I'd mostly been kept out of this circus because of my age. I will say my parents did allow me to have something that resembled a normal childhood, and I was grateful for that. Now that I was seventeen, I felt as if I was being thrown headfirst into the lion's den with no way to survive.
There’s a common belief that your parents are supposed to protect you as much as possible from the evils of this world. But my parents? They had no problem with making deals with the devil.
Deals. As in multiple.
Another reason why my parents wouldn't be winning any parents of the year awards any time soon was because they decided to throw this party today. This should have been an important day for our family being that it was only hours after my older brother's high school graduation. I knew without a doubt, he would have wanted to hang out with his girlfriend and his friends. He should have been celebrating his success instead of being at this stuffy ass party for my parents.
Although I hoped that Nash and my parents didn’t get into it tonight, I wouldn't blame him if they did. Speaking of, where was Nash anyway?
I looked around as much as my body would allow me without alerting my mother, but my brother wasn't anywhere to be found.
The last time I saw him was about an hour after we arrived home from his graduation ceremony. If he didn’t show up tonight, that would be a big fuck you to my parents, and I would be thrilled.
It was harsh, but that was life.
"Bianca."
I ignored my mother and eyed a server as they walked by with a tray full of hors d'oeuvres, and the quick whiff of its aroma was lovely. My stomach growled in response, and it was then I realized I hadn't eaten in hours.
“Would you like one, miss?”
I nodded and grabbed a bacon-wrapped date and a napkin. I gave a small grin before popping the food into my mouth. As I was chewing, I turned to look at my mother.
She made a show of brushing off my dress as if a mysterious wrinkle had managed to appear on the bodice. I knew there was none, and her actions might have been the result of her being nervous.
My mother snatched the napkin out of my hand and whipped it at my face, to get rid of any crumbs I assumed. "Remember to be polite and to smile often. This is something you hate, but you can relax when everyone is gone."
I wanted to slap her hands away from me, but that would go against everything I was supposed to portray tonight. Keeping my cool tonight might mean that my mother and father had won this battle, but I could still use this to my advantage. There would be many options at my disposal, and I wanted to keep all of them open.
I took a couple of steps before I found myself frozen in place. The foyer of our home led into the ballroom where our guests were gathered. My heart landed at my toes. The anxiety that I felt in my room returned tenfold. I tried to calm my breathing as the feeling of the walls closing in on me tried to knock me down to the point where I might not be able to function. My focus was on making sure I survived this night without having a full-blown panic attack.
My mother's voice cut through my thoughts. "Are you ready?" Impatience dripped off her every word, and I wasn't surprised.
It took everything within me to not yell the word no and run in the opposite direction, but I didn't. Instead, I was forced to deal with a light chill that I wasn't sure if I should attribute to the temperature in the room or the iciness from Mom.
"Yes,Mother." I only called her by the term when I was especially irritated with something she'd done. This was definitely one of those times.
