THORNS TO THE HEART
Brianna
I sat across the table from Mrs Farrington. The woman was as intimidating as she was beautiful. Her hair was secured in an elegant bun. Her neck was adorned in pearls and her makeup was flawless. You would never guess that the woman before me was in her 60’s.
I felt inferior to her in my jeans and converse. I stuck out in this fine establishment like a sore thumb. In hindsight I should have googled where I was going. Maybe then I would have at least put on a pair of heels.
The marble tiled floors and the curtained floor to ceiling windows gave the aesthetic of expensiveness. While I gave off the aesthetic of poverty. Was I being dramatic? Possibly, but I couldn’t help it.
“Miss Scott.” She stared down at me with a similar pair of hazel eyes I had grown to love. Gabriel clearly got his good looks from his mother. But he acquired his grit and aggression in the corporate world from his father.
“Mrs. Farrington,” I had to stop myself from bowing my head. It just felt like a natural thing to do. She was just so damn regal like a Queen, and I was merely a humble peasant before her.
A peasant who loved her son dearly.
“You know why I called you here.”
I nodded. “To talk about my mother.”
She shook her head and placed her hand on the table. Her left finger showed off an impressive emerald ring that sparkled against the chandelier light that hung from above.
“No, child. Your mother is the least of my concerns. I’m here to talk about my son and you.
I gulped. “What about us Mrs. Farrington?”
“My husband made it very clear that he is not a fan of yours and neither am I. You are not the kind of woman we would want our son to be attached to. You don’t fit in in our society.”
Everything she was saying had already been splattered across the tabloids for the past few months. I thought I had become quite good at ignoring them. But hearing her speak those words directly to me was a new kind of pain.
“I don’t know how you managed to get your claws into my son or what you may have said to get him to turn against Adriana but I will not stand for it. You have had your little time in the sun but it ends here. It’s time for you to be on your way.”
I don’t know why but her words made me angry. “With all due respect, Mrs Farrington, but my relationship with your son does not concern you.” I announced, knowing I needed to keep my replies short so she wouldn’t detect the cracks in my armor.
“You have the fantasy dream of being a Farrington, like many other women in this world but the truth is, none of you can even compare to Adriana. She has the family name, she has the training and she fits in with our society. You are nothing but a social climbing, gold digging little thorn that needs to be removed.”
She reached into her bag and took out a large yellow envelope. She slid it across the table toward me. I stared at it for a moment before I looked up at her.
“Your mother has been sleeping with a rather nefarious drug dealer in the streets of Brooklyn. She has committed several crimes one of which being armed robbery. She is continuously high on whatever she can get her hands on and there also happens to be a warrant out for her arrest.”
I locked my jaw in place as she listed off all the horrible things my mother had done.
“Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself.”
I opened the envelope and looked inside. Sure enough there were pictures of my mother sniffing white lines, holding a gun in her hand and walking away with a bag of money.
“Oh mom…”
The drugs had consumed her life and had taken all sense of sanity from her. I didn’t even recognize the woman in the pictures. She wasn’t my mother.
She gave me a fake sympathetic look. “I can make all of this disappear. I can make every single charge against her go away and I will also place her in the best rehab facility money can buy. All you have to do is leave my son and grandson alone.”
I cleared my throat still looking at the pictures of my poor mother. “Has it ever occurred to you that I love your son Mrs. Farrington. And that maybe I am not after his money?”
She let out a low laugh. “Girls like you are always after one thing and one thing only. And that is money. I’m surprised you haven’t schemed to carry his child. Although I’m sure you’ve thought about it. Then again, my Gabriel is smart. He knows not to soil our bloodline.” She looked me up and down with a look of disdain.
“What if your son truly loves me Mrs. Farrington? We are engaged after all. Why else would he propose to me?”
I knew the engagement was fake, but she didn’t.