10. Lili #3
"So skilled at making people want what you're selling," Lady Victoria continued as if I hadn't spoken.
"I suppose selling comes naturally when one works in television.
Though I must say, your performance tonight was far more impressive than I would have expected from someone who peddles garden tools at two in the morning. "
The way she emphasized "peddles" made my skin crawl.
"I really was just trying to help," I lifted my chin slightly. The rubies she'd insisted I wear to the previous gala too felt like a phantom weight around my ear lobes—why had she bothered lending me family jewels if she thought me so beneath them all?
"Oh, I'm sure you were," she replied with a razor-thin smile. "Just as I'm sure you're 'just trying to help' my son with his personal development. How very generous of you."
"Lady Victoria, if you have something to say—"
"I have many things to say, Miss Anderton, but let's start with what matters. I know exactly who you are." She stepped closer, lowering her voice as if sharing a confidence. "And I know exactly why you should be very, very concerned about your future at Gardens his strange reaction when I'd found him with acquisition papers in the library; how he always steered conversations away from work the moment Gardens & Home was mentioned.
All those moments I'd interpreted as considerate interest had been calculated evasions.
"Edward would have told me. He would never—"
"Wouldn't he?" Lady Victoria's laugh was brittle as fine china. "My dear child, surely you didn't think this was all some romantic coincidence. A chance meeting in a library, stolen glances over afternoon tea, an aristocrat falling for a commoner? How deliciously naive."
My mind raced back through every interaction with Edward, suddenly viewing them through this new, poisoned lens.
Our first meeting when I was in his bed. His initial shock when he learned where I worked. Every conversation where he'd carefully avoided discussing his current cases.
"Edward's firm has been planning this acquisition for months," Lady Victoria continued, clearly savoring my distress.
"The failing American company expanding into the British market, hemorrhaging money, desperate for a buyer.
And then, just as negotiations were heating up, you arrived at our door. Convenient, wouldn't you say?"
"No." I shook my head, refusing to accept what she was implying. "Daphne invited me. She wanted me to feel welcome in England."
"Daphne." Lady Victoria waved dismissively. "My daughter has always been useful in her own way, though she rarely understands the bigger picture. Did you really think Edward showing you around London was Daphne’s idea? Or Edward suddenly developed an interest in television personalities?"
The air in the conservatory felt too thick suddenly, the scent of tropical flowers cloying and suffocating. I struggled to breathe as my entire world tilted on its axis.
"You see, my dear, successful businessmen like Edward don't leave acquisition targets to chance," Lady Victoria explained with the patience of someone enjoying herself immensely.
"Getting close to you, gaining your trust, perhaps learning which executives were troublesome, which financial details weren't public knowledge, which aspects of your business model were most vulnerable—that's just good business.
And you made it so easy, didn't you? American girls are so trusting. "
"But he... we..." I couldn't finish the sentence. Couldn't articulate what had been growing between us—what I thought had been growing between us.
"Yes, I'm sure he was very convincing. Edward has always been exceptionally good at getting what he wants.
The boarding school charm, the aristocratic mystique, the wounded hero routine—it works on a certain type of woman.
" Her gaze raked over me dismissively. "Though I confess, I didn't think he'd have to work quite so hard with someone of your background. "
The casual cruelty of her words cut deep, but they weren't what made my heart feel like it was being shredded. It was the realization that everything I'd felt with Edward—every laugh, every touch, every whispered confession under moonlight—might have been nothing more than calculated manipulation.
"You're lying," I said, but the words lacked conviction even to my own ears.
"Am I? Then tell me, dear—did Edward mention the acquisition? Even hint at a business connection between your company and his firm? Or did he carefully avoid any mention of work, keep the conversation focused on other things?"
I couldn't answer. Because she was right—he'd never mentioned it. Not once. Not even when I'd brought up work, my worries about the company's future, my fear of being sent back to America.
"I thought not," Lady Victoria said with satisfaction. "You see, in our world, information is currency. And you, my dear girl, have been played by a master."
"This is about more than business," I said, anger finally flaring through the shock. "This is about you thinking I'm not good enough for your son. About me being an outsider, an interloper in your precious aristocratic world."
"Oh, you're quite right about that." Lady Victoria's mask slipped for a moment, revealing the pure venom beneath.
"You are everything I've spent my life protecting this family from.
Common blood, American vulgarity, the kind of girl who thinks ambition and charm can substitute for breeding and education. "
I drew myself up to my full height, channeling every ounce of Texas backbone Mama had instilled in me.
"Where I come from, Lady Victoria, we believe character isn't about what family you're born into or what accent you have—it's about how you treat people when you have power over them.
And by that measure, I'm not the one lacking breeding here. "
Something like respect flickered in her eyes, quickly masked by renewed cruelty.
"One does have to admire the spirit. But you know what the truly delicious irony is?
Even if Edward genuinely cared for you—which I doubt—it wouldn't matter.
By this time next week, you'll be unemployed, your visa will be invalid, and you'll be back in whatever godforsaken little town spawned you. "
"My visa..." The words came out as barely more than a whisper.
"Tied to your employment, isn't it?" Lady Victoria's smile was almost sympathetic, which somehow made it worse.
"How elegant a solution. One signature on an acquisition document, and not only is your career finished, but you're removed from my son's orbit entirely.
Back across the ocean where you belong."
The full implications hit me like a physical blow.
Not just a broken heart, but professional destruction.
Not just rejection, but deportation.
Not just losing Edward, but losing everything I'd worked for, and everything I'd dreamed about.
"One really ought to thank you, I suppose," Lady Victoria continued, seemingly oblivious to how I was crumbling inside.
"You've provided quite the educational experience for Edward.
He needed to understand that mixing business with pleasure is always messy.
That people from your world can't be trusted to keep things appropriate. "
That was the last straw. I straightened my spine, wiped away tears I hadn't realized were falling, and found my voice.
"You're wrong about one thing," I said, forcing steel into my words despite the tears.
"I would never use someone for business advantage.
I would never pretend to care about someone while planning to destroy their life.
That kind of cruelty? That's not about breeding or class or any of the things you think make you better than me.
That's just about being a decent human being. "
I pushed past her and fled toward the ballroom, desperate to escape, to find somewhere to fall apart in private.
The sounds of the auction, the music, the laughter—it all felt like it was coming from another universe. A universe where I hadn't just discovered that the man I was falling for had been orchestrating my professional destruction all along.
Somehow, through the blur of tears, I spotted Cece's familiar red hair. She took one look at my face and immediately pulled me into a quiet alcove, away from curious eyes.
"Oh my God, what happened? Are you okay? Who do I need to murder?" Her questions came rapid-fire as she led me to a chair.
"Edward—" My voice broke. "His company is acquiring mine. He's known all along. Lady Victoria said he's been using me for inside information."
"What?" Cece's confusion quickly morphed into fury. "Wait, are you saying his law firm is the one helping to buy Gardens & Home? And he didn't tell you?"
I nodded, fingering the pearls in my clutch—the ones Edward had helped me gather earlier this evening, each touch seeming so genuine then, so hollow now.
"That absolute bastard." Cece knelt in front of me, gripping my hands. "And after his Mother insisted on lending you the family rubies for the gala! Makes sense now—she was marking you as the sacrificial lamb all along. Keeping enemies close and all that aristocratic game-playing."
The realization hit me like a sucker punch to the gut.
The rubies hadn't been a gesture of acceptance—they'd been a way of controlling me, of keeping me in place while Edward and his firm prepared to dismantle my company.
"She knew the whole time," I whispered. "Those jewels were just part of their strategy. "
"Listen to me," Cece said fiercely. "We can fight this.
I know people in media law. If they're using inside information, if there's been any breach of confidentiality, we can cause enough problems to at least buy time.
Doesn't matter what they said," Cece continued, her voice dropping to a more urgent tone.
"You know who you are, you know what you feel. "
"Do I?" I managed through tears." Because I feel like the biggest fool in the world. I thought... God, I actually thought he might care about me."
"Lili?" Edward's voice cut through our conversation like a blade. I looked up to find him standing in the alcove entrance, immaculate in his tuxedo but with something shattered in his expression.
For one unguarded moment, I glimpsed what might have been genuine pain in his eyes—but after Victoria's revelations, even that seemed like another calculated performance.
Cece rose like an avenging angel, placing herself between us with a fury that seemed to add inches to her height.
"I think you've done quite enough for one evening," she said, her voice carrying the kind of controlled anger that could cut glass.
"In fact, I think you've done enough for several lifetimes.
So why don't you take your guilt and your explanations and your wounded feelings, and get the hell away from her? "
I looked up at Edward over Cece's shoulder, searching his face for something—anything—that would contradict his Mother's version of events.
Some explanation that would make all of this make sense. Some denial that would put my world back together.
But all I saw was guilt. And in that moment, I knew that everything Lady Victoria had said was true.
Every moment between us had been a lie.
And I'd been played for a fool from the very beginning.