Chapter 6 #2
“Good. I don’t know her,” Keke said. “But wasn’t there something with her and a driver where she was the trophy girl?”
“Woman,” Inigo said.
“What?” Keke asked.
“Women don’t like to be called girls,” Inigo said. “She was a trophy woman.”
Marco started laughing. “Good luck with that. Elena and my wife, Virginia, have been trying to bring him into the twenty-first century.”
“Hey, I didn’t mean any disrespect,” Keke said.
“I know,” Inigo said. “Force of habit.”
“Fair enough. You know I don’t give a crap about your personal life, so if you want to date or hook up with a different woman before every race, that’s up to you.
Just make sure it enhances your racing profile.
You are sharper this year, and we think you could win races and actually be in contention for the championship. ”
He heard what Keke was saying. He had nothing but respect for both him and Marco. These two knew what it was like to race and win, and Inigo wanted that. But he also wanted to make Marielle pay for how she’d made Bianca feel. “I will. Nothing is more important to me than winning.”
“That’s what we like to hear,” Marco said.
Dante and his team finished up on the simulator, and Inigo got back in to take another test run. This time he pushed the thought of Marielle further out of his mind and concentrated on the track. On beating his previous time. And he did it.
Marielle saw the call from her mom and hit Ignore.
She had a feeling that Darian might have let slip some of the details of what was going on in her life.
Normally her mom wasn’t the touchy-feely type, but she’d called every day for the last week.
The family usually communicated through a chat app with Carlton, who kept everyone’s calendars. So she knew it wasn’t an emergency.
And she didn’t want to talk to her mom. All of her life Marielle had been struggling to get out from under her mother’s shadow.
She’d been the perfect hostess and wife.
Everyone always wanted to talk to Marielle about her mom and her mom’s style.
She looked effortlessly chic, and Marielle’s own manager had more than once suggested she could grow her followers more easily if she’d just embrace the classic Bisset style, but she didn’t want that.
Who wanted to feel like the only reason they were successful was because of their mom?
Not her. But more than that, she and her mother hadn’t ever really gotten along.
Marielle was pretty sure that was due to the fact that her mom didn’t like to share attention from the men in the family.
Or at least that’s what her psychiatrist had hinted at.
She didn’t know. But when her mother called again five minutes after the last call, Marielle answered.
“Hey.”
“Hello, Marielle,” her mother said. Her mother had gone to a boarding school in Switzerland and had retained a somewhat understated European accent despite the fact that she’d been living in the United States for the last thirty years.
“What’s up?”
“Straight to the point as always,” her mom said. “I heard through a friend that you’re becoming a very popular influencer. Your name showed up on a list of those I should invite for the Bridgehampton Winter Classic.”
“Wow. That’s great news,” she said. “Of course, I’ll come.”
“The odd thing is that you aren’t on there as Marielle Bisset, you are listed Mari-Marielle Alexandria.”
“I know. I didn’t want anyone to think I was representing our family,” she said. “You’ve mentioned a number of times that I’m not always great at that.”
She heard her mother sigh. “That’s only the truth. Even Carlton agrees.”
“I know,” she said. He’d told her on many occasions.
“Aside from that...how are we going to handle this? Do you want me to pretend I don’t know you?”
She hadn’t thought that far ahead when she’d started her account. “No. I think people who have known us both for years will think that’s silly. I won’t publicize it on my account. Do you think that would work?”
“I don’t know, Marielle. This is very odd. Let me discuss it with your father and Carlton, and I’ll get back to you. For right now I’m going to put you down as a maybe on the list.”
“Mom, this is a huge event for influencers. It would hurt my career not to be there,” she said.
“I’ll take that under consideration,” she said. “I’ll let you know later today.”
Marielle hit the disconnect button before she said something she’d regret later and slammed the phone down on the table in front of her.
She couldn’t deal with this. All of her life she’d been struggling to find a way to be the woman she wanted to be and now that she was so close, her name was once again standing in her way.
She so wished she’d been born Marielle Smith or Jones or anything other than Bisset.
Her phone buzzed, and she saw it was a group message from Carlton requesting a family meeting to discuss “the M problem.”
“The M problem?” she said out loud to her apartment. Of course they’d need a meeting for that.
She texted back she was out of the country. And she intended to be.
Her phone rang a minute later. Darian.
“Mar, what is going on?”
“Mom found out that I’m doing the social media influencer thing and doesn’t know if I should be invited to events she’s on the committee for. She actually asked if she should pretend not to know me.”
“Oh, that’s—”
“Messed up. But hey, it’s me,” she said.
“I’m not going to allow this. I’m going to speak to Dad about it,” Darian said. “You know if you went to him, she’d have to back off.”
“I do know that. But I also know that if I do, she’ll be a total witch to me every time I see her,” Marielle said. “I’m just not sure how to play this.”
“Don’t play it. Come to the meeting and just say this is what you are doing. It’d be ridiculous not to associate with you regardless of the name you use,” Darian said. “I know that our brothers will agree with me.”
“Zac definitely will, but he’s training for the America’s Cup and doesn’t mind ruffling feathers because he’s not around to suffer the consequences. Logan might feel differently since he has to see Dad every day. And who knows what Leo will say?”
“Trust me,” Darian said. “I’ll talk to them and we’ll present a united front. Come to my place tomorrow night at six. I’ll have it all worked out.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be working on some big campaign strategy?” she asked, loving her big brother for stepping in but knowing she shouldn’t rely on him to do this for her.
“I can do both, kiddo. Just be here tomorrow night.”
“I will be,” she said. “Love you, Dare.”
“Love you, too.”
She hung up with her brother, and a moment later he responded in the group text that they were all unavailable.
Immediately her sibling chat group lit up with her other brothers wanting to know what was going on.
Darian just said he’d explain everything at six at his place.
Zac said that he would join by video chat, but it was cutting into his training time.
It had always struck her how odd it was that all of the Bisset siblings spent more time away from their parents than with them. Even though Mari had been crashing at their family home in East Hampton, she’d made sure to arrange it so she wouldn’t have to spend too much time with her folks.