Matthew: Secret Bride (Members From Money Book 18) Page 2
“She does not know and frankly as long as she gets what she wants, I don’t think she cares.” Her tone was slightly bitter.
Margaret looked at the beautiful girl dressed in an elegant blue silk shirt and designer jeans and almost shook her head. Beautiful and wealthy should not look so sad. “Okay against my better wishes I will assign you to the pregnant teenagers.”
“When do I start?”
“How about tomorrow?” the woman suggested. “And a word of advice; try and find something a little less expensive in your wardrobe if you can.”
Danielle looked down at what she was wearing in surprise and opened her mouth to tell the woman that these were the least expensive clothes she possessed but decided against it.
“Of course.” She said instead and left. For the first time since she came back she smiled!
*****
Monique stared at the woman and barely concealed her dislike. She knew of Debra Prescott’s reputation of being a bully and pretending to be better than most people. She had called and requested a meeting with Monique herself even though she had told the woman that she could meet with her associate Abigail Moore. She had laughed a little and said with forced gaiety: “Darling, I am sure Mrs. Moore is very good at what she does, but I hardly think she is suitable to do what I require.”
“This is to be kept in the strictest confidence,” Debra Prescott crossed her legs as she sat back against the cushions in the woman’s office. She had always been envious of the wives as they were called in every magazine possible! She had seen them with their rich husbands and their beautiful children and had wished she was them. Now her daughter was marrying a member of the club their husbands were a part of and she could hardly stop the smirk from off her face.
“Whatever you say in here will be kept confidential.” Monique told her in a coolly professional voice.
“My daughter is getting married in November.”
“Oh! I had no idea you had a daughter.”
“She went to school in Switzerland,” she said with a careless wave of her hand. She was wearing a bright red Romano’s original dress that fitted her very well but was too much for a simple meeting.
“Congratulations.” She said automatically.
“She is marrying Matthew Barrymore,” the woman continued smugly not missing the widening of the woman’s eyes. Monique knew Matthew and his brother through her husband but Lorenzo had not said anything like that to her. “They have never met each other and will not until the day of the wedding.”
“And your daughter agreed to that?”
“Of course,” Debra looked at the woman coolly as if she had passed her place. “Now as to the dresses. I want the best because the press will be there and I need something magnificent for myself. Not that I aim to outshine the bride on the day but you never know!” she said with a laugh that grated on Monique’s nerves.
“I will send some things to your place and if you need an advisor I will see what I can do.”
“No need. I have already acquired the services of the best wedding planner there is.” She got to her feet and smoothed down her dress. “I will be doing all my shopping here from now on.” She said before she swept out of the room leaving Monique staring after in dislike!
*****
Matthew listened to the mellow sound of the famous jazz singer absently. It was jazz and blues night at the Elite club and they were being treated to some of the best sounds. He had decided to come here and get out of his apartment because he was thinking too much. He had ordered a bottle of scotch and was halfway through. He knew his limitations and had every intention of stopping shortly. He nodded to the banker, Edward Moore who had just come in with Mark Seville. The two men looked like they had just finished a round of tennis and were heading to the locker rooms. He had wanted to get in a round or two of golf but was not in the mood to do so. He was thinking about a wedding that he wanted no part of!
Chapter 2
“The wedding dresses are here!” Debra trilled as she came into the living room. The delivery van had just drove up and she rushed to open the door to let them in. “Just put them over by the sofa.” She said a little impatiently.
She waited until they had left before turning to her daughter who had just come into the room. It was a little past eight and she was due at the halfway home in an hour. She had been there for a couple of days now and apart from asking her where she went during the days, her mother had not said anything to her. “As long as you are ready for the wedding.”
She went through the racks of dazzling white dresses slowly before plucking out an amazingly beautiful one with the back made entirely of delicately spun lace. The lace continued until it met the sheer sat at the waist. It was sleeveless and the front was deceptively simple with a gentle scooped neck and cinched in waist. The train went a few feet away and the skirt was very narrow making it impossible to move very fast.
“What do you think darling?” Debra asked as she held the dress up.
Danielle stared at the wedding dress and felt the noose tightening around her neck. “You did not ask me if I wanted to get married to a man I have never met so why do you want my opinion now?”
The woman flung the dress onto the sofa and turned to her daughter with a hard expression on her beautiful face. “You think I am doing this for myself alone?” she asked coldly. “I am doing this for us and I am telling you this once Danielle that you do not cooperate then so help me God! I have signed a contract and you are going to stick to the plan. Do you hear me?”
“Loud and clear,” Danielle refused to allow the depression to take charge of her. She put her shoulders back and face her mother with a confidence she was not feeling. “That one is fine.”
“Go try it on.”
She hesitated but then with a careless shrug did as she was told. She had learned the hard way that Debra Prescott went to any means to get what she wanted. The dress was made for her! It molded her slender figure lovingly and glowed against her coffee and cream skin. Danielle stared at her daughter and felt the envy in her chest. She was incredibly beautiful without even trying! “We are choosing this one,” she said stiffly. “The wedding planner is meeting with us tomorrow morning at nine so please be available.” With that she walked out of the room and left her daughter there standing in her wedding dress.
Debra waited until Danielle had left for the day before she went back into the living room. Danielle had hung up the dress and placed it at the front of the row. Debra took it out and stared at it, her eyes bright with unshed tears. Her marriage had been a sham and had been to a man she had had little or no feelings for. She had married him because of the money and had despised him for his weakness towards her. Daniel Prescott had begged her over and over to allow them to be a real family but she had not wanted that. She had wanted to be able to come and go as she pleased and to spend his money as if it was an unlimited supply but he had cut her off when he had discovered that she had an unhealthy penchant to shop. She had refused to open her legs for him as a punishment but that had only served to make him seek his pleasure elsewhere until he had barely noticed that she was in the house. She had thought about taking lovers but did not love sex that much to go in that direction. She had noticed how he doted on their daughter but ignored her completely and it had turned her against both of them. She had taken one look at Danielle in the dress and realized that her life had been one unhappy year after another!
*****
“You don’t know nothing about my life so what the hell are you doing here lady?” The fifteen-year-old pregnant Tiffany Lowe said to her resentfully as she sat with her feet propped on the hassock in front of her. Danielle had felt heartbreak at the stories she had heard and the horrors the kids who came to the ‘Healing Centre’ experienced every day of their lives. The center offered counseling, a listening ear and teachers who gave their services free of cost. She had fitted in as a listening ear which was not easy but she was determined to make a difference.
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“You are right,” she told the belligerent girl quietly. “I have never been pregnant at fifteen and I have never been left out in the cold by the father of the baby I am carrying, but I am a woman and I can relate. Sometimes all we need is just a friendly ear to talk to and unburden ourselves and who knows what happens after that?”
The girl stared at her for a moment grudgingly admiring her cool beauty and the clothes she wore. Even though they were store-bought, she wore them well and her elegance was too pronounced not to be noticed. “I hear that you went to finishing school in Switzerland,” the girl said spitefully.
“I did and I got the best education possible but I was without friends the entire time,” she said quietly as she leaned forward. “I make it a point of duty not to feel sorry for myself because things will never stay the same no matter how terrible the situation is.”
Tiffany stared at her for a long time and Danielle held her defiant gaze. “My baby, daddy is forty-three years old and has been locked up for screwing a minor. Mama is threatening to kick me out of the house.”
“What do you plan to do?”
Tiffany shrug. “Give the baby up for adoption and get the hell out of the projects. I was thinking I would be a hair stylist. I am good at doing people’s hair.”
“I think that is a good plan and I promise to help you any way I can. Have you gone to an agency and let them know you are putting up the child for adoption? What does your mother say?”
“She wants nothing to do with my ‘brat’ as she puts it.”
“Take my advice and talk to her about it again. Make her listen.”
“You are not so bad for a rich broad,” Tiffany said with a grin as they continued talking.
*****
Danielle’s life would have been fulfilling except for the fact that she was getting married to a complete stranger and her mother was frenziedly planning the largest wedding of the year. She had hinted the press that there was going to be a huge society wedding in November but she was not allowed to say who it was. She had met with the Barrymore’s and were into the final stages of the planning. She had no friend to act as maid of honor so her mother would be getting a daughter of a friend to stand in for her. Raymond had been roped in to give her away. “If he looks like a troll I am turning around and both of us will be heading to Mexico.” He told her in his lazy drawl. They were having lunch at a restaurant a few blocks from where he worked as a lawyer. He was tall and slender with impeccable taste in clothes. His hair was black and straight and he had brooding black eyes.
“I am with you on that,” she sipped her fruit punch absently as she looked around the room. The afternoon crowd had dispersed and the place was a little scanty. They had ordered the lunch special of baked potatoes stuffed with crab meat and bits of chicken.
“How is the center?” he asked her soberly trying to rid the sadness that had gathered in her beautiful eyes.
“Those kids make me think that my life is not that bad after all,” she said shaking her head. She told him about Tiffany and another by the name of Marcus who had been sodomized by his uncle and was now a male prostitute.
“Your bleeding heart is going to get you into trouble,” he told her lightly.
“How can I not care?” she asked him passionately.
“You are more beautiful than any woman I know and honey I have seen a lot of women in my time! You need to save that passion for the bedroom.”
“I will be staying in a separate bedroom, remember?”
He laughed softly causing her to look at him. “When you go back home, take a very long look in the mirror darling. Make sure you are naked when doing that. I am gay and I am finding it hard to resist you so good luck with trying to keep your husband out!”
*****
Matthew sat in on the board meeting feeling bored out of his skull. He was not the kind of person who could sit still for more than a few minutes and he was also not the kind of person to sit in on meetings. He liked to be outdoors checking the buildings and troubleshooting all over the world. He was thinking that he should go back to Paris or certainly Italy where a new mall was being built, but instead he was stuck here because of a damned wedding he wanted no part of! He had spoken to his parents’ again trying to convince them to do away with the stupid tradition but they had been adamant so he was stuck!
“Building another mall in the middle of downtown is not a very good idea,” The pompous voice of a board member by the name of Milton Gooden roused him out of his funk.
“What do you think Matthew?” his father asked him.
“Lyman Street is a very good location and has a lot of potential for businesses.” He said lazily looking at the man’s look of disapproval.
“Luke?”
“I have done my research and I agree with Matthew. It is prime area and it will do very well and provide much needed employment.”
Harry Barrymore nodded his approval. “We will take a vote on it.”
*****
“Come in.” Harry nodded to his youngest son. “I want to discuss the handing over of the company to you and your brother as soon as you get married in November.”
“You are blackmailing me, Dad, and I do not appreciate it.” Matthew said tightly as he sat across from his father’s massive desk.
“I am trying to make you into a respectable businessman,” his father corrected him.
“Somehow I don’t see it that way. My work should speak for itself.”
“It does,” he nodded not in the least bit concerned that his son was displeased. “The board members are frowning at your attitude towards women and I agree with them.”
“Who the hell do they think they are?” Matthew said heatedly.
“They are members of the board and what they think count.” His father said patiently. “The wedding is going ahead as planned and I would have liked it to be low-key but the mother of the bride insists on it being a big society wedding.”
Matthew stared at his father in disbelief. “So the whole world will be there to witness my humiliation.”
“Don’t be so melodramatic. You are going to love her!”
*****
He pounded at the weight hanging from a beam viciously feeling the sting in his clenched fists but he did not stop. He had to pound at something and it might as well be this. Sweat dripped from his tanned muscled body and his sleeveless top clung to him as well as the shorts he had put on. His dark brown hair was soaked! He had been at it for the past half hour and knew he should probably stop now before he could not feel his fingers. He gave one last vicious punch and felt the pain wing through his arms! He dropped on one of the benches and removed his fingerless gloves dropping them to the ground. He plunged his fingers through his wet hair and held on for a moment. He was getting married to a complete stranger and he was going to have to live with that stranger for the rest of their lives. How was he going to pull it off? And knowing his parents he was probably going to have to produce an heir. Luke had told him that he and Lori were trying but it was not happening yet. He got to his feet and pulled the wet shirt over his head and went towards the bathroom to take a shower. He sincerely hoped she was good to look at and someone he could stomach!
*****
Danielle finger combed her curls and placed it on top of her head staring at herself in the mirror in her bathroom. Her mother had told her that a stylist would be coming by to clip her hair and to get it ready for the wedding. It was almost the end of October which meant that she was getting nearer to the dreaded day. Her mother had showed her the dress she had picked out to wear as mother of the bride, a turquoise figure hugging wool which Danielle privately thought was too young for her. Debra Prescott was a beautiful woman but dissatisfaction and malice had added a hard look to her face. Danielle wondered that if circumstances had been different and if they had actually gotten along! What would her life be like now? She remembered one summer when she had come home for the holidays and she had begged her mother not to send he
r back and make her go to school here. She had looked at her and told her coldly that she should be grateful she was going to a good school and that she was a spoiled brat. She had learnt to hide her feelings and had never asked her again!
She moved to the claw footed bath and stepped into the warm sudsy water, sighing as it enveloped her. She had told Tiffany that no matter how bad the situation was, it certainly did not last forever but she was going to be married to a stranger and pledge her life to him for the rest of their lives. How was she going to deal with that?
*****
Debra Prescott was in her element as she walked around the elegant ballroom of one of Ryan Sullivan’s five-star hotels. His wife Aaliyah was seeing to the decorating and she almost lost her temper twice as the woman walked around in her ridiculous high heels discarding one color scheme after another. She was very hard to please and seemed to have an incredibly high opinion of herself. “The maid of honor is wearing a shell pink gown and I need the exact shade. I will be wearing turquoise myself and I need that shade added as well.” She wandered over to the head table and looked at the flowers placed in the center critically. “Do we have any more roses?” she asked the hapless wedding planner who looked about ready to quit.
“Why don’t we take a breather?” Aaliyah suggested tactfully with her usual quite smile.
“Of course,” Debra Prescott said with a charming smile.
“Brent, could you get us something to drink?” she asked the waiter hovering near to them. “What for you?” she asked the woman.
“Champagne darling, your best.”
Aaliyah forced herself to remain passive. “And some orange juice for me and Lila please.”
“I will go and see to the streamers hanging from the roof.” The woman said as she hurried away.
“Where is your daughter?” Aaliyah asked as soon as they were alone. “I am surprised she is not involved in all this.”
“My daughter is young and inexperienced. I am making all the arrangements.” She crossed her legs and settled back against the sofa. “Your husband has been invited as well as half the members of the club.”