Chapter 288: Housing A Fake Daughter
As far as being perfect went, Brooke had never once felt that she was remotely close to being that. Right from her childhood, up until her marriage to Ethan, her choices had left a bitter taste in her mouth, and a deep scar in her mind.
However, as the director yelled cut into his megaphone, and the staff came over to her holding a congratulatory bouquet of roses, the word had felt somewhat closer.
In that moment, surrounded by smiling faces all across the room, the satisfactory sense of accomplishment, made her feel she truly was in that moment...perfect.
"Congratulations on finishing filming! Did you get the bouquet I sent you?" Kayden’s voice rang over the phone.
Brooke pulled a chair by the dresser, she stared at the bouquets of flowers lined up on the bed through the mirror’s reflection. "Yeah, thank you so much." She said, although she had a hard time knowing which came from him.
"So, what are you going to do now that you’re finished filming? I hear the movie doesn’t come out for another month or so." The sound of rushing water nearly drowned his voice, "What about coming here for a visit? I’d be glad to show you around. I’ve been bored out of my mind since I got back."
Aside her surprising friendship with Dylan, Brooke did not imagine once that she and Mr Julian’s son would become such close friends. At first, they sent casual texts back and forth, but as the days rolled by, their conversation thickened.
"I don’t know, I’m really not fond of airplanes." she had told him, when in actuality her thoughts were consumed by her husband, Thane.
What would he say about his wife going off to see some rich sponsor? Julian’s son or not, she wasn’t so blind to how the situation looked.
It seemed as though, Kayden was. In contrast to his age, he was very simple minded, naive even. Brooke had thought she was the most gullible person around, but Kayden shocked her with how easy his thoughts were.
"Is that so?" She heard him sigh, "It would’ve been fun to have someone my age around. The old geezers at the company have their sights set on me. I can’t even find time to myself."
But I’m not your age. Brooke would tell herself whenever he said something like that.
Reclining into the chair, she relaxed her shoulders, "How are you holding up? How’s the company doing?"
"To hell with the company! I’m only doing this so that skank Cassie doesn’t get a chance to slither her way into the inheritance. No one knows what that crazy old man could think up if left to his devices." He complained, just as he always did.
Brooke creased her brows, ’He just calls to complain about Mr Julian all the time.’ she did find it exhausting, but she understood his point of view.
It came as a huge shock when Julian suddenly made an announcement that Cassie was his daughter, and at that right after his sister’s funeral. Not only that, he dropped all the charges Kayden had filed on her, and went as far as to welcome her and the rest of the family into his home.
"But will that help? If Mr Julian wills his wealth to her-"
"I’d rather die than allow that! I don’t know how to prove it, but I know that wench was behind my aunt’s accident! How convenient was it that her brakes failed when she went out to retrieve the DNA results?" He pointed out, digging up old wounds.
Brooke knew where the conversation was headed. The police had done an autopsy on the remains of the car and announced it was due to a brake failure that Susan collided into the tanker truck. Kayden has insisted on having Cassie investigated, but the investigation yielded no results.
She didn’t want to dive into that topic and quickly changed the topic. "I think I’ll stay back and practice my acting skills more. Who knows, this movie might do really well and I’ll be flooded with acting offers. I need to polish up."
Kayden chuckled, "The movie better sell, I invested a lot into it."
She cracked a nervous grin, "Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, there’s still the rival company putting out a movie the same time. I get a stomach ache just imagining how ticket sales are going to be like..." She was saying, but cut herself short when her phone rang.
"What happened?" He asked.
Thane was calling. A wide grin planted itself on her face. Their late night picnic played before her mind, and his promise to discuss something with her.
"I have to go, my husband is calling." She chirped into the phone.
His tone dropped, "Sure. Give my regards to him."
"Sure-" she had barely finished speaking when Kayden disconnected the call.
She frowned, "It seems he was in a hurry to get back to work too." She mumbled, hitting answer on her screen...
Back at Ethan’s office, the staff had all eyes on the nation’s sweetheart, who had come to pay her fiance a surprise visit at the hospital.
Holding her phone to the ceiling, Cassie started a live stream. "On today’s episode of countdown to the wedding, I’m here at Halton Inc to pay a surprise visit..." she carried on without a care, as she made to the elevator.
Flailing behind her, with shopping bags and gifts roughly balanced was a young woman in her mid twenties. She had blonde hair and dowdy square frames that did not suit her face. Her plain white shirt, tucked in her low rise pants made her look unflattering to the eye.
She tried to get into the elevator, but Cassie held out a palm, "The stairs are over there." She pointed, her tone unapologetic.
"B-But miss Cassie-" she was saying, but the elevator doors came together, separating them.
Inside the elevator, Cassie unmuted her mic and continued the live stream as normal.
Once she got to the main floor, she bade her fans a quick farewell with a promise to upload videos of Ethan’s reaction to her surprise.
"Ugh." She groaned, turning off her phone, "The nerve of that bitch to try and get in here with me." She clicked her tongue, marching furiously towards Ethan’s office.
"Good day Miss Cassie-" the woman at the front desk greeted, but Cassie sped past her into Ethan’s office and slammed the door after her!
The noise from her arrival made Ethan turn away from his computer, the article he was reading displayed carelessly on the screen.
"Bloody skank." He cursed pinching his forehead, "I told you to call me before coming to my office." Ethan scolded harshly.
Cassie helped herself to a seat, "What? You’re not going to offer your pregnant fiancé a glass of water?"
Ethan rolled his eyes as he opened the fridge, he took out a bottle of water and a glass from a shelve. He poured the water into a glass, Cassie stretched her hand out, a confident grin on her face.
Little did she expect Ethan to push the glass to his lips and drink the water himself. He reclined against his desk, ignoring her pissed expression. "So, did you get bored of spending daddy’s money?" he asked in a mocking tone.
Cassie folded her arms, "As if! That old geezer has so much money I could go shopping for a lifetime!"
"Then, why the hell did you come here to bother me? We had an agreement to stay out of each other’s lives as much as we could." he stated, crossing a leg over the other.
"It couldn’t be helped! My fans were hungry for some content between us. This past four months, we’ve only been together five times! Unlike you I care about my image." Her complaints did not move Ethan in the slightest.
Dropping the glass on the table, he sighed, "You really are a hopeless imbecile. Do you think I give a damn about that shit?"
Cassie knitted her brows and raised her voice. "You can pretend to damnit! Do you think I give a damn about you either?!" She shook her head, irritation etched on her face.
"Speaking of pretending, the old man says he wants you over for dinner. And you can’t refuse. I’ve covered for you three times, anymore and he’ll know we’re faking this."
"Like I said, I don’t care if the old bastard knows this marriage is a fake one. After all he’s doing fine housing a fake daughter-" his words were cut short by the sudden push of the office door.
"Miss Cassie where should I place these gifts?!" the young woman asked, diffusing the tension in the room.
Cassie raised her voice. "You idiot! Haven’t I told you not to bother me?!"
"My apologies miss Cassie!" she lowered her head, but Cassie was beyond reasoning.
In a grumble she demanded, "What the hell was your name again?! I’ll have the agency replace you!"
Her tone shaky she replied, "It-It’s Hannah..." She slowly raised her head, her gaze locked on Cassie, "My name is Hannah."