Filed to story: Watch Out, I’m The Lady Boss (Eleanor & Sebastian) Book PDF Free
I could see the wheels in his brain creaking under the weight.
He’d seen Sebastian downstairs earlier, thought he looked familiar, but couldn’t place him.
In his tiny little mind, that meant one thing: I’d picked up some random loser.
Daniel’s nostrils flared. He looked Sebastian up and down like he was some discount handbag.
“And who the fuck are you supposed to be?”I couldn’t see Sebastian’s face, but he must have done something that made Daniel stiffen.
This is the Laurent family’s turf!” Daniel gulped, voice cracking.
“You’ve got no say here. And whatever’s going on between me and Eleanor is none of your damn business either. If you’ve got half a brain, you’ll get lost.”Sebastian took half a step forward.
Daniel flinched and staggered back before he even knew what he was doing.
Thirty seconds later, the giant screen in the centre of the ballroom it up, crystal-clear like some Hollywood premiere, every detail sharp enough to catch the sweat prickling on Catherine’s actos.
From where I stood near the open door, I had the perfect view of the disaster unfolding downstairs.
Daniel whipped around to stare at Catherine.
“You said Eleanor was stirring shit, pulling the tablecloth and trying to pin it on you. So explain to me why, in that footage, it’s your hand yanking the cloth, and Elean’s nowhere bloody near it?”Catherine burst into tears on cue, shaking so hard her diamond earrings rattled. She stammered for ages, blubbering, “Maybe I, I tugged it by accident? Eleanor kept provoking me, and I panickel, I thought…”
No one was buying it.
Catherine grabbed Daniel’s sleeve.
“Daniel, I didn’t mean to cause trouble! Eleanor set me off!”Sebastian cut in, “Miss Vance, the cameras record audio too. If you insist on your innocence, I can have them pull the full footage from when you arrived. Let’s all hear exactly how Eleanor “provoked” you, shall we?”
“No!” Catherine yelped.
She shut up after that, probably realising no amount of ugly crying was going to spin this train wreck.
Her mascara was sliding down her face in greasy black rivers, but Daniel wasn’t even looking at her anymore.
He stood there, breathing like he wanted to strangle someone, before forcing himself to chill.
I could smell the regret sweating off him. He was probably busy wishing he could time-travel five minutes back and unsay every stupid thing he had spat at Sebastian.
Finally, in a voice so stiff it could snap in half, Daniel muttered, “Catherine made a… a mistake. She didn’t mean to wreck the party. It was… an impulsive lapse of judgement. Catherine, apologise to Mr… Laurent. Now.”Catherine’s eyes widened at Sebastian’s name. She stared at Daniel in disbelief, then at Sebastian. Then, finally, like Daniel, she understood.
Then she scrambled to throw out a million “sorrys” in Sebastian’s direction.
He cut her off, voice like a blade: “You’re apologising to the wrong person.”Catherine froze. Her gaze slid to me.
Yeah. I was the one she needed to grovel to. And judging by her twisted face, she’d rather eat glass than say sorry to me.
“I…” she stammered, the words choking in her throat.
“Looks like Miss Vance isn’t exactly drowning in remorse,” Sebastian said, flashing a look at the doorway.
Cue the bouncers. Two guys in black suits stormed in and grabbed Catherine by both arms.
She barely had time to blink before they started dragging her towards the staircase.
“Wait! I’m sorry! I’ll apologise! Eleanor, I’m sorry!” she howled, flailing desperately.
The guys didn’t even slow down.
Sebastian watched her with all the emotion of a marble statue.
“Too late.”
“Daniel! Help me!” Catherine shrieked, kicking her heels against the floor.
Daniel twitched like he was about to sprint after her, but stopped dead when Sebastian said, “Walk out now, Mr Granger, and you make her cause yours. Your name on tonight’s mess. And your name on the Laurent family’s blacklist, Is that what you want?”
“No!l swear, I didn’t know anything!” Daniel binted For a second, I thought he right still throw himself at the door.
Instead, he just looked at Catherine screaming, heels scraping over marble-and then looked away.
He had never looked so cowardly.
Daniel shuffled over to Sebastian, fake smile stretched so tight it looked painful “Mr Laurent, I actually came here tonight to discuss a potential deal with LGH. I’d never dream of causing trouble at your party. If you might have a moment…?”He was actually bowing. The desperation stank.
Sebastian didn’t even look up. He lounged in the armchair, scrolling his phone like Daniel was background noise.
The silent treatment hit harder than a slap. Daniel’s face was a shade of red I’d never seen before.
Finally, he gave up trying to talk business and leaned towards me instead, whispering, “When did you meet Mr Laurent?
I shrugged. That’s none of your business. Now scram.”His jaw ticked.
“Since you know Mr Laurent… maybe you could, you know, put in a good word later? I’ve got a project I want to pitch.”
I shot him a look.
“And what’s that got to do with me?”He reached for my hand. Tight enough to be annoying, not tight enough to leave a mark.
“Come on, even if we’re broken up, we’re still friends, right? We grew up together, after all. Besides, whether I marry you or your sister, we’d still end up as family. Our interests align, don’t you see?”Sometimes the sheer stupidity of men is so overwhelming you have no choice but to laugh.
I snorted right in his face.
“Daniel Granger, even if we were still together-which, newsflash, we’re not-you think I’d give a damn about your family’s business? Our interests align? I don’t see my name on your company’s stock certificates. You lot could be rolling in gold bars and I still wouldn’t see a penny. Why should I help you?”Daniel opened his mouth, then thought better of it.
Smart for once.
I yanked my hand free and snatched a tissue off the table, scrubbing my wrist like I was wiping off a cockroach.
His face twisted. It took him some moments before he found speech again.
“I know you’re still pissed about… the fight,” he said, pretending to sound all reasonable.
“How about this? I’m free tomorrow. I’ll take you out shopping. Maybe pick a wedding dress.”He glanced at Sebastian, then lowered his voice.
“The invites are already printed. The wedding’s happening, Elean. You can kick and scream all you want, but it’s not getting cancelled. Not till my mum… you know.”I just stared at him.
Apparently tired of talking to a brick wall, Daniel grabbed my arm and started dragging me towards the door.
“Let’s talk outside.”
“Stop.” Sebastian looked up from his phone.
“Miss Vance is my guest, You can leave. She stays.”Translation: get lost, loser.
Daniel, shocker, actually took the hint and left.
Silence dropped over the room like a heavy curtain.
I knew Sebastian had just gone full Gladiator mode for me.
Which was… weirdly touching, considering we were basically strangers who just happened to have a fake engagement contract and three awkward encounters under our belts.
“Thanks for that,” I mumbled.
Sebastian shrugged.
“Don’t thank me. He was pissing me off.”He stood up, gaze flicking to my wrist where Daniel’s Neanderthal grip had left faint marks. He frowned.
My phone started screaming.
Caroline’s name lit up the screen like a warning siren.
Yeah, no thanks.
I hit decline without blinking.
Five seconds later, the phone started ringing again. Persistent like a debt collector.
Sighing, I stabbed the answer button and held it to my ear.
“What?
I barely got the word out before a full-on banshee shriek exploded from the speaker.
“Eleanor! How dare you hit your sister in front of everyone at the party?!”Ah. Serenna or Catherine must have gone running to mummy dearest with their version of events.
For a second, I thought about explaining. Telling her how Serenna started it, how Catherine had been stirring the pot.
But then… What was the point? Caroline would believe them over me if they told her the sky was green and pigs had started UberEats deliveries.
So I stayed quiet, just holding the phone to my ear while she shouted, feeling absolutely nothing.
“Catherine’s barely back in Skyline and trying to rejoin the social scene, and you humiliated her in front of everyone! She finally got an invite to a major party, and you wrecked it! There’s video footage, Elean, video! It’s everywhere! How do you expect us to save face now? How’s the Granger family supposed to save face? If you’ve got even a shred of decency left, you’ll drag your arse home, apologise to Catherine, then haul yourself over to the Grangers and grovel. You wanna throw tantrums? Fine. But don’t drag the rest of us down with you!”I glanced at my watch. She managed that two-minute rant without stopping to breathe. A personal best, even for her.
It sounded like she’d been waiting for an excuse to lose it on me, like this was her big comeback tour after the last time I refused to play ball.
My phone wasn’t even on speaker, but Sebastian, sitting not five feet away, must have caught every word.
The screaming from Caroline’s end was still going strong when my screen lit up with another call.
Aunt Louisa.
I cut in mid-rant: “Mum, you’ve been talking for so long you must be parched. Go grab a water bottle before you croak. I’ve got another call. Gotta run.”Then I hung up.
The phone started buzzing again Louisa.
I stated at it, jaw tight.
Blowing off Daniel was easy.
Louisa, not so much.
She was in hospital recovering from a car accident that I was partially responsible for, and she’d been nothing but kind to me my whole life.