Which meant that there was no way she was going to let me out of it. There would be no leniency on her end if I didn’t deliver. This was worth too much to her. Any hope of simply not delivering and dealing with the consequences left my mind. She would destroy me with everything she had left if I failed her because that would be all she had left to do.
“I understand,” I whispered.
She smiled, showing her teeth but there was a predatory edge to it that made me nervous. She let go of my chin and patted my cheek.
“That’s a good girl,” she cooed. “I knew I could make you see reason.”
“Give me what you need for Anastasia,” I said, looking at my feet in the mirror. “I need to know what I’m working on.”
“It’ll be in your email,” she replied. She took a deep breath and smiled like we’d had a wonderful conversation. “Well, I’m so glad we had this little chat. You will get those documents to me. I will be watching you. If you try to escape your duties and sneak off to the ball, there will be consequences.”
I swallowed hard. “I understand.”
“Good. Because I would hate for anything to happen to your future. Right now, it still has a very good chance of being bright as long as you do as I say.” She smiled. “I will be watching you. I will know if you are working on the files. I’ve also told the senator to call me if there’s any trouble with Anastasia’s work, so I will know about that as well. You cannot hide from me, Aria.”
I wondered who she had passing her information. I knew she had ties to Jaqui’s boss. That was probably where she found out how far along in my work I was.
“I understand.”
“And that dress is...” Audrey paused as if searching for the right word. “Something.”
I hated the way my heart sunk at her snide remark. I swallowed down the resentment and told myself that Audrey was just trying to get under my skin. The dress was fine. I wasn’t going to let her into my head.
“Goodbye, Audrey.” I consciously forced my hands to relax and found that I’d put wrinkles into the dress from gripping it so hard.
“See you Monday, dear.” Audrey smiled and sashayed out the door. She waved to the saleswoman who waved back. I guessed that’s how she knew about the dress and the ball. I’d told the saleswoman and they obviously knew one another.
I should have gone to a dress store in a different state.
I stood in front of the mirror and stared at the dress. I still wanted to go to the ball. How in the world was I going to tell Henry that I had to work all weekend? I could already imagine the hurt in his eyes and the way he would say it was okay, even though it wasn’t.
“Are you still interested in the dress?” the saleswoman asked, coming up behind me. I startled slightly. “Your stepmother didn’t say if you wanted to purchase it.”
“Um...” I frowned, trying to think. A spark of resistance flared in my chest. If there was a way to go to the ball, I was going to find it. There was a possibility I could get the work done in time and she would never know.
“Miss?”
“Yes. I’ll take the dress,” I said, deciding that I wasn’t going to let my stepmother win. I was going to make it to the ball or die trying.
Chapter 20
I paid for the dress and then went to my apartment and looked at the research for Anastasia. It was more work than my stepmother had let on. The research I’d done for her last week was just the beginning. I was basically doing my senator’s aide job without the benefits of going to the office or getting paid.
Before I started that, I looked online for a lawyer. I made an online appointment from my burner phone with a fake name. The earliest I could get was Monday afternoon. It felt like too little too late, but I needed to know what I could do to protect myself, even if it felt like there was nothing.
I worked until I couldn’t see straight, set an alarm, then got up at the crack of dawn and went to the office. I put enough coffee in my system to get a bus full of people going.
I had to do this so that I could go to the ball with Henry. That was my motivation. It wasn’t the pretty dress or the idea of dancing all night. It was that I would get to be with Henry. This mattered to him, so I was going to do everything within my power to make it happen.