Worth-y Trap

~A MONTH BEFORE~

"Bethany ma'am? Are you inside?" The lady knocking softly on the huge mahogany wood door asks gently.

Bethany, inside, rolls the pillow over her head, wanting to sleep some more undisturbed but the lady at the door continues knocking persistently.

Grunting annoyedly, she flings away the pillow and sits up. "Come in. Who are you?"

The lady outside opens the door and bows ever so slightly. "I'm sorry for waking you up ma'am but your mum has asked for your urgent attention."

Bethany rolls her eyes. "And yet we are in the same house, even then, she sends someone to call me..."

"Did you say something ma'am?"

"No. Just tell her that I'll be down in a minute... Or an hour."

The lady sighs, nods and leaves, closing the door softly behind her.

Bethany let's her upper body fall back to the bed, her face turned up to the far ceiling up above her, she tries to go back to sleep but she's unsuccessful. She finally gets out of bed and simply puts on her slippers.

She takes the curving, gothic staircase down to the main living room where her mother, Anastasia Worth is pacing around, a look of livid anger on her face.

That is absolutely new. She always seems so calm and in charge of her expressions and emotions but now she's so openly angry? What could be wrong?

Anastasia barely glances up at Bethany before her eyes crease in even worse disagreement and disappointment. "What did I tell you about ladylike behavior?"

Bethany rolls her eyes, like she does a lot. "I wonder. I don't remember. What did you tell me about ladylike behavior?" Bethany asks back, not willing to let her have the last word.

Anastasia grunts. "Wake up early, freshen up, have breakfast and always be elegantly dressed... Women of elite classes and elegance don't get right out of their bed and head down the staircase to where civilized people are, dressed in a pajamas and slippers..."

Things seem to be worse today because it's been a while since Beth received a lecture but now she's receiving the whole thing. She actually, still wants to go back to sleep so she just cuts in.

"Yeah, right. What has got you angry this morning? What's going on? Where's Dad? Why are you pacing around?"

Anastasia stops, takes a deep breath and regards her daughter. "At least you're smart, able to cover up for all of your be... flaws. Something is wrong at the company. Your Dad is over there already, we're to leave together."

"What? Today is my free day, I can't leave without sleeping as much as I would love to."

Anastasia almost rolls her eyes but catches herself in time since it's not something that elegant women do. "Really? What is your off day from? You don't even have a job?"

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?" Bethany asks, dramatically drawing out the a in the word. "I won't have you insult my job like that."

"Oh really? Would you remind me of what your job really is?"

"So you think it's easy job to run a social media account? Ugh."

Anastasia shakes her head and takes a peek at her wristwatch. "Time is running out. I don't have time for your childish arguments this morning. Go get dressed and let's go. It's hectic already with only your father over there, I'm not even sure he's handling it right."

Yeah, of course he's not. He's her incapable husband. Beth struggles to hold an eye roll and succeeds.

"What is going on exactly?"

"You'll know when you get there." She says with a final tone of voice and turns around to continue her pacing.

Bethany finally turns around, deliberately making her slippers do some loud slapping sounds as she walks up the staircase, very aware of how annoying the sound is to her mother... But does she really care? No.

She glances down at her mum for the last time before rounding the last curve that will take her out of sight.

Younger looking at the age of forty nine, she's been married to Beth's Dad for twenty seven of those years and she had Bethany barely a year after their marriage... Her mother's worst mistake as she has never stopped saying ever since Bethany was old enough to understand.

The married duo doesn't even love one another and yet, they stick to one another in convenience, unconvincing to even their own daughter who is pretty sure that both of them hate one another but she, Beth, is probably what is holding them together.

With what she's seen, she's more than sure she's not willing to do that with a man. What's the point of committing anyway? When whatever feelings you start with will clear out in a matter of years, or even worse case, months?

She's rather be alone... And that's why at her late twenties, she's not making any moves to get married and once she sees that anyone she's with is leaning towards marriage, she cuts it off immediately...

And then there came Anthony who almost changed her mind, his proposal comes flashing back in her head as she freshens up, rubbing her face gently as she looks into the mirror to see how beautiful she is but how she is scared... His proposal had been the best day she could think of for months until the truth, until her rose coloured glasses comes falling down, shattering and the truth finally was shown to her.

Banishing all of the thoughts from her head, she dresses up formally and leaves for downstairs where Anastasia is now sitting down, waiting for her to show up.

Dressed in a plain wine suit and pants, cream colored shoes and bag and her red hair packed in a neat ponytail behind her head, she's a bit surprised that Anastasia doesn't make any snarky remarks about her dressing and just leads the way outside.

There's only one car parked outside and Bethany frowns. "I'll be following after you in my car."

Anastasia pauses and turns around, she looks into her daughter's eyes and speaks. "For today, let's just be one family. You'll see how much we need the support when you get there. We are going in one car, come on."

Bethany shrugs and enters into the SUV after her mother.

The drive is half an hour long, but there's no shared words or conversation between mother and child... Their strained relationship has always been strained, and the silence in the car is so loud that as soon as they arrive, Bethany jumps out of the car and takes a deep breath, rinsing out of her lungs what she calls her mother's 'toxic oxygen'.

Anastasia ignores her and motions her to walk with her.

"So, will you tell me what's happening now?" Bethany asks as she catches up with her mother's brisk walking pace.

"Yes, I'll tell you. Do you remember Drake Anderson?"

"Dad's brother? Sure I do. What's wrong with him?"

"He wants to take the company from your Dad..."

"What the fuck?!"

Anastasia turns swiftly to Bethany. "For goodness sake, language."

Ignoring her words, Beth continues. "Why? What is happening? What right does he have?"

"Exactly. He has no right to do so, most especially when it his brother that married into the Worth family not otherwise. If there's anyone that should be doing this, it should be you, not even my sister."

Bethany frowns. "Me?"

"Yes, you. You're going to be taking over soon anyway, why not push it up?"

Those words sounds like a barrage of gunshots to Bethany. "What? No. I'm not..."

"Better be. We're here."

"But I can't..."

Bethany's words are swallowed by the door opening. The wide tinted glass doors open to reveal a conference hall so long that there are about thirty men and women seated on one side, then there's both sides occupied along with the secretaries and personal assistants to these men and women also seating behind their respective bosses.

As soon as the doors open to reveal Anastasia's unsmiling face, the whole hall that had been a shouting competition immediately quiets down.

Bethany takes a large gulp of air, because she's about to step into a whirlpool of her mother's toxic oxygen