The Unassuming Mason Wilde

Chapter 11

Scarlet sent out official invites to all the members of her family.

As each of them received their invite they were pleasantly surprised.

“You think she’s pregnant?” Jason asked his mom, Elicia.

“No way!” She answered back.

“Maybe they’re in debt, I heard Vivian took out their mortgage. They’re most likely swimming in debt.”

“Debt but sending out fancy invitations to a fancy dinner? What is that woman up to?”

When Vivian got the invite, she scoffed.

“I’m not doing this! That ungrateful child threw me out of a house I paid for!”

“You’re not even a little bit curious about why she did that?” Bruce, her third husband asked.

“It doesn’t matter! I’m not going and you’re not going!”

When Madam Rodney got the invitation, she was indifferent, “did they hit a jackpot or something? The quality of this card is impeccable.”

“Or perhaps Mason stole some money, wouldn’t put it past him.” Michelle Rodney said.

The dinner was for that night at a moderately fancy restaurant in Beverly Hills. 

What Scarlet didn’t know however was that Mason had rented out the entire restaurant for their family dinner and had all the meals paid in full.

The money she spent for her booking and meals went back to the house for groceries and their monthly rent.

“Calm down, Scarlet. Take a breather. You’d do just fine.”

Mason tried to calm her down.

She had been pacing back and forth in the living room.

“But how do I announce it? Hi everyone, I got the contract?”

“Or, I got the contract everyone!!”

“Maybe something more serious like: I acquired the contract.” Scarlet said all these with a very serious face that made Mason burst out laughing.

Scarlet pouted and threw a pillow at him to where he was sitting on the counter top.

“I’m being serious!” She said.

“I know. I know.” Mason said with both hands up defensively.

“I just think you’re being too serious. I know they’re a lot but they’re still your family. You don’t have to prepare so much to break good news to them.”

“I just, I just want to do things right.” She said as she slouched down on the couch, Mason’s bed.

“And you’ll do just that. You always do things right.”

“My family thinks the exact opposite. They think everything I do is a flop.”

Mason hated that her family had reduced her self confidence to near zero.

Scarlet truly excelled at every and anything she did but her family always found something to pick apart.

Due to that Scarlet stopped trying to do new things or vying for company positions. Although she was a member of the family they had successfully pushed her even away from board meetings.

She was a major shareholder but decided not to attend because she always felt so alienated.

Her grandmother favored her aunt, Elicia. Her child from an extramarital affair before her mom was born. Always said her mom was stupid, being on her third marriage.

Scarlet had no idea who her father was or where he was as he left when she could barely walk or talk.

Her grandfather was the only one who was kind to her and he passed almost six years ago now and ever since then her life had been nothing short of fighting for her right every day.

To think she fought her grandfather about him having her betrothed without her knowledge.

Mason is now her biggest if not her only support system. She would count on her little sister, Michelle but Michelle hated Mason which in turn made things even more difficult for her.

So Scarlet was right to be nervous about hosting her family, she felt like she would be picked apart anyway, scrutinized under a big magnifying glass, judged and questioned from every angle.

The thought of it made her nervous. Would she actually become COO of Rodney constructions? 

Could she even work with them? All the questions made her nauseated.

“I need a moment.” She said and she went into her room and to the shower.

“What is wrong with me?” She asked as she stood under the shower, the cold water soaking her naturally red hair and flowing down her back.

“You’ve got this!” She gave herself a little pep talk.

Seeing her family truly gave her anxiety. She never realized the depth of it as she was always just sitting there during family dinners.

The most she contributed was refusing to divorce Mason whenever they brought up the topic, which they did a lot of.

Today she was the one with good news and what big news it was.

Scarlet ravaged through her wardrobe searching for what to wear. She truly never bothered with appearances.

Her thick, dark, red hair was about 80% of her makeup. She also had unrealistically long eyelashes to compliment her dark green eyes.

Her grandfather used to call her a doll because of her anime-like features. Scarlet used to believe him though but now, she hardly looked at herself in the mirror.

She thought her grandfather would be extremely disappointed in her if he saw how she lived presently.

She was a shadow of herself and her confidence was near zero.

Bagging the contract was supposed to boost her confidence but instead she picked herself apart even more.

She picked out a flowing black bodycon dress and attempted to curl her hair. She put on red lipstick and gold jewelry. For shoes, she put on black stilettos with red bottoms.

In the living room, Mason heard the water running in the shower and took it as a queue to get ready.

He had purchased a dark blue tuxedo from one of the designer stores in town earlier that day.

He paired it with a bow tie but decided at the last minute to ditch the suit. He just went with the shirt and the tuxedo pants with black shoes.

He was tying his shoelace when he heard the door to the room open and footsteps approaching.

“Almost ready!” He said, the scent of her perfume hit his nostrils and he lifted up his head to behold Scarlet looking intensely breathtaking.

His breath was literally knocked out of him.

“How do I look?”