Chapter eight
The other face of success
When Blair arrived in Monaco, a very difficult moment started for her. People didn't like her; they didn't find her credible in her capacity as plebeian princess; the royal family scolded her for any possible behavior, the press destroyed her every single day: she was too American, too Cinderella...I can still remember the morning when Chuck threw the paper out of the window. It was the nth reportage who compared her to Grace Kelly and underlined how she was a "faded copy of her icon and how she lacked of capabilities and charm compared to princess Grace".
At that time I knew Blair through Chuck's and Serena's stories, however, I knew better what kind of influence the press could have used on her at the level. They would have demolished her.
"The villa is still surrounded by the press" the uncle complained, going into the big kitchen of the Hampton's house. The paparazzi have been there for a couple of days.
"I'll ask the security to increase the staff" the grandfather was putting a hand of Kellogg's in his cup of milk. The uncle took away his cup.
"How many times do I have to rebuke you? After tonight's dinner you can think of eating this one too!"
"Stop playing the mother John" Mr. Harvey replied clouding. "I'm the father here. I've changed you diapers!" he mumbled taking back his milk with Kellogg's.
The uncle puffed, heading to the fridge to find some fresh beer to drink. Parents were always the worst patients.
"I've met Daphne in NYC this morning. She told me that the media attention on us is still high. People magazine had to print more copies after the sold out of the first few hours. All of the TV shows talk about us and Chuck's story. The reservations at the Bass Hotels are over for the next 3 years and they have found a few meddlers at The Charles this morning. Yesterday the limo couldn't even leave the building"
"It's all worse than I've expected" the grandfather sighted. They have primed the fuse and it was just the beginning.
"That man won't get you away with it. Do you know this, right?" John asked, well aware where of what the real problem was. His father stayed in silence for a while.
"I've heard that the clinic is full of paparazzi" his father changed the subject.
"Yeah, but luckily for us, they are behaving respectfully for the patients. Plus, Blair made them believe that I was on a plane to Rio, so I can't complain at the moment. They want Chuck. He's the most talked-about descendant in the world, now". The uncle didn't hide a relief breath.
"You've never liked all the eyes on you" his father pointed out.
"I've always been different from her" John specified thinking about his past.
"I know it" Andrew Harvey took his hand and tightened the tie.
He'd always been the responsible and diligent son, away from the bad companies, and more focused on his own carrier. He had never cared about the money, the easy life or the fame he could have had in his position. He had dedicated all his life to the medicine and the humanitarian missions.
He was glad that his new nephew could give him a new way out from any possible attention on his own life.
"Have you read these articles which Daphne had sent to me?" Josephine was entering the room, bringing all the articles that would have gone out the day after, full of Blair Waldorf's pictures. The first of the list was called "First was Grace Kelly, now Josephine and Daphne Harvey: Blair Waldorf the shadow of the European monarchies".
The grandfather took it with fury. Till that moment Blair had been just a little quote on the articles about the board, but it seemed that the press had changed its interest on her.
He didn't like it, even if he knew it would have happened.
"Who wrote those idiocies?" John asked while his father eat up an article with disappointment.
"This is the paper where Daniel Humphrey works" Josephine specified showing them another piece of paper with a huge picture of Blair.
"The article is not his" her husband pointed out.
"Some of them slipped that Blair and Louis' relationship ended because of Chuck" Josephine explained them, the most delicate point of what she had read.
"I'll make a few calls" Mr. Harvey stated with authority. They had to protect Blair, especially after what she had done for them.
"You won't" John stopped him. " It's a terrible moment. We can't buy the press. Blair knows how to give them a proper answer".
Mr. Harvey looked at his wife, who was nodding in agreement.
"It was predictable that they'd quoted her past. Her missed marriage with Louis and her fixations with fairytales are easy materials to use against her... I've expected it... Too bad they don't really know her"
"I can't imagine how she could feel" Mr. Harvey shacked his head.
"I've called Eleanor to invite her at the party, tomorrow night. I'm sure she'll be a great supporter for Blair".
"Who wrote these?" Nate asked, still opening his eyes wide in front of the papers titles.
"A certain Timothy... he works with Humphrey for that magazine for psychopathic postmenopausal housekeeper who aren't fucked by their husband anymore" Chuck's comment was acid.
"«Last May, Blair Waldorf had briefly accepted the proposal of prince Louis Grimaldi, she had met only months before in Paris. "Blair has always had a fixation with royalty. She had desired to marry one of them Since she was 5 years old. She's been with Nathaniel Archibald, the heiress of the Vanderbilt family. Everyone said they would have been married.. But She ended up with Louis instead, and she left him at the altar.. The truth is that we all know she wouldn't have married him. She had always aimed at Chuck Bass. Voices tell that she cheated on Louis with Chuck. I wouldn't be too surprised about it, she did the same with Nate. It was how her relationship with Chuck started, with a fling in his limo, just when his best friend Nate had left her" This is what a college friend of Blair said to us.»" Nate was reading the article out loud.
"Blair has never had friends except Serena!" he pointed out, thinking back at what he just read.
"It was Penelope" Chuck finally stated. "I'm sure... She had always envied what Blair is, which is what she won't ever be" he commented tightening the hold on his glass of scotch in his left hand, while the other one, made a fist on the armrest. He had read every single magazine and he couldn't bear any shadow of charges against Blair.
"«Some of us, wonder why her story with Louis, heiress of the Grimaldi's Family, the man she hanged out with and she was going to marry, ended up with the annulment of the engagement in September, without any valid explanations. Then she left France for London, where she stayed for a year. A source from the Grimaldi's Palace said that Blair committed an adultery during her last few weeks in New York, before leaving for the summer in Monaco with Louis»… I can't believe it..." Nate shacked his head. Chuck tightened his jaw, his eyes set in two cracks.
"Man, you're out of this right?" Nate genuinely asked him. The light in his best friend eyes was enough. "You and Blair? Wait…When?"
Chuck swallowed.
"Chuck?" Nate urged him.
"The night she was kidnapped by Thorpe" Chuck stood up and headed to the window.
The memories of that night still nagged him. His faults, Blair scared by that man, both of them at the Bar Mitzvah, in the storeroom and then the break up, the awareness that someone else could make her happy, and their goodbye.
Nate took a look at the other papers on the table.
"They are talking about you too, man!" he took one of them.
" «Blair Waldorf's story can't exclude a third stable name in her love life, who is Charles Bass, the son of the defunct Bart Bass, founder of the Bass Ind, the richest heiress of NY since he was 17, and presently on every papers for the last scoop about his parenthood with the Harvey's Family, which leads him to be heiress of one of the richest fortune in the whole world. Blair Waldorf too, works for the Harvey Foundation.
Chuck and Blair are long standing friends, both raised in the Upper East Side and have been engaged for a year before his sudden disappearance which almost caused the bankruptcy of his father's empire. As For Blair Waldorf, after a year abroad, she's now the delegate of Chuck's grandmother, Josephine Harvey, in the position of head of the CNS Corporation, together with Charles Bass.
Blair's social climbing has always aimed at the crown and the princess fame. The fact that Chuck Bass is going to inherit many royal titles, will fire up the passion again in Blair Waldorf? Will she be able to wear that ring sooner than with the French prince?»"
"They'll pay for what they're doing to her" Chuck walked fast to the bar of his living room. He couldn't bear those cruelties. He knew she would have been put on every covers. He knew it!
He looked all the other magazines and papers in the room: ' From the Grimaldi to the Asburgo: Blair Waldorf's princess social climbing'; 'Blair Waldorf, from missing princess to Ceo of one of the planet Empires'; 'First was Grace Kelly, now Josephine and Daphne Harvey: Blair Waldorf the shadow of the European monarchies'; 'Charles is better than Louis, words of Blair Waldorf'; 'Blair Waldorf is back on top. Who cares about the Grimaldi anymore? Now it's the realm of the Harvey's', 'Scared about Daphne? Are you Waldorf?'.
Flim-flams, pure evilnesses.
"What do you have in mind?" Nate asked him, reaching the bar too.
"For the moment, I need to remind Penelope that she's just a pawn I move however I want" he was serious and determined. Nate got worried.
"Miss Blair, You're mother is downstairs"
"What is she doing here? Did you call her Dorota?" Blair accused her with aggressiveness.
"No, Miss Blair" Dorota replied defensively, "Maybe she here due to articles". She whispered knowing to well how critic the situation was.
"Shhh" Blair mimed with her finger on her mouth, before changing the subject. "I have a terrible headache and I'm not hungry... bring back the food".
Since the night before, When Valentina had delivered her all the magazines, Blair had spent the time in her closet, ordering Dorota what to do with her dresses, avoiding the problem. And every single time Dorota hinted at the articles, Blair started all over again with her layouts.
"What tell Mrs Eleanor?" Dorota asked taking the tray full of foods out of the room. Blair was seriously worrying her.
"Don't tell her anything... I can't stop her from coming upstairs... Instead, Tell her to come upstairs to see my new cabinet, but tell her to be fast because I'm quite busy..." Blair tried to sound indifferent " and tell her to bring me some macaroons" She ended. "Hurry up and stop staring me as if you would look at some zoo animals".
When Dorota was out of sight, Blair leaned closer to the mirror, touching her hair and staring at her features.
«There're no doubt that Blair Waldorf can't be compared to the Harvey's women. Come on, Josephine is one of the most powerful women of the planet and Daphne is a style icon since she was 15. How, a common student, who had almost married the prince of a realm, as big as a bag of walnuts, believe to be at grade?».
Those were the word of the Vogue director during an interview of the morning. She had been clear. On the screen they had even showed tons of pictures of the Wintur with Serena during the premiere of her fist movie.
A shake of anger run down Blair's spine. Serena van der Woodsen. Always more beautiful than her, more loved, the cover girl, the most famous one.
And Daphne. Beautiful, Refined, Clever, always impeccable, uninhibited, and adequately indifferent to magnetize everyone eyes. Daphne, the one at the top a worldwide company, upper than her, as titles and fame. The one who just had to make a call to have everything she desired, the one who didn't make the line to buy brand clothes, but so loved to received them as gifts. Daphne, loved by her employees, adored by the common persons, feared by the business men. Daphne Harvey with the biggest closet she had ever seen, with the most beautiful houses, the trimmest hands, the shining hair...
Blair took a newpaper in her hands and threw it against the wall. She trembled while looking at herself in the mirror with darken eyes.
«Blair and Daphne, girls on the same age, but opposite on every other aspect. Blair Waldorf, always impeccably maked up, perfectly suited in thousand dollars clothes, arrogant and spoiled, addicted to luxury cars and uptown connections, versus Daphne, who's gentle and shining, chic even wearing simple jeans and t-shirts; an anti-conformist, who rather travel taking the subway than the limos, or having a conversation about the human rights than a gossip chat at twa rooms. A battle that Daphne win 10 to 0 against Blair Waldorf».
She felt a knot in her throat. She had already lived that story. Against Serena, the best friend she had lost a year before.. Against the icons of her past...
She was always less beautiful, less winning, less lucky, less loved, less tall, less shining, engaged with the less famous boyfriends, the less important connections...
Blair Waldorf, who was born to be the first of her classes, but the last in the real world... Always a step behind, always humiliated, always suffering...
A tear run down her cheek.
It was like in her dreams, when she shouted 'I'm Blair Waldorf' but no words came out of her mouth. And she kept on going on, and on, but the only sounds she could hear were the name of Serena and Daphne.
She sat on her bed.
It had been a hard week and those articles had arrived in the moment she was finding her strength back.
She had met every single member of the board and she had organized a tea with all their wives. She had visited her new office and brought there all her things, while she was still managing the press office. She hadn't stop even for a second, and right when she could have leaved the foundation with the head held high, the articles about her, had been punches on her face.
She lied on the bed, cuddling up with her knees against her chest.
When she was with Chuck and she was facing terrible periods, he was used to bring her gifts and cuddle with her, to help her sleep. When Serena was still her best friend.. Even if she didn't know how she was putting Blair in her shadow, she usually hold her close and started a movie party to help Blair forgetting all her misfortunes.
"They don't deserve your cry" her mother was on the doorstep.
Blair quickly dried them. No one could have seen her in that condition.
"I've no idea of what you're talking about, mother! I was just cleaning my eyes. I have to tell Dorota, not to buy this soap anymore, It reddens my skin" Blair stood up, leaving her mother behind her back, to be able to recompose herself properly.
"Locking yourself inside this room doesn't work Blair"
"You're wrong. I was just tired, so I've decided to work at home. Plus, I can follow the work in my new closet. It seems like all the incompetents of the world know how to find me! I've told them the shoes should have been put on the right, but they left them on the left.." Blair explained turning to face her mother.
"Stop" Eleanor admonished her. "Stop pretending that everything is fine". She stared directly in her daughter's eyes. Blair glanced down at the floor.
"Why does it always happens to me? I tried to get over it, not to think about it, but I can't. What do they have, which I don't?" Blair admitted resigned and deeply torn by that tote. Her mother got closer.
Blair wanted to take her out, but her mother's ability to read through her, made her drop at her closeness.
A tear started falling, followed by the second. Her mother hugged her tight, caressing her brown hair and helping her to sit on the chest which was set at the end of her bed.
"Do you remember when I discovered that your father was gay?" Blair nodded.
"I thought that I couldn't make it. I ended up on every magazine. At the atelier everyone looked at me as If I was a loser. They were wrong. I'm here, stronger than before".
"What if I'm not as strong as I thought?" Blair whispered.
"Blair Cornelia Waldorf! I don't wanna hear something like this anymore! You're a Waldorf, and the Waldorf owe anything to anyone!" Eleanor scolded her, moving a bit, just to look in her eyes.
Blair opened her eyes wide.
"I haven't give you birth to see you locked in your own room, crying over some stupid articles! You're Blair Waldorf, not Grace Kelly or Daphne Harvey, and allow me, there is nothing in Serena van der Woodsen you have to envy! You're already special on your own to let someone tell you who you are!". Those words undermined her.
Chuck had said the same, when she was desperately trying to conquer the NY University. He had also said "The next time you forget you're Blair Waldorf, remember I'm Chuck Bass. And I love you". Because, to him, admitting it had been the hardest thing of his life but the one, he had never stepped back from.
She shyly smiled, thinking back at what she had put him through during her NYU's period. He had kissed a gay for a useless speech. Remembering moments of their past, without feeling pain, was a strange situation, almost lovely. It was like she was regretting that time, and she was feeling the need to smile at it too.
"What's so funny?" Eleanor asked, looking at her daughter's changing mood.
"Nothing" Blair wiped her tears. "Just... A few years ago, Chuck said the same" she lowered her gaze, still ashamed by the effect he still had on her.
"Sometimes, there are people who can read though us, before us" her mother caressed her face, to clean the latest tears.
"Any idea of the dress you'll wear tonight?" Eleanor asked her suddenly. "Josephine says that Daphne is going to wear Versace" she winked at Blair.
The grandmother was thinking about her, and probably Daphne too. One day she had told her that she hated Versace and that she was wearing it, just when she didn't want to be noticed.
"The many years of experience in fashion, helped me to know my dear, that you can't reply to an Italian stylist with another Italian stylist. It's compromising" Eleanor anticipated her.
She was teaming up with her. It was Team Waldorf against the public opinion.
Blair stood up, walking to her new closet. The energy she could see in her mother, shacked her for good. Eleanor was fighting for her. She wasn't alone. Too bad that her mother didn't realize, that nothing could have compared to anything Daphne would have worn.
"I've nothing to wear. Daphne has better dresses. Plus she's perfect 'also with jeans and t-shirts'" She quoted the article.
"How can they say it? You've never worn a t-shirt in your life" her mother complained, as it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Of course not!" Blair agreed defensively. "I'm not from Soho" Blair turned up her nose.
Eleanor then, reached her and took a rebel roll in her hand.
"I think we should study something new... something different... Copy an icon is constrictive. You've always followed classics, but that's what everyone does. You have a special refinement. You dictated style when you were 3 years old, which is a natural instinct. Since now on, you can't be associated to anyone who's already famous. We have to find your own style, something which tell who you are and make them envy you... I'll tell Gregor, my new stylist, to design your own line.. something personal, original... Now, for tonight... " Eleanor looked in her closet for something to wear, till she found an emerald silk dress.
"This" She showed it to Blair with enthusiasm "is the Blair Waldorf I know".
Blair couldn't stop but smiling. It was perfect, completely different from everything Daphne was used to wear and far from the Italian stylist range.
Her mother was right. She just had to dress differently and have her own line. She took the dress in her hands. She wanted to try it on suddenly.
"Miss Blair, wonderful" Dorota approved.
She was right. She felt wonderful.
No one knew it that it was one of the many Chuck's gifts, received by him, to forgive him for something. It had been designed for her but she had never worn it, not to give him the satisfaction of her forgiveness.
Blair looked at herself in the mirror, while her mother nodded with a bright smile.
"You made her take your place in the board?" Serena asked her, while waiting her coffee.
"She's capable and I'm too busy with other stuff" Daphne replied rolling her glass of orange juice in her hand.
"She has no experience" Serena objected. In her voice Daphne could fell a mark of anxiety and a bit of disappointment, so she looked at her with surprise.
"What do you mean?"
"She's just 20"
"So am I"
"You're doing this since you were 15!"
"Yes, and when I started, I didn't have experience too. By the way, she had worked as a brilliant copy editor for a year, raising up the sell"
"A work, Chuck procured her". Serena pointed out.
"A work she had maintained thanks to her capabilities" Daphne had no hesitation. Serena let the guard down. The real reason was another.
"Have you heard that she has made a new 80 meter closet in my bedroom?" Daphne was amused, her closet was just 40 meter.
"She's the CEO now" she justified that news.
"She wants to be better than you".
"I know". The way Daphne answered made Serena realize that it didn't bother her.
"Doesn't it scare you?"
"Should it? She's Blair Waldorf and I'm Daphne Harvey. We're two different people"
"Blair envies you!"
"I understand her. If I were Blair, I would envy me, too. Wouldn't you?" Daphne explained objectively. She really understood Blair, especially after all the articles about her past.
"No"
"Because you're Serena van der Woodsen"
"What do you mean?"
"You've always had fame and appreciations. Blair, in some kind of ways, had always lived in someone's shadow.. First her icons. When she was in Monaco, people didn't stop from telling her that she was copying Grace, and she couldn't really be compared to her. I read everything during that period... And then, she was your shadow.. first at the Constance and then, in her real life... you're the one who's always come out on top"
"It's childish! I've never done anything to hurt her"
"Sometime it's not on purpose. How many times has Blair reached what she really wanted?"
"When she lost it, it was all due to the fact that she selfishly had never accepted that she wasn't the only one on the planet"
"Blair is insecure and she got lost. There are no doubts about her lack of decency or cooperation with her enemies, but if she feels this way, we have some kind of guilt too"
"She had built a new closet to have it bigger than yours"
"If it does make her feel better, where is the problem?"
"She did it in my room" Serena busted it out.
"You haven't used it in a year, because you're no longer talking to her" Daphne specified. Serena sighted. When Daphne spoke like that she was like Chuck.
"She had..."
"Kissed Dan?" Daphne anticipated the end of her sentence. "Don't you think that this is just an excuse to stay here instead of being with her to comfort her?"
"I haven't been with Chuck"
"And she didn't do Dan"
"This can be untrue" Serena was still mad.
"Blair loves Chuck and you know it, as well as you know better than me, how she's feeling now. What the newspapers say about her is nauseating. They are playing with her fears and weaknesses. And even if you pretend to be indifferent, Serena, I know you're worried about her. Maybe she needs her real friend, don't you think?" Daphne finished her juice.
Serena glanced down at her hands.
She was really suffering for Blair. The night before, she had stayed outside her building, never finding the courage to enter. Knowing that she had demolished her room to be better than Daphne, had made her feel completely put out of her life.
She took one magazine in her hand. She knew where those shits came from.
She finally took her phone and sent a text to Chuck.
'I need to talk to you'
There are days when everything falls apart. We can have someone who support us and prevent sadness, or we can try to be strong and walk alone with head high against the world and its difficulties. But at the end of the day, when we are alone in bed and in the darkness, we realize how much we need a hug, the one that sometimes we refuse for many times.Everyone need someone. Alone, we're incomplete.
"You can't believe what a day I had!" Daphne laid into the sofa of The Empire, where Nate still lived.
"The paparazzi?" Nate asked, never taking his eyes away from the tv. He was playing tennis with the Wii.
"They followed the Lamborghini all the way here. I have seriously thought that we've hit one of them"
"Chuck moved back in here to avoid them, but today they were outside".
"Where is he?"
"He's making a few calls" Nate relied. "Do you want the revenge?" He asked her hanging her the other remote control.
Daphne didn't need coaxing. She removed her shoes and her trench and rolled up the sleeves of her shirt.
"Are you sure, you want to hurt yourself again?" she smiled at him.
He vacantly stared at her for a while. There was something in that girl that enchanted him. It was not just the fact that she was beautiful or comfortable with anyone. Instead, it was the fact that he felt some kind of intimacy between them, the same one he had with Chuck.
"You're here" Chuck popped up from his old room.
"Chucky" She teased him, knowing that he hated labels. In the meantime Nate started the match.
"How was your trip in South Africa?" Chuck asked her, still concentrated on his telephone book.
"Relaxing, in spite of the jetlag". She looked at him, while he was sitting on the sofa.
"I've heard that you've been quite busy this week!" she stated before doing a crush.
Chuck grunted. He hated been teased and Daphne could never miss a chance of doing it.
"Why?" Nate didn't know anything. Chuck rolled his eyes. He was fucked.
"Monday morning he arrived at the meeting at 7:02 and Blair left him out of the room. He stayed out of the door for 2 hours and half"
"Man! This is the reason why you didn't want to talk!"
"Just for the record, I was there before Blair, at 6:30, but I received a call and I arrived at the meeting room at 7:02" He stated still proven. "She was behind my call. I'm sure about it"
"And I thought that you came late also the second day, just to make her feel powerful in front of our employee" Daphne commented, half teasing him, half seriously.
"Even the second day?" Nate couldn't believe it.
"She told me that the meeting was at 8… Obviously" there was sarcasm in his voice "The day before she had forgotten to communicate me she had anticipated the meeting at 7:30" Nate tried to hold his laugh.
"But grandma told me you've been adorable…" Chuck made a smirk, his sister was unbearable.
Daphne kept on talking to Nate.
"When they spent the afternoon, working in the Hamptons, Blair made him serve the coffee to all of the 30 employee... not to tell what Blair had done when he accidentally spilled the coffee on the legs of one of them"
"There is nothing to laugh about" Chuck blurted out. Daphne was entertained. "«Charles is a gentlemen, Missy, I'll be forgivable. Tomorrow he'll bring you in the best restaurant of the city, he'll buy you a new dress and he'll personally accompany you to buy 2 pairs of new Louboutines. Right Charles?» and when he didn't reply she kicked him and pouting said out loud. «You can't be rude to Mrs. Missy, who's been working for you grandmother for 30 years!». You have to know Nate, that Miss Missy is 50 years old and she's the history vixen of the Foundation, but, most of all, she's a single, seeking for her golden goose".
"So.. it wasn't your old secretary, the woman who came here last night to talk to you, and who had forgottrn her skirt!" Nate was coming out of his trance.
"She's not giving me peace" Chuck was boiling. "She called me at least 10 times in an hour this morning" he was furious. "Blair's taking her revenge for the layoff.. but the great time has ended" he threatened.
Nate and Daphne cracked up.
"Man, Never play against Blair Waldorf!" Nate commented, while Chuck was still visible disturbed. The others kept on laughing.
"Please, don't stop laughing at me... And while you pull my led I…" He stood up bothered "... I'll resolve all the problems we would have avoided if someone had never involved Blair in our family business". His mot against Daphne was more than clear. He looked at her, while she composted herself.
"Those slanders were unacceptable. I've made a few calls"
"They won't get away with it" Chuck was imperative. That caught his sister's attention.
"Tell me you're not plotting something stupid Chuck"
"Send an invitation for tonight's party to Penelope and Iz. They were Blair's minions"
"Tonight we will have important international guests. What the hell do you wanna do?" Daphne sensed the danger.
"Don't get too worried, I've everything everything under control" he stopped her suddenly.
"Chuck…"
"If there are leaks in a house, they must be fixed" It was the only answer he gave her.
"Mister Daniel, Miss Blair busy"
"Dorota, can you tell her that I need to talk to her?"
"Miss Blair busy for dinner"
"5 minutes only" he insisted."
"You can go Dorota" Blair appeared on the top of the stairs in a long purple silken grown. She waited for Dorota to be gone, before descending them. "What can I do for you?" she asked him, crossing her arms around her chest.
"I haven't heard anything from you, lately... How are you?" he tried to step towards her but he immediately stopped.
"I'm on every national and international mastheads as an upstart and a slut. I couldn't be better" she replied, pretending to be indifferent, but she was cold, which was something he could sense.
"Blair, I had no idea about my colleague's article"
"Really?" She doubted it, but she didn't change the tone of the conversation.
"You think I knew?"
"I know that you did nothing to avoid it"
"You haven't been answering my calls all week... I didn't know it. You know that I'm sorry for this kind of journalism" He seemed sincere.
She nodded without changing her expression. He didn't like it. She was calm and detached, far away from him, as had happened since she had met Chuck again and his new family.
"I've read that you work with Chuck" She could feel disappointment in his voice. "I thought.."
"That we were friends, Dan?" she interrupted him. She was firmness in his voice and the way her eyes looked into his own.
"I do" he replied.
"I thought you trusted and respected me so much not to use me for an article. Friends protect and respect each other Dan".
"I did it for you!" he justified himself. " You're working for the man who sold you for a hotel, the one who took my sister's virginity and got you fired. It is for his own family that you are on every single magazine all over the world!"
"Here is, where you're wrong" she shacked her head with bitterness. "I went to Jack on my own will. Your sister knew exactly what she was doing with Chuck. Chuck got me fired, but he was also the one who helped me to find that place when no one wanted me.. And it's not because of him if the press talks about a possible cheating on Louis, because it's true.. I cheated on him, with Chuck…but he didn't forced me. I wanted to be with him that night" she was calm.
"You've been with Chuck?" he accused her.
"We're not talking about Chuck now. I trusted you and you, instead, played the count's game against him, which had destroyed me too".
"In my own article I don't even talk about you, but Chuck and the Harvey. You should stay far away from them. It's easy for them to tell the useful stories and omit the others"
"I don't know what you're talking about"
"I can't say it, but stay away from them"
"And a friend that doesn't help me is better?" she replied him back.
"You're hurting yourself Blair... You've never been over him, but I know how much you have suffered because of Chuck. You're better than that bad person you become, when he's around" Dan petrified in front of Blair's silence and the disappointed way she was looking at him. She pictured a sad smile.
"Do you wanna know what the saddest thing is? You talk about me, about him, the Harvey, but the truth is that you don't really know anyone of us" said it, she left the room.
He was losing her. He couldn't accept it.
He stood in a dodgy alley, without lights, in Brooklyn. It was 9 pm and it was already cold even if the wind was stopped by the houses that surrounded him. The floor was dirty and full of old boxes. He could smell the aromas coming from the restaurants of the closest street. The Greek food was the first he could recognize in the mix.
A car stopped at the end of the ally. A man exited and run to open the car door to another man.
They were Roman's steps. He was his father personal driver, a 65 years old man, he had grown up with. Nicholas smiled at the memory of his childhood, when his father was gone and Roman invited him home for lunch. Roast potatoes. He always cooked him roast potatoes and he gobbled up everything.
He distinguished the steps of the other man, the heavy way he placed his feet on the ground. He stared at his outline which could paralyze anyone.
"Your call surprised me, father. I thought I was clear when I said to you that you couldn't buy me" Nicholas commented before smug turning to face him, knowing to well that it would have pissed him off.
He could recognize a moment of weakness in his father's eyes for the first time in 2 years. The similarities with his beloved grandfather Hugo were striking, Nicholas thought. But his father change expression.
"I know you gave her informations"
"Why would you waste your time asking, if your sources are so legit?" he replied mocking.
His father had done the same, years before, when he had made him believe that Daphne had cheated on him. It was the bullshit that had pushed him to his limits and leaded him to destroy the most important things of his life. He would have never allowed him again.
"Boys like you, don't have nerve... You're like your mother…. principles woman. Principles are man's failure".
Nicholas felt his stomach burning. It was the same old story. His mother and him, two weak persons who didn't know anything about life.
"If I'm here just for the reprimand, you could have twitted me" His father stared at him with intensity.
Nicholas knew that gaze, it was the one he has when he was ready to make his move.
"You chose the wrong part of the field" the count commented with disappointment.
"And You are the one obsessed with this silly war" Nicholas shouted at him.
"In the Bible, a man sacrifices his son" Nicholas' heart beat faster.
The way his father talked about him and about a sacrifice, reminded him of all the times everything he had done for him was never good or enough. It had always been is personal pawn.
"I have a score to settle with the Harvey. If you'll stay with them I will have no pity for son. Choose Nicholas: stay with me and be my heiress or burn with Anna Karenina and family..."
Nicholas tightened his jaw. He had already left his home, he had been repudiated by him. Because of him he had lost the few things that had really matter to him. His mother had run away from her husband and cried every single night. He had been manipulated to disown the kid of the only woman he had ever loved, just to protect his family's reputation.
He was used to his father's evilness but every time it was like the first time, as if it was a new agonizing punch on his face. The son like the stranger. He contained the sense of oppression he felt. His mother was right, that man had never deserved them. There was no hope for him anymore.
"You told me this, two years ago. I'm not your son and frankly I'm not interested in it anymore" he spelled his answer out loud, with his head held high.
His father stared at him, waiting for the change, which he would have never begged for.
"This is the first taste of what will be out in 3 days. You could have stopped it, but you refuse father, so father now refuse son".
The count handed him a big envelope. After a last gaze, he walked back to his car.
Nicholas watched his father breaking away from him. He had never fought for him.
He rubbed his cheek with anger. He didn't deserve his tears. He didn't deserve them.
"Mrs. Jackson" Daphne welcomed her at the entrance of the Party, organized for Chuck's social introduction.
"My dear, you always look wonderful" The woman embraced her with affection.
"I'm honored by your presence"
"I would have never lost the introduction of such a charming boy" she looked at Chuck, who had just met the German ambassador.
"My pleasure" he took her hand to kiss it.
"Emily, you look fine!"
"Andrew! Look at you! You're always the same old brat! Are you taking advantage of your wife's absence?"
"You can't ask the eyes not to see" Mr. Harvey replied with a huge smile.
He was euphoric. Yes, he missed Josephine, but he was there to introduce Chuck as his own blood heiress, something that made him proud and full of life.
The woman cracked while Chuck and Daphne tried to hold back.
"You know Charles, your grandfather likes to praise women" she explained teasing him.
"It is not accident, that he married the beauty of the realm" Ernest Tripp von Justen, one of the most powerful Dutch financial businessman and long dated friend of Andrew specified reaching the group. Andrew and him attended the same college in England.
"Ernest!" Andrew was happy to see him and run to hug him.
"So Andrew, this guy must be our new heiress" Ernest looked at Chuck.
"Chuck Bass" Chuck excited showed him his hand. He was in front of one of his financial idols, as well as an unreachable person. An icon to him.
"I've read many things about you Charles! And your grandfather told me about a new ambitious project of yours"
"I'm working on a new hotel in Paris, something like 'being back in the '30'"
"Bohemian?" he asked.
"Something like that"
"I think you know Charles, that you're not a stranger to all of us" Emily spoke. "Your father had left you his legacy, but all the business world is been following your paths for years. They think you are really talented".
"Chuck's fame anticipates him" Daphne noted the surprise on his brother's face.
"No doubts that you have a unique story, as well as, that you certainly don't have an impeccable reputation, but personally, I believe that you professional goals are incredible, especially at your young age. I guess… you'll need some new solid partners if you want to conquer Europe... something I'm sure you have already planned" Ernest seemed really interested.
"The Bass owns 25 luxury resorts there, but it's my intention to give a new image to the group".
"Ernest has always had a special care for the catering" Andrew specified to Chuck. "He had always declared that if he had never been a business man, he would have been a cook. Too bad that, the one and only time he had cooked something at college, he almost burnt the entire dorm" they all laughed.
"We'll have a word later" Ernest threatened playfully his friend.
"You can pay a visit to my hotels in New York if you like. I'd be honored to listen to your opinions Mr." Chuck proposed him, understanding that it was a rare occasion and something good was in the air.
"Is tomorrow ok?" Ernest surprised him again. "And please Andrew, stay home! The last time I followed you around I had back ache for an entire week". But while everyone were shacking their head at the silly expression of Andrew, Ernest was already over it.
"Look, what a wonderful creature we have here!" Ernest made everyone's attention turn to the entrance.
Blair Waldorf was walking in, together with Cyrus and Eleanor, in a wonderful personal designed green emerald Vera Wang dress, her hair gathered up and Henry Winston's earrings. She was fascinating.
Since the moment Chuck's eyes landed on her, it was as if the room around them didn't exist. She was wearing a dress he had personally bought for her and he couldn't admit that on her, it looked exactly how he had imagined.
"Blair you're particularly attractive tonight" Mr. Harvey took her hand and kissed it, making her smile. He was always so charming and refined.
Then he turned to Eleanor "Mrs. Waldorf, what a lovely honor to have you here, and Cyrus…" both the men happily embraced each other.
"We couldn't miss this event! You have no idea how lucky you are to have such a wonderful talent like Blair with you, Andrew" Cyrus started. He was the most talented seller Andrew have ever met.
"Daphne Harvey?" Eleanor attention was on her. Even if that girl was utterly beautiful and had Chuck's eyes, she would have never said they were relative.
"I give you my grandmother's greetings, Mrs. Waldorf"
"Blair told me... I've heard that Josephine is feeling better now"
"She has to rest but she's fine, Thank you Mrs. Waldorf".
"Charles" Eleanor reclaimed his attention as he was still distracted by Blair's appearance, which was something that Eleanor had noticed.
"Eleanor... you look wonderful tonight" he tried to get closer and kiss her hand, but she surprised him. She leaned to him, almost to hold him, but close enough to whisper something in his ear.
"Do something bad to her and I swear to you, I'll set fire to your Empire. Have we understood each other?" Eleanor words made a shiver run down his back. She had been clear.
He nodded, with a tense smile.
"Set him free Eleanor" Cyrus interrupted them and walked to Chuck "How are you, boy?" and he embraced Chuck too.
It was always the same embarrassing situation. Chuck heard Daphne's laugh and felt Blair's eyes on him.
"Ernest, may I introduce you to Blair Waldorf even if I guess you already know her?" Mr. Harvey said.
"Madam, live you're even more beautiful than the pictures" Blair looked at Chuck while the man was gently kissing her hand.
Chuck looked down, while Blair was enjoying all the eyes on her.
When all the adults moved, Daphne got closer to Blair and hold her, hearing all the whispers of the other guests.
"I've heard you have a bigger closet than mine" Daphne teased her.
"I need tons of clothes now That I'm the CEO" Blair played with her.
"Tonight you have exceeded yourself".
"You think? It's just something I found in my closet" Blair minimized.
"Don't believe in anything they say. There is no competition to me" Daphne said to her, still holding her hands. In those moments Daphne reminded her of Chuck.
"I know. Thanks for the Versace's".
Right there Blair turned her gaze over Chuck who was following their interaction.
Daphne realized it, she left them alone using the guests excuse.
"You look ravishing, Waldorf" He commented, taking a full view of her body.
He had waited too long to say it again, and she liked it. He could tell it the way her cheek had flushed and how she responded to him. Even through, she was still a good girl attending a public event.
"Your refinement has always been an optional, Bass " she step closer to touch his white jacket, placing her hands on his chest.
He allowed her, following with his gaze every moves she was making. Then, he took her hand and brought it to his mouth.
"What if I have a surprise for you, Waldorf?" he announced with a smirk. A scheme. She smiled to him maliciously.
"No one knows better than you, how much I love being surprised"
She took the arm he was showing her.
Something in the way Chuck and Blair interacted, fascinated me. It wasn't just desire, possession or passion. Those were temporary elements of a relationship. There were something deeper, stronger in the way their eyes looked for each other and communicated. It was esteem, admiration, complicity and apprehension. It was as anyone or anything around them, wasn't there.
First I want to Thank my beta Cry, for her precious help and support 333
Then, I want to thank for the few reviews, even the bad ones. I really appreciated them.
As for the few reviews, I only hope that who's reading this story is liking it.
I can anticipate you that the next chapter is called "kiss kiss, bang bang" ;) Get ready for Chair ;)
