Tessa didn't know why Will was blindfolding her. Nervous excitement filled her as the engine thrummed under her feet.
"Alright," Will said finally.
"Can I take this thing off my face now?" Tessa asked, gesturing blindly to the blindfold. She heard Will chuckle and the car door open and slam shut. She reached for the car door handle on her own side, fingers feeling her way to the handle but the door opened and her hands landed on a rather firm chest.
She immediately drew her hand back, knowing her cheeks were red and that Will was probably stifling laughter.
Will helped her down and kept a firm hold on her hand as he led her to a place Tessa couldn't see. "You're doing this just so you could hold my hand, correct?" Tessa asked.
"How did you know?" came Will's amused reply.
The sound of a key turning in a keyhole caught Tessa's attention.
"So we're entering a building," Tessa noted. Then a familiar smell filled her nose. The smell of books. The scent of old pages and of dog-eared books. "And we're in a library," Tessa said.
"You're brilliant, you know that?" Will said. Tessa grinned. Then Will untied the blindfold.
Tessa could only stare. And gape. And stare.
"Behold. The Herondale library," Will said, waving his hands in a dramatic manner.
"You have an entire building," Tessa said. "Devoted to books."
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Will said.
Tessa could only nod. Books were stacked high, the bookshelves reaching the ceiling. There was every genre you could imagine. "Brilliant!" Tessa said, surging forward and scanning the titles.
"Remember. You're on a date with me. Not the books," Will grinned.
The day passed by quickly and unfortunately, Tessa had to be dragged away from the library. Will was laughing the entire time.
"Can we go again?" Tessa asked excitedly.
"Unfortunately not. We're never going again," Will said, a hint of a smile on his face.
"Why not?" Tessa said, her voice almost like a whine.
"If I let you go again, you won't leave the place," Will said.
Tessa sighed, but she had to agree.
…
"Tessa," Cecily hollered. "You've got mail!" Cecily ran inside the house, holding up a letter and waving it wildly in her hand. Cecily ran into the living room where Tessa was curled up on the couch with a book in her hand, as always.
"Who would send me a letter? That's so old fashioned," Tessa said, rolling her eyes.
"Well, it's someone rich, because people who can do nice cursive are usually rich people," Cecily grinned.
"Can you do nice cursive?" Tessa asked, raising an eyebrow as she took the letter Cecily held out for her.
"Nope," Cecily said happily. Tessa grinned as Cecily skipped away. Cecily became a lot happier since the 'Battle of Plants.' (That was what Cecily called it.)
Tessa opened her letter and found that the letter was handwritten in fine cursive as well. There was not much written on it. Yet, six little words managed to make Tessa nervous.
We need to talk.
Linette Herondale.
…
People may be calling her stupid for going to the Herondale property. People may call her dumb. But Tessa's interest and curiosity had peaked and she had to know what Mrs. Herondale wanted to say.
That was why Tessa was knocking on the wide double doors of the Herondale house the next morning.
Tessa was ushered inside to Mrs. Herondale's office and Tessa had to ask herself: Could the Herondale matriarch hear the beat of Tessa's heart?
Mrs. Herondale was looking out her office window and in that position, Tessa could see the woman Mr. Herondale – sorry, Edmund – had talked about. The woman who was stubborn and headstrong but still, the woman Edmund had fallen for.
But when Mrs. Herondale turned around, the feeling was lost. The familiar anger and scowl was on her face as she looked at Tessa with hatred. Why did Tessa even come?
"Sit," she said tersely. Her green eyes were as cold as ever, but Tessa did not flinch under he gaze.
Tessa did as she was told lacing her fingers together and silently looked at the woman in front of her, waiting for her to say something.
Mrs. Herondale then pulled out a briefcase from under her desk and slid it over to Tessa without a sound. Tessa bit her lip and opened it, staring at its contents.
The entire briefcase was filled with a hundred dollar notes. Tessa's eyes widened. The offensiveness and the vulgarity of this whole thing was making Tessa fidget in her seat. She wanted to scream at the woman in front of her, yelling at her until she understood. But that wouldn't help anything.
"Accept it and stay out of my children's lives," Mrs. Herondale said shortly. "There's a billion pounds in there, and that is enough for the rest of your life. If you want more, I'll give you more."
The woman still thought Tessa was still out for their money. Tessa slammed it shut and slid it back over to Mrs. Herondale.
"If that is all, then I am leaving," Tessa said, using the same short tone Mrs. Herondale said. Tessa stood, shouldering her cheap messenger bag.
"Why are you so stubborn?" Mrs. Herondale asked exasperatedly. "This is more than people have in a lifetime so can you please accept it and leave." Even though she said the word please, she still made it sound impolite. Tessa clenched her fists tightly, feeling her nails dig into her skin.
Tessa shot Mrs. Herondale a cold look. "I am not leaving. I am not a gold digger, no matter what you think. I am not friends with your children because of their money. Why can't you see that?" she asked. "You may think I'm the stubborn one, but it is you, Mrs. Herondale. You refuse to see it from any side except for yours."
"You cannot speak to me like that," Mrs. Herondale said bitingly.
Tessa raised an eyebrow. "Respect is earned, not simply given. You have done nothing to earn it. And I am only speaking the truth." It was taking all of Tessa's self-control to not reach out and slap the woman and even then, her words were cold and short. But Linette Herondale already has been slapped several times. Yet she did not understand why.
"Then why are you there?" Mrs. Herondale challenged. "Don't play with me, Theresa Gray. You are nothing but a pest in their lives and I cannot stand your filthiness. You are a stain that needs to be removed. Just take it!" Mrs. Herondale shoved the briefcase filled with money back to Tessa.
Tessa glared at the woman and opened it once again and grabbed the neatly packed hundred dollar notes. Then she threw the money in the air. She overturned the briefcase as the hundred dollar notes flew around the two angry woman.
"I am there because they want me there. Because they need me there," Tessa said. She took a menacing step closer to Mrs. Herondale. "Have you ever seen them smile in your presence?"
Mrs. Herondale did not reply.
"Have you ever made them laugh? Have you even heard them laugh?"
Once again, she made no response.
"Have you even let them make their own mistakes or let them choose what they want?"
No response.
"You haven't," Tessa said coldly. "That is all."
Tessa stalked out of her office, cursing her own stupidity for believing that maybe Mrs. Herondale wanted to reconcile with her children and that they could apologize to each other.
But like Edmund Herondale had said, she was a stubborn woman and the word 'sorry' is not in her dictionary.
…
Will didn't know why he was 'summoned' to his mother. Perhaps… everything was going to be alright again. He could have a real mother and Cecily could move back in, along with Will.
But Will didn't dare let his hopes fly high, just so that they could be crushed in the end.
His mother was pacing back and forth in her office, angry and frustrated. Around the room, there were hundred dollar notes, lying on the floor, on the desk, even on some of the bookshelves.
"Ah hem," Will said. Linette stopped pacing, looking at her son with a wild look in her green eyes.
"Leave Theresa Gray," she demanded immediately.
Will's hopes plummeted. "Why should I?" he asked, eyes cold again, not unlike his mother's.
"Because if you don't, I will ruin her. I offered her all this money," Linette gestured. "I tried talking to her. But no more being nice."
"You were never nice!" Will said, slamming his hands onto her desk. Linette did not flinch.
"Leave her now," Linette said lowly.
This was what Will was afraid of. Will glared at his mother.
"I am not afraid to do it, William," Linette said, challenging Will's glare with her own. "I can make sure she never reaches her dream. She will never make it out of the Institute. She will be expelled. She will not make it into university and she will live on the streets like a beggar."
Will, in all his rage, overturned Linette's desk. Papers flew everywhere, joining the hundred dollar notes on the ground and Linette took a shocked step back. "You absolute…" Will went onto swear in every language he knew. Welsh, English, French, Spanish, even a little Mandarin.
"I cannot believe you!" Will roared. "You do not deserve the title of a mother. You do not know what's best for me and you poison people around you. Cecily and I have left. The next person will be Dad, and you know it."
"Leave her!" Linette shrieked. "I will leave her alone of you just leave her."
"You bribed my girlfriend to leave me!" Will shouted, matching Linette's loud tones. "You're a horrible person and an even worse mother! Do you have to rip everything good out of my life? Is that what you want?! For me to suffer until I die? Well, you can just take your bloody money and go die, because I hate you!"
This was the first time Will had ever uttered those three words. When he was very young, he was always his mother's boy. Will was usually on his mother's side. They rarely bickered and argued. But Will was too angry.
Linette staggered back slightly, but she did not take back her words. "Leave her," she said once again. "You know how easy it is for me to wreck her life. One word from me and she'll never enter university again. What was her dream job? Being some kind of writer? No publishing company will accept her. She'll be mocked in our world and I promise you. She will hate you for what you've done. Cut it off with her. A clean break. Tie up the loose ends. You're just going to ruin her further if you continue this wretched path with her."
Will did not doubt Linette's promise. But he doubted her sanity. Biting his lip and shutting his eyes tightly, he tried to escape the world he was in. But when he opened his eyes, he knew that he would have to face it once again.
"Alright. I'll do it," Will said.
DUN. DUN. DUN. DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN.
Double U. Tee. Eff. JUST HAPPENED!?
Anybody else feeling the hate for our villain here? Poor, insecure mothers. SIGH.