At the beginning of July, Rebecca finally hires a nanny and moves her into the house, appointments at the salon and a carefully curated wardrobe to hide the last of the evidence Addy left on her body, means she can don the persona she will need and allow her to start going into the club and making her presence known.
She doesn't warn anyone, simply turns up and strides through the building to the owners office and lets herself in.
When the Executive Assistant wandered in just before 9 to see the open door, the poor woman almost screamed when she saw Rebecca sitting at the desk.
"Ahh, Elsie. Come in and close the door behind you." she beckons the young woman in.
She suspected Rupert had slept with her, at the very least, she's damn sure he tried.
"I'm going to ask you a question, your future at AFC Richmond is not reliant on the answer, so please don't be afraid to tell me the truth. Did you have sex with my former husband?"
Rebecca can tell the moment the question is out of her mouth what the answer is and doesn't actually need the girl to squeak out a "Yes".
"Right" she takes a calming breath "Did he offer to take you with him? Get you a job in one of his other businesses."
"No Mrs Mannion."
"Ms Welton" she automatically corrects.
"No Ms Welton."
"Did he ask you to keep in touch with him or offer to keep in touch with you in any way shape or form?"
Oh there was a tell, a slight widening of the eyes and a tongue darting out to wet her lips. Thank you Emily Prentiss for behavioural science for idiots.
"That's a yes then" Rebecca doesn't give Elsie a chance to lie to her. "Which worries me, you see there is one person in this world I despise above all else and that's Rupert Mannion. Now, after this moment, in a broad sense I couldn't give a shit about who you sleep with or socialise with but let me be clear. If Rupert contacts you in any way, even if it's just to say hello or would you like to have a fuck and you don't tell me immediately and in great detail you will be out of here faster than one of Cartricks balls dropping out of his shorts." she pauses and lets the girl take in her threat "Should you, however, prove to be loyal to me and me alone, I can assure you that that loyalty will be rewarded." she pauses again "do we have an understanding?" Rebecca is impressed as Elsie rallies and raises her head to look her directly in the eye with a nod
"We do, there's a few things you need to know then."
The next 2 hours are perhaps the most enlightening Rebecca has had about the inner workings of the club. Elsie is a font of useful knowledge and more than willing to share everything she knows with Rebecca taking copious notes.
A few things are highlighted, nothing specific but comments that give her pause and she notes for an in depth investigation and possibly passing off to Emily's team.
Just before lunch Rebecca stands and puts her jacket on.
"I'm heading off for the day. I need you to schedule meetings with all the department heads for me over the next few days, one each morning at 9am. Tell them to put aside a minimum of two hours for me, I'll be expecting a full and comprehensive debrief from them."
Picking up her bag she heads towards the door "Oh and leave Cartrick for last…"
On her walk out, she doesn't acknowledge a single person. She keeps her head held high and her eyes forward and she can feel every single person's judgemental gaze on her.
Sliding into the back of the jaguar, she manages to hold herself together for all of 30 seconds before her hands start shaking and her breath starts coming out in rapid puffs.
It takes the full 15 minute drive to calm herself most of the way down. The rest happens when she is back in her house with Addy safe in her arms. She did not enjoy being away from her daughter.
Over the rest of the week she meets with the CFO, Head of HR, Facility Manager and finally George Cartrick. She doesn't allow any of them any informality or personal connection. It's easier to fire someone if she doesn't like them. It was also vastly apparent that Rupert had encouraged divisiveness amongst the different departments, the heads were all wary of each other and seemed to compete for her attention. It worked in her favour for now.
One thing she had worked out very quickly is that all of them were overpaid and this was a recent development… as in Rupert had given them all significant raises in the weeks leading up to his departure.
Raises the club couldn't afford, which meant she needed to cut costs elsewhere or prop the club up with her own money which she was loath to do at this point. She wanted to save that cash as a safety net for after they were relegated.
Wanting to build on the image of an ice queen she put the onus on the department heads and was brutally honest.
"Before he left, the previous owner gave you a raise that was out of cycle and looking at the performance reports undeserved." She stared down the current CFO "The money from that raise needs to come from somewhere, therefore I think it would be best if you found the money in your department's budget." she cocked an eyebrow in challenge "I'm also wondering what he wanted in return for that significant raise?"
Word was getting around that she wasn't one to be challenged.
"You're giving everyone fucking fits you know?" Roy had made his way up to her office the day all the players returned to training before the season started. "They're fucking terrified of you, it's fucking brilliant!"
Rebecca didn't know how, but Roy Kent had become one of her closest friends and biggest supporters.
"Thank you!" she beamed.
At her desk in Interpol's London Gateway office, Emily Prentiss was working her way through options for Rebecca to bring in to replace George Cartrick.
They were running short on time and ideas, the first match of the season was the following week and while Rebecca had found a number of things for them to investigate when it came to managing the club they were nowhere near where they needed to be to start putting real pressure on Mannion.
With four weeks left before she needed to return to the States Emily was starting to feel as though she would be abandoning Rebecca and the investigation if she went back… at the same time the thought of leaving the BAU, perhaps permanently left her feeling sick to her stomach. She couldn't keep going back and forth like this.
It wasn't just that, she'd been forced to don the Lauren Reynolds persona a number of times, making appearances at some of Doyles old haunts in an attempt to see what, if any, intel she could get.
There were rumblings of certain supply lines being cut off and operations looking for places to clean their cash but nothing specific.
The timing was suspicious enough for them to start digging deeper.
The week before Richmond's first match of the season, Rebecca took a long weekend and headed down to Majorca with Addy for a couple of days of doing nothing on her yacht.
She's not impressed with the helicopter that flies overhead taking photos when she's sunbathing naked.
Fortunately, Addy had been below decks napping when it happened and she gets the photo's killed quickly.
Emily attends the first home match as Rebecca's guest, carefully watching those around for any suspicious activity or people noting who her team will need to keep a closer eye on.
She's concerned that Mannion hasn't made any moves against Rebecca yet. Possibly still smarting from losing 50% of his net worth in the divorce, with Rebecca keeping her head down and not yet having made any major changes in the club he's most likely just biding his time.
Once she starts making staffing and sponsorship changes he'll have no choice but to react.
It's after that first lost match Rebecca finally speaks to Leslie Higgins. The man had been fluttering around the club nervously since the day she walked in and Rebecca had made a conscious choice not to engage directly with him, using Elsie as a go between.
For some reason Leslie's betrayal had hurt more than the others, the man having consistently for over a decade allowed Rupert to use him to distract Rebecca.
She had thought they were friends. Higgins, who had been married and faithful to the same woman for over 25 years, who exudes kindness… it doesn't make sense that a man like that would not just condone Rupert's behaviour but help him hide his affairs. Either Rupert had something on him or he wasn't the man Rebecca thought he was.
Not that she would admit it to anyone but a small part of her was looking forward to the next few months of tormenting Higgins.
It perks her up immensely when she gets the idea to change his contact name in her phone to 'Shithead'.
The same day, Rupert becomes 'The Devil', Cartrick 'Twatface', Emily 'Guardian Angel' and Clyde 'Lauren's Bitch'.
A few days later she also changes Roy to 'Gruncle'.
Just before Emily flys back to the US in early September, she brings a file to Rebecca.
It's of a college football coach that has gone viral and taken a previously bottom tier gridiron team and built them up into champions over the course of two years.
If Rebecca brings him in halfway through the season, they'll tank, get relegated and she'll also have the perfect person there to help her rebuild the team while she rebuilds the club.
"He has a good career, a wife and a young son." Rebecca looks over her glasses at Emily after reading through the profile. "What makes you think he'd be willing to come all the way to London and coach a sport he knows nothing about and possibly ruin any career prospects he has in America."
"His marriage is on the rocks, the wife isn't happy and has been pushing for a separation." Emily shrugs at Rebecca's astonished look "we're very good at finding things out. He's also the type that if you tell him the mission up front, he'll help."
Rebecca doesn't look convinced.
"Look, let me make the initial approach and offer. I won't tell him everything, just that you're looking for a change in direction of team management and are not worried about having to tear down to rebuild and you think his particular style of team management could work at Richmond."
Rebecca had a feeling there was something Emily wasn't telling her about this but that's how Ted Lasso and Willas Beard came to work at AFC Richmond the following January.
Firing George Cartrick was really fucking cathartic. The man had been tormenting her in his own misogynistic and sexist way for years so when she closed their conversation with "Do fuck off you fat twat" she felt amazing.
For the rest of the employee's it was more proof that she would do whatever the fuck she wanted and wasn't beholden to Rupert's way of doing things.
When she'd first taken over the club 6 months before the staff had been unsettled and had only just stopped looking over their shoulders every time she walked past. When she'd fired Cartrick, full blown panic had rumbled through the club.
After months of watching the staff and players, she had a list of who would be staying and who she would use relegation to get rid of. There are others that she is waiting for the team at Interpol to finish looking into before she makes a decision.
Less than a day after George storms off the premises, cursing her and making sure everyone knows his thoughts on women in general and Rebecca in particular, she's working in her office when their IT lead knocks on the door.
"Ms Welton, do you have a minute?"
"Stuart, come in." She smiles tightly. Stuart was one of the people she was on the fence about.
"I've been thinking about our IT infrastructure here and have a couple of proposals for you. As you know our network needs an upgrade and some of our software systems are painfully out of date." he hands over a 3 separate binders "I've outlined where the greatest need is as well as options for both full and partial updates. There's a full budget and timeline included for everything…"
There's something wrong, she can see it in the way his hands are shaking slightly, the sweat pooling on his top lip and the darting of his gaze around the room.
Glancing down at the top folder, there's a post-it note stuck to it and what is written on it causes her breath to catch in her throat.
Mr Mannion isn't afraid to threaten families to get what he wants
Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she forces a smile as she looks back up at the terrified man.
"Thank you Stuart, give me a couple of days to look this over… let's catch up after the Christmas break and I can ask any questions and we can go over this in detail."
Sliding the folders into her bag, she stands and grabs her coat.
"Actually, why don't you walk me to my car and you can give me a quick overview." she holds her arm out for him to precede her from the office, nodding to Elsie, as they walk past.
"Just when was the last time the IT infrastructure was upgraded Stuart?"
They manage to fill the walk out to the carpark with inane chatter about the state of Nelson Roads Wi-Fi.
Once they're standing by the jaguar with only her Emily approved driver does she let the mask slip.
"I'm going to have someone reach out to you. They'll say they're a friend of Lauren's. If they don't, don't trust them, yeah?"
Stuart nods "I've got 2 kids, Ms Welton… I can't risk them but to keep doing as he asks… that's too big of a risk for me. I can't lose my job."
The moment the car door is closed and the privacy screen is up she snaps a photo of the post-it and sends it to Clyde, whom she calls as soon as it's sent.
"Hello Darling, interesting message. Who's it from?" he drawls as a greeting.
"The club's IT guy slipped it to me amongst other reports today. He's terrified…"
"I would imagine so. I'll organise for someone to reach out to him and chase down that IP he's given us."
"I gave him the code you told me to. A friend of Lauren's is reaching out."
"Excellent, I also hear Catrick gave quite the leaving performance?" in his office in central London, Clyde typed up an email to Emily. He knew she and Rebecca spoke regularly but he still kept her up to date on any new developments.
Rebecca never did find out what Stuart had given them.
In a police station in Philadelphia, Emily pulled up the email Clyde had just sent her and breathed a sigh of relief at the contents.
She always tensed up a bit when Clyde reached out. The investigation was stuck in hurry up and wait mode and there was nothing anyone could do to speed things up at this stage.
The only thing she'd be able to do if she was currently in London was work on other cases while waiting because even if this turned out to be something chances are it would be up to the analysts to do their thing and that could take weeks.
"Yo Prentiss!" She turned to see Morgan standing at the door. He frowned at the distracted look on her face and stepped inside the meeting room and closed the door. "You ok?"
"Uh… yeah" she closed the email and shoved her phone in her pocket. "What's up?"
"Right now, my concern for you…" he crossed his arms as her spine straightened in irritation at his comment.
"Since you came back from wherever you were, and I'm still not happy about being kept in the dark, it's like you're only half here. Mysterious phone calls and emails at all hours that you won't talk about, you're not sleeping even when we get down time so I'm assuming you're working this case when you aren't working ours. I also know that Interpol has their own profilers, which means you're taking this case personally, and we both know that never ends well. So talk to me… even if you can't tell me specifics… this case is eating at you and we can all see it."
Blowing her breath out between her lips Emily leaned back against the table and stared at him, her irritation ratcheting up another couple of notches.
"Derek, you're my friend and I have an enormous amount of professional respect for you so if I need your help I'll ask for it but… if you ever profile me again, you'll wish you didn't!"
She pushes past him and out into the bullpen, leaving him shaking his head in frustration.
"How did the bull in a china shop method go?" Rossi sticks his head in. He'd seen the whole conversation and could guess at the contents and results.
"Not well"
"That's you, JJ, Reid and Garcia… I guess that makes it my turn." Rossi cringed, Emily was getting crankier by the intervention attempt.
Christmas passed quietly for Rebecca. Her first after leaving Rupert had been painfully lonely, hidden away in the flat in Hammersmith soaking herself in the anger she had at Rupert, plotting further ways that she could make his life miserable until Emily had arrived to talk her down off the ledge.
This one was better, she had given Adrianna the day off and spent it quietly with Addy curled up in front of the fire as the 7 month old worked on her crawling.
It was the happiest and most peaceful Christmas she'd had in over a decade.
While she didn't let it show, when the 5th of January rolled around she was a ball of nerves. This Gaffer that Emily had found was a complete wild card.
Although it did give her a fabulous opportunity to torment Leslie, which these days she never said no to. Punishing her so called friend was an immense joy.
She had a moment of… regret is the wrong word, when Ted was sitting in front of the press straight off the plane and with no warning… Perhaps remorse is closer, but it's necessary.
Clyde had been firm that once they decided on a path she could not publicly waver. She needed to start pushing the narrative they decided on.
"And in all those years under the stewardship of the previous owner, I've witnessed nothing but profound mediocrity." she throws her first public sally to the packed out pressroom.
It was all part of the script designed to enrage Rupert, between slowly losing his spies in the organisation and Rebecca's scathing public comments he would need to find a way to respond.
Higgins was the next step, her admittance to hoping Ted fails and her plans to burn the club to the ground putting him in a profoundly uncomfortable position.
The biggest threat to her plans was actually Roy. He knew something was going on but after lengthy and varied discussions it had been decided to leave him in the dark. He knew her too well now, the real Rebecca that she had built a fortress around to keep safe. He'd seen her scared and vulnerable, they had played Princess and Dragon with Phoebe, in those early weeks after Addy was born he was a regular visitor coming over to sit with the baby while Rebecca showered and napped.
He knows the Rebecca that exists out of the public eye.
Still, she knows he won't do or say anything without speaking to her first.
What she didn't expect was Ted's kindness and desire to be friends. He wanted to get to know her and she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that. She wasn't good at friends or personal connections… maybe in the past but not anymore. Although, she supposes Roy and Beth might disagree.
She'll never be able to explain just how much that little green army man meant to her.
Then she had to get involved in that ridiculous lion versus panda debate, which apparently intrigues Keeley Jones enough for the younger woman to wander into her office uninvited with a gift a few days later.
"It reminded me of you, strong and prickly"
The night of the benefit comes around and her nerves are getting the best of her as she approaches the red carpet and the photography pool. It's been over a year since she last attended a formal event and Rebecca has never been comfortable posing for photographs.
It seemed as though she could never get it right, the hair was wrong or the dress was wrong… or she was wrong.
Seeing Keeley standing there strong and confident is both a blessing and a curse. She feels awkward and stiff, clutching her bag in front of her as a form of armour that's not at all protective.
Rebecca wishes she had that, she'll never know what thread was pulled to cause her to turn slightly and look at the younger woman just in time to be winked at gives her just enough courage to whisper.
"I hate this part"
She wishes she'd had a Keeley all those years ago when she first started attending these events, because the whispered advice is better than anything else anyone had ever told her.
Relax, be yourself, smile, were all forgotten.
"Hey, just put one foot in front of the other, yeah? And then put your hand on your hip and make, like, a claw shape. It's the most flattering."
Just as she is relaxing into the pose, the voice of the irrepressible Keeley Jones carries over the din of the photographers.
"Aw, look at her. She's fucking fit!"
The laugh that bubbles out is completely out of Rebecca's control, the genuine smile and blown kiss gives her the confidence to do a little spin and start to believe tonight might just be ok.
Ted's attempt at encouragement and advice to open her speech by making fun of herself, helps calm her nerves at speaking in public. There's always the possibility that she actually is good at public speaking, but Rupert managed to convince her that she wasn't to boost his own ego.
It's not a possibility she wants to dwell on too deeply so she chooses to focus on Ted instead.
"Ok, so what should I make fun of myself about?"
She can see the moment Ted's brain misfires as he attempts to answer without directly insulting her and the amusement that shoots through her is worth it.
"You're not gonna walk into that one, are you, Ted?" she holds back the full smile that wants to break over her face.
"No, ma'am. Nope, nope, nope. Okay. Good luck though." He turns to walk away before coming back again "Oh, oh, oh. You know what? I thought of something. No, no, no." he walks away and doesn't come back.
Taking a deep breath, Rebecca feels much of the tension leaving her body. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad afterall.
It all amounts to nothing and her hard won confidence is shattered as she is giving her opening remarks, his voice echoes across the hall and just like that she flashes back to the last time she came face to face with him.
Lying on the floor of their bedroom as he looms over her.
"Rupert?" she resists the urge to run… off the stage and out of the building… anywhere but in the same place as him.
She doesn't see fury wash across Roy's face, the worry on some of the other boys' faces or the confusion flashing across Keeley and Ted at the array of reactions throughout the room.
She manages to make it through, pulling on reserves that she didn't know existed to get off stage with a smile and the hope of everyone believing she wasn't bothered.
"Rupert Mannion everyone!"
This was the move they had been waiting for, and she wasn't ready.
END CHAPTER 4