Chapter 45: End Badly Either Way
"Perhaps you should attend," Horace excitedly continued, not realizing how rapidly Amelia’s face had turned pale. "I think I have an invitation here somewhere..."
He dug through the pockets of his coat, and soon enough, he pulled out a small, vanilla-scented envelope, identical to the one Matteo and Ronan had showed her just last night.
"O-Oh no..." Amelia said, laughing awkwardly as she shook her head. "I really shouldn’t."
What was she going to do when she showed up anyway? It didn’t seem like Horace knew that she was the same Amelia that his granddaughter’s fiancé supposedly was having a romantic affair with, and Amelia wasn’t sure if she should even bring up the matter. Perhaps he hadn’t seen the news yet, since the rumors of her affair were only circulating in the celebrity tabloids.
Forget accompanying this man to the occasional brunch― if Horace Hawthorne found out that Amelia was obstructing the path to his beloved granddaughter’s lifelong happiness, she would be skinned and fed to the dogs by sunrise.
"You seem to be my granddaughter’s age," Horace commented, still smiling. "If you met her, I think you two might become great friends."
Amelia highly doubted that. That would be the equivalent of Amelia becoming great friends with Kelsie Friesent, and the last time they met, if it weren’t for Matteo, Kelsie would’ve torn her to shreds.
"I..." Amelia stuttered. Then, her face lit up as she thought of a good argument. "It would be odd for me to attend!" She all but yelled, grateful that they were in a private dining space rather than an open diner. "I am not family, nor a friend of the bride or groom. This would just be strange."
"Nonsense," Horace said, waving the matter off. "You can attend as my god-daughter. Emmeline will not care for the guest list― there are too many people invited for her to keep count of who’s coming and who isn’t."