Becoming My Ex’s Mother in Law by Aurora Starling

Chapter 46

After retrieving Bob and Lisa’s binder from Ever After Weddings, I returned to Andrew’s mansion and prepared for dinner. I knew I had to dress to impress for this meeting.

I put on a red halter top dress that reached my ankles, large gold hoop earrings, and red six-inch heels. I wore my golden hair in loose curls. My makeup remained natural, except for red l*pstick and a touch of mascara to make my blue eyes pop.

Professional and elegant, but not seductive. I hoped.

With my ensemble complete, I grabbed the binder and went to the dining room. The guards at the door greeted me with a nod before opening the door for me.

A scrumptious mixture of smells swarmed me as I stepped over the threshold. My mouth watered as I took in the feast laid out before me: pork chops, grilled salmon, roast beef and gravy, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, and Caesar salad. I could even smell blueberry pie baking in the

oven.

rrots and

“Crystal! So good of you to join us,” Bob called from the head of the table.

For some reason, it irked me to see him in what should have been Andrew’s place. However, I kept my thoughts to myself and forced a smile on my face.

“Thank you for inviting me,” I said, directing my comment to Lisa, who sat at Bob’s right.

“We’re just happy that you could make it,” Lisa said. “You look stunning”

“Yes, absolutely ravishing,” Bob added.

Lisa flashed Bob a look. I supposed that he had crossed some sort of unspoken line, but he pretended to not notice.

Please, come sit next to me, and we can get started Bob continued, gesturing to his left..

My skin crawled at the thought of having to sit next to him, but I realized that I had no choice, not if I wanted whatever bizarre truce was going on here to

Chapter 46

continue.

“I hope you don’t mind, but Lisa and I already put together a plate for you to start with.”

I lifted a brow at them as I ran my fork through my mashed potatoes, searching for shards of glass.

“That was….nice of you,” I said. I moved my inspection to the vegetables.

“I made sure that the chef made some of your favorites,” Bob said. “You still like all of this, right?”

“Yeah, roast beef is my absolute favorite,” I said as I lifted up each piece of beef to search underneath it.

“Mine, too!” Lisa said with a big smile.

I couldn’t find anything in the food, but something still felt off. Lisa and Bob were being far more cordial than they should be, given how our previous interactions had gone. Bob, I could understand pretending to be nice to me to hold up appearances, but Lisa didn’t need to pretend to be anything.

“What’s going on?” I finally asked.

“What do you mean?” Lisa asked, her gaze darting to Bob and back to me.

“You two are being far too nice to me. Last I knew, Lisa, you could barely even stand being in a room with me because you thought that I was seducing your father.”

Lisa’s eye twitched, but it stopped so quickly that I must have imagined it.

“I know that we’ve had our differences,” Lisa said, “but I think that when it comes to planning this wedding, we need to be as nice to each other as possible. It’s the only way we can get through this without killing each other.”

I nodded.

“All right. I guess we should get down to business, then.”

Throughout the dinner, Susan kept bugging me to not let my guard down, but I could not find anything untoward to look out for. Bob and Lisa behaved

fectly-perhaps too perfectly-and the food was the most delicious that I

10:50 Tue 2 Jan.

Chapter 16

had tasted in a long time. Despite my hatred for Bob and anger at Lisa, I let myself focus on the work.

Halfway through eating, though. I started to feel nauseated and foggy. I had a hard time moving my muscles, and I felt disoriented. I hadn’t had more than at glass of wine, but I felt incredibly drunk.

I couldn’t remember much of what happened next, but I did remember Lisa and Bob taking me to my bedroom. After they laid me on my bed, I blacked

out.

I woke up to find a letter opener stuck in the pillow less than an inch from my face.

Panicked, I screamed and tried to scramble off the bed, but I was too

nauseated, and my head pounded too fiercely for me to even move. One of the maids immediately opened my door.

“Ms. Blanchard, are you-what is that?” the middle-aged woman exclaimed.

“I…I don’t know,” I said. “L…I woke up, and it was…it was in front of my face…

“It’s okay, Ms. Blanchard, it’s okay. I’m going to go get His Highness, and he’ll take care of this. All right?”

I nodded, and the maid ran off to find Andrew.

While I waited for the maid to return, I noticed that something was stuck in between the blade and the pillow. Morbid curiosity got the better of me, and I gingerly approached what appeared to be a note. Without removing the letter opener from the pillow, I forced my blurring vision to focus enough to read the message, written in bold red lettering:

Leave the Alpha King’s mansion or else.

My heart raced. My hands trembled. I backed slowly to the edge of the bed, my eyes never leaving the note.

Before I could control myself, I turned over and threw up on the floor.

Crystal!” Andrew exclaimed, startling me. “Crystal, are you all right?

Chapter 46

I shook my head and pointed at the letter opener.

Andrew’s face darkened. He charged to the bed and ripped the letter opener and note off the pillow. A growl emanated from him as he read the note.

L

“This has gone on long enough,” he said. “I will not tolerate this in my own house.”

He turned to me, and the dark look on his face disappeared. However, his shoulders remained tense, and his jaw and n*eck clenched.

“Crystal, do you know how this might have happened?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I wasn’t feeling good last night during dinner-”

“Not good how?”

“My stomach hurt, I was disoriented, and I was foggy. Then I blacked out.”

Andrew’s expression suddenly grew concerned.

“Anything else?”

“I don’t know. I felt drunk even though I wasn’t. I don’t remember it very well.”

Andrew set the letter opener and note on the bedside table. He then approached me slowly and grabbed my hands.

“Crystal, I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’m just going to be direct about it. Based on the symptoms that you’ve listed, it sounds like you were drugged.”

My eyes widened, and my grip on Andrew’s hands tightened as much as my trembling muscles could allow.

“What? But how could that have happened?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. I’m going to thoroughly interview. every one of my staff and guard, and I will find out who did this.”

My mind still whirled from the revelation that I had been drugged. Then, slowly, I put together who had done this.

One person had invited me to dinner.

Two people had been at the dinner with me.

Two people had claimed to put my plate together for me.

Lisa and Bob.

They had drugged me. They had left that note and the letter opener on my pillow.

But would Andrew believe me?

I looked into Andrew’s eyes and said, “I hope you do.”

If he didn’t, then I would just have to move out