Becoming My Ex’s Mother in Law by Aurora Starling

Chapter 40

Bob hoped that Lisa couldn’t hear his erratic heartbeat. He stroked her hair and tried to soothe her, but his mind raced. He had to put a stop to Crystal’s sudden good fortune, somehow.

“You can’t let her get away with this,” he told Lisa firmly. “You have to regain control of the situation.”

Lisa sniffled.

“How? She has my father so enchanted that I doubt he will ever come to his senses again.”

He put his hands on her shoulders and held her out at arm’s length, looking her directly in the eye.

“You are the Alpha King’s daughter. You can do anything, and he would do anything for you. All you need to do is decide what you want and go for it.”

“But I don’t know how, Bob. I feel like I’m lost, adrift in a sea of confusion.”

“You need to stick to your guns and do what you said you would do if Crystal broke her promise. Persuade Andrew to find another wedding planner and smear Ever After Weddings for sleeping with their clients.”

“But Father already said that he wouldn’t change wedding planners.”

“You must insist. You must not back down. Show him that you are his daughter in more than blood, that you can be just as stubborn and just as insistent as he can.”

Lisa’s jaw was set in determination, and she held her head high.

“You’re right. This is my wedding, and I don’t want that sk ank to have anything to do with it.”

“That’s my girl.”

And I will expose Ever After Weddings for the wh ores that they are!” That’s right”

brought Lisa close to him and k*ssed her passionately on the l*ps. After a

Chapter 10

minute, Lisa pulled away and took out her phone.

“I’ll get started on that right now,” she declared.

Bob could feel relief coursing through his veins as Lisa typed away. He had nothing to worry about with someone as powerful as her spearheading the smear campaign against Crystal.

Then he saw Lisa’s face crumple.

“What? What is it, my love?” he asked quickly.

“I went onto one of my social media apps, and…you just need to look.”

She handed him the phone.

Square in the middle of the screen was a pink ad with flashing white letters. It read:

EVER AFTER WEDDINGS: THE WEDDING PLANNER OF PRINCESSES

Bob took a deep breath. It was only one ad. Odds were that not many people had seen it, so the damage could be minimal.

He scrolled through Lisa’s feed to see if there were any others. Just a few posts down, he saw a similar ad, this time reading:

EVER AFTER WEDDINGS: MAKING PRINCESSES’ DREAMS COME TRUE

He scrolled for several minutes. Every other ad seemed to be for Ever After Weddings and contained the same message, that Ever After Weddings was the go-to wedding planner for princesses. He checked Lisa’s other social media. apps and her mobile browser, to the same results.

The vein in Bob’s temple throbbed. Even though the ads did not use her image, everyone would know which princess they referred to. There was no way to back out of using Ever After Weddings as their wedding planner now, h or could they trash the company’s reputation while they were associated with it either route would be social suicide.

Crystal had to be behind this. She had to have anticipated what he and Lisa would do and flooded the Internet with these ads before they could, just so

y couldn’t

Chapter 40

Bob growled in frustration. When he saw Lisa looking at him with her wide, innocent eyes, he forced his expression to melt and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“Don’t worry, Lisa. We won’t let her get away with this. Any of this.”

Amazingly, I had not forgotten about Ever After Weddings’ mid-year discount event in the whirlwind of excitement and confusion that my life had become over the past few days. Displays were prepared, sample binders were set out, and every member of our team was in bright and early, me included. Even Terri seemed oddly perky, considering the partying she must have done the night before.

I hoped that my online ads would have a good effect on our sales-and, more importantly, keep Lisa and Bob from enacting any potential revenge plan against the company. It had been a last-minute plan that I slapped together late the night before, so the ads were relatively crude, but they should suffice.

As soon as we turned our sign to “Open” and unlocked our doors, we were swamped with potential clients. Terri and I even worked through our lunch breaks so that we could still handle the flow of customers while letting the rest of the employees eat.

By the time we closed, we had made a small fortune in deposits alone. I couldn’t wait to tell Andrew, but first, I had to call and update Lily.

“Hello? Crystal?” Lily answered the video chat.

“Hi, Lily!”

“Well, someone sure seems excited. Should I take to mean that things went well today?”

Amazing. We booked fifteen weddings.”

Lily’s eyes widened.

Oh my Goddess. That’s incredible! How did you manage to pull that off?”

The sale was a real boost. I also put out some extra online ads last night

w those That was a great idea. I can’t believe I didn’t think to

Chapter 40

with that angle before.”

I brushed the matter off with a wave of my hand, mostly because I didn’t want to tell her the real reason why I created the ads.

“Terri and the others were great, too. I couldn’t ask for better coworkers.”

“I’m glad that you think that. Do you think that you could continue working with them from a more….supervisory position on a more permanent basis?”

I tilted my head.

“What do you mean?”

“Crystal, you’ve done such a wonderful job handling Ever After Weddings while I’ve been. Between Lisa’s wedding and the fire, you’ve handled everything phenomenally, even things that have been exceptionally hard for you. I want you to become my Head Wedding Planner permanently.”

I gasped.

“Lily, I can’t. That position should go to someone who has been here longer, someone like Terri or Samantha…”

“No, Crystal. I want you to have the position. It comes with a significant raise.”

I chewed on my bottom l*p. I could certainly use a raise.

“So, are you going to take it?” Lily asked.

I nodded.

“All right, I will. I’ll take it.”

“Fantastic!”

“Thank you so much, Lily. I promise to make you proud.”

I know you will.”

Well, better let you get back to the hubby. I’ll shoot you an e-mail with today’s numbers later tonight.”

good. Take care

You, too.”

Once we hung up, I couldn’t resist doing a little dance in my seat. With all this exciting news building up, I couldn’t wait until I got back to his mansion to tell Andrew about it. I had to call him.

My heart raced as the phone rang.

“Hello?” Andrew answered.

“Hi, Andrew, it’s Crystal,” I replied. “Am I interrupting anything?”

“No, of course not. Is something wrong?”

“No, no. The opposite, actually. Something amazing has happened.”

“Oh?”

“Well, Ever After Weddings’ mid-year discount event went really well. We booked fifteen weddings.”

“Wow. In one day?”

“Yeah, and at least five of them have been deluxe packages.”

“That’s impressive. You know, I saw your ads online this morning.”

I froze. I hadn’t thought about how Andrew might react if he saw the ads.

“I thought that was a very clever angle for you to take,” he continued. “And I also appreciate how you didn’t directly reference Lisa or me in the ads in doing so. It shows that you respect our privacy, even while taking advantage of what you have available to your company.”

I let out a small breath of relief.

I’m glad that you liked it. I’m going to fine-tune the ads, keeping them anonymous still but making the graphics smoother and more attractive.

That sounds like a great idea.”

Familed slightly. I was glad to have him to bounce ideas off of

almost forgot to tell you the best news. Lily promoted me to Head

net permanently.”..

“She did?” Andrew sounded surprised but pleased.

“Yeah. She said that the position comes with a significant raise, so I might not need to stay with you too long, after all.”

There was a pause. I started to wonder if we had gotten disconnected.

“That sounds wonderful,” he finally said. “You should be back on your feet in no time.”

“I know, and I have you and Lily to thank for that.”

“I’m really happy for you.” After another pause, Andrew added, “Well, Crystal, I should get back to work now.”

“Of course, of course. I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time.”

“Any time for you.”

“I’ll see you at home-your home, that is.”

“Yes, see you at home.”

When we hung up, I smiled to myself. I could not believe how well this day had turned everything around. It was a small victory, but one that Bob would

not soon forget.