Chapter Twenty: In Which She Becomes The Other Woman

The street was filling up with new vans and journalist wanting to sink there teeth into the story of the rich and beautiful girl locked up behind bars. Probably trying to figure out a way to spin the story so that it had sex, drugs and misbehaving billionaires in it. Glory gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter in annoyance at the sight of the police station being overrun with the hungry vultures, "Bottom feeders..." She grumbled, honking the horn as a van cut her off as she turned into the parking lot.

Arden glanced in her direction with, lips twitching upward in amusement, "Last time I checked you were a journalist Miss Novacek."

She let out a huff, "I'm a blogger." Glory corrected him, glancing in his direction to admire his face for a moment before looking away--searching for a parking spot, "Of course I guess you can add, chouffer and match maker extrodinaire to my title now."

He chuckled, "You're getting a little ahead of yourself wouldn't you say? You would have to actually make me a match to earn such an esteemed title." Glory pulled into an empty parking spot, hitting her brakes abruptly, causing Arden to jolt forward almost hitting his head on the dashboard. He turned towards her with a glowering look, to find her looking at him with a sheepish grin.

"Oops. My foot slipped." She muttered as she pulled her keys from the ignition.

She was the first one out of the car and into the chaos, Arden following close behind. It didn't take long for the press to notice them, camera lights flashing in their direction as they made there way through the ocean to the front door of the precinct.

"Mr. Fox!"

Flash.

"Mr. Fox! Look this way, Mr. Fox."

Flash.

"Mr. Fox, is it true that your sister was arrested for assault her long time sweetheart, Scott Summers?"

Flash. Flash.

Glory recognized the name turning her face in the direction of the young looking female reporter. The summers were a family that had circulated in her parents circle of "friends". Mr. Summers had moved up in the years from District attorney to Senator. He was riding the high of his political influence, but from what I had heard behind closed doors when I was a young girl was he was the chauvinistic ass and his wife was a Stepford twat. Those were my mothers names for them, and coming from her that meant a lot.

Flash. Flash.

Glory turned away from the lights, feeling slightly agitated by all the commotion. She could only imagine that this is what Arden must feel like most days, how he got through it all without losing his cool was a miracle since he didn't seem to be able to spend more than five minutes with her without threatening her.

She glanced his direction to she that he was holding his familiar grimace as he ignored the hungry vultures circling around them, trying to pick for pieces of anything. A reporter pushed to the front of the group, shoving a recorder into Arden's face, as he reached for the door.

"There are allegations that your recent takeover of Fox Financial was because your brother and late president was siphoning funds from the pockets of investors into his personal accounts, is that true?" Arden froze up at the question, staring down the reporter with a dark look--jaw muscles clenched tightly. Glory recognized the look as a sign that he had reached his limit of tolerance and that if someone didn't step in he was going to go on a rampage.

She pushed her way to his side, knocking the recorder out of the way, "I'm sorry but this is a very stressful time for Mr. Fox. He is unable to answer your questions at this time." She grabbed Arden's arm with her other hand and pulled him through the door with her.

She marched them up to the front desk where a young officer sat. Glory slapped her hand down on the counter, snapping the officer to attention. He stared up at her with a slightly perturbed expression. He was cute, she thought to herself. He a baby face that would have appealed to her at one time but standing next to Arden Fox, all other males seemed to pale in comparison. It wasn't there fault, it was his--he had ruined everything for her.

"Hello, can I help you?" He asked after a moment of tense silence.

Straightening her back, "I would just like to say on behalf of Mr. Fox and the Fox family that I am appalled by how this department is handling the matter of his sisters arrest. Someone in your department most have leaked this information to the press. We had to fight through a sea of reporters just to park the damned car." The officer sat up a little straighter at her tone of voice, or maybe it was the mention of the Fox name.

"Mr. Fox, I apologize..." He started to speak but Glory flashed him the palm of her hand, silencing him.

"Mr. Fox doesn't need or care for your apologies. What he wants is to pick up his sister, get her home, and forget this whole incident even happened at all." He stared up at her with a slightly terrified look as if she was going to turn into a dragon and gobble him whole, "Since that isn't going to happen, maybe you can help up speed this along, and if you can't do that..." She read his name tag, before meeting his gaze again, "Officer Marshall than I need you to get me someone who can."

Officer Marshall stumbled over himself as he pushed up from his chair, "Hold on, I'll be right back." He looked terrified as he rushed away down the long hallway to their right. Glory released her hold on Arden when they were alone, relaxing against the counter as if she hadn't just chewed someone out.

Arden stared down at her like she had grown another head, "You are a dangerous woman, Miss Novacek."

She peered up at him from under her lashes, lips twitching with the urge to smile, "All women are dangerous, Mr. Fox. You know what they say, 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'. From what the looks of this situation I'd say Scott Summers learned that first hand." Arden gave her a dry look at her finishing comment, but she ignored it.

"Arty!" A female called out. Glory and Arden turned around quickly to find a young female with dark hair falling out of was once a nice braid. Her make up was smeared as if she had been crying hysterically. Overall Glory would have rated her a level six on the spectrum of Britney Spears mental breakdown level--so she was doing fairly well.

"Mona." Arden caught her as she leapt at him. Mona held onto her brother tightly as if she was afraid officer Marshall was going to drag her back to a cell, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I promise I'll never do anything like that again." Glory waited for her to finish the sentence with 'please don't let them take me away'.

Arden patted her back before peeling her off, staring down at her as she held her shoulders, "You have a lot of explaining to do when we get home. You are going to pay for any damages you caused from your own pocket and I expect you to work off your bail over the summer at the tower." She screwed up her face at his words as if they had put a bad taste into her mouth, "You also better hope that you don't have this written on your permanent record, your considered a legal adult. I'm very disappointed in you right now." He gave her a serious look, a fatherly look.

Mona's shoulders sagged, "I'm sorry, Arty."

"I'm sure you are." He released her and turned his face in Glory's direction, "Can you please take her out the back away from the reporters? I'll handle everything in here."

Glory pushed off the counter, "I think I can handle that. Come on, slugger." she teased just to see the look of annoyance that crossed Arden's face before he turned away. Mona came towards her with a curious look in her eyes.

They wandered down the long hallway, "So what's going on between you and my brother?" She asked as they rounded the corner for the exit door, sign shining bright.

Glory kept her face expressionless, "We are business partners."

Mona snorted, "And you just happened to be together on a saturday morning?" She was a smart girl, Glory could see the relation between her and Arden in this moment.

She pushed the door open, and peeked her head out, looking both ways before waving Mona through it, "I'm consulting him on his love life."

"I bet you are." She mumbled back.

"Maybe you'd like me to consult with you on yours... from the looks of things I'd say you could use it." Glory quipped back without hesitation, expression never changing.

Mona turned her gaze toward Gloriana, lips pulled together in a tight line that slowly turned up in one of the corners, "I like you. You're much better than Isobel. Maybe Arden isn't as stupid as I thought he was."

She returned the smirk, "Oh he's just as stupid as you thought he was." Glory unlocked the door to her car.

*******************

Arden looked more than a little angry when he got into the car, eyeing his sister through the rearview mirror. Glory waited a moment before she decided to the heavy silence between the two siblings wasn't going to work for her, "So where am I taking you?"

"Charlie's apartment"

"To my mother's house"

They both respond at the same time so that their voices overlapped but their answers don't. Arden twisted in the passenger seat with wide eyes, "Charles?" He seemed thrown off by his sisters request, "You are not going to Charles apartment. I forbid it!" His tone raised with his anger.

"It's probably his influence that got you here in the first place. No, you are going home to Mother's where she can keep a close eye on you." Arden supplied in a firm tone as if he were more of her father than her older brother. Glory peered into the rearview mirror to get a good look a Mona's reaction, because she could imagine how she would have responded to the same situation.

Mona had her arms crossed over her chest, lips pressed together like a child throwing a tantrum, "Mom won't listen to anything I say..." She whined in frustration toward her older brother.

Arden didn't seem to be in the mood to listen, "Well maybe if you tried acting like an adult and not a spoilt child she might be more inclined to hear you out." Mona's mouth dropped open in shock as if that was the first time anyone had ever spoken to her like that. Glory wasn't sure if she should commend Arden for his sharp tongue or come to Mona's rescue. She wasn't armed enough with his family dynamic to know how to be useful in this awkward situation.

"Spoilt?" Mona repeated the word, still in shock.

Arden turned away from his little sister with a tired sigh, "That's what I said Mona. Mom and Dad didn't do you any favors in the way they raised you and I haven't done you any by always coming through to clean up every mess you make. You're my kid sister and I love you with all my heart but this is the last time, understand?"

Mona snapped her mouth shut, "This is why Isobel left you for Charles! You try to control everything and everyone, just like mom!"

Glory flinched at the tone of Mona's voice, peering over to Arden after such a proclamation. She felt a little bad for him to have such personal insults thrown into his face. He kept his eyes focused on the police cruisers parked a couple rows away from them. HIs face was drawn together in an expression that gave away nothing than his usual cold demeanor.

"Please drive us to my mother's home." He commented in an even low tone, never looking in Gloriana's direction. When Glory kept staring in his direction he turned his face toward her with lifted brows, "Do you remember the way?

She had to shake herself back into reality at the question, realizing that she looked like a weirdo staring at him as she had been, "Yeah, I remember." She replied as she started up the engine.

The drive across town was a quiet one that had Glory wishing she'd called a cab for Arden this morning at her apartment instead of offering to drive him around like she owed him something for giving her the best sex of her short life. It was pathetic really, but here she was trapped in a old car after having a night of wild sex with Arden Fox, followed by spending the next morning bailing his sister out of jail. Lucy was never going to let her forget this once she told her how she had spent her weekend.

The Fox's family manor looked a lot different in the light of day, far less imposing than it had looked a couple nights earlier when she'd been thrown out of the get together with Arden. Glory parked the car in the driveway next to the black town car that reminded Glory of her younger years, she was certain she could probably remember the smell of the leather without even trying.

Glory glanced in Arden direction and lifted her brows as if to question 'Now what?' without even saying the words aloud. She was fairly confident that they had spent enough time in each other's company over the past couple of weeks for him to understand her non-verbal cues.

Mona was already jumping out of the backseat and marching across the front lawn with determined steps before Glory could blink. She could only see this as sign that the young teens wrath for being disregarded was soon to follow and if as on cue Mona disappeared into the house and Arden's mother stepped out. She was dressed in a nice white pant suit, one that Glory was certain her mother would have been jealous of. His mother lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the sun, "Arden?" She called out to him, as if she didn't already know it was him.

"Come inside for a moment, I have something I would like to discuss with you." Her tone of voice was more commanding than demanding. There was a heavy sigh from Arden as if the task completely exasperated the entire flow of his morning more than it had already been.

"You're welcome to bring miss Novacek with you. I would hate for her to get heat stroke in the car waiting for you." She added as she spun on her high class heels and headed inside. Glory gave Arden a narrowed look as she imagined all the awful things that his mother had planned for her the moment she stepped through the door.

Arden must have had the same feelings because he paled slightly and his muscles tensed up, "Whatever you do...don't speak. My mother won't find your tongue as amusing as I do." He said before he unbuckled and climbed out of the car.

"Whatever you say Mr. Fox." Glory mumbled under her breath as she watched him walk away with a dirty look on her face, giving him a little space before she decided to follow him. She pulled the keys from the ignition, swinging open the drivers door and slamming it shut behind her as she took long strides to catch up.

The familiar doorman greeted them as they entered the manor, his mother coming down the spiral staircase like the queen she believed herself to be. Her blue eyes were as cold as frost as they roamed over the two of them, "Let's speak in the quiet of my office." She motioned with her hand for them to follow her down a nearby hallway as she stepped off the last riser.

Glory jumped in quickly to the conversation, "May I use your restroom?"

Arden's mother gave a look a annoyance, "Upstairs, to the left."

She gave a forced smile, "Thanks. Appreciate it." She made her way to the stairs as an escape from whatever she had been trying to do.

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Mona was laying on her bed with her hands folded together on her stomach. Those familiar blue eyes focused on the posters she had taped to her ceiling. Glory was surprised to find that her bedroom seemed so normal considering who her parents were and the last name she carried. She stepped into the room, leaving the door open a crack in case someone should come looking for her.

"What do you want?" Mona asked with in a dry tone. Glory still remembered what it was like to be a teenager, remembered how she had been treated by her own mother. Luckily she had been an only child so she never had to worry about siblings.

"To be honest I am hiding from your mother and brother. I lied and told them I had to use the bathroom. Think they'll believe that I got lost?" Glory tilted her head back to get a better view of the pictures overhead.

Mona snorted, "That's the worst line anyone has ever used to try to get me to open up to them, and my mother made me talk to a shrink for a year after my father passed away." Glory flipped her attention to the pretty young girl spread out on the bed. Their gazes met in a tense silence.

"Before you try to tell me that Arden is doing all this because he cares about me you can save your breath. I know he cares about me. I shouldn't have said that stuff to him even if it is true." She added with a heavy sigh.

Glory took a seat on the stool in front of the white colored vanity, "Then why did you?" She questioned out of curiosity.

Mona pushed up onto her elbows, a deep frown set on her lips, "Because no one ever listens to me and what I want. If they had then I wouldn't have even gotten into this mess in the first place."

"What do you mean?"

"My mother though it would be great if Scott and I dated. I mean it's picture perfect, millionaire's daughter and senators son. Everyone wins." She says with a sarcastic eye roll. Glory could tell from the frown on her lips that she is more hurt than she was letting on.

"So why date him if you didn't like him?" She shifted on the uncomfortable stool.

Mona sighs, "I didn't like him at first but he wore me down. We've been together for two years now and I thought we had everything planned. I was supposed to join him for college in the fall." She looks a little teary eyed. Glory pushed up from her seat and came to sit down on the bed next to her.

"I was surprising him at work with some take out. I caught him with one of his father interns." Mona spoke through clenched teeth, "So I showed him what I thought of him. I rammed his car with mine and then grabbed the tire iron from my trunk and..." She looked toward Gloriana with a fiery look of anger that was familiar.

"I think I can figure out the rest..." She followed up, not wanting Arden's sister to incriminate herself anymore that would make Glory a character witness to something she hadn't actually seen.

"To be honest, I slashed the tires of my high-school boyfriend when he dumbed me for Charlene Watts. It was the best revenge I ever got...he loved that car more than his own mother." Mona gives a wide grin of amusement at Glory's story. She knew it probably wasn't the best thing to do for a girl that had just been bailed out but she felt like she was the only one who would take the time to talk to her, hear her out.

"You are way cooler than Isobel." Mona commented with a laugh, "At least if Arden marries you family get together will always be interesting."

Glory chocked on the air entering her lungs, "We are business partners that's all. I'm helping him find a new mrs. fox...and I can assure that search does not include me." She slapped her hand to her chest to clear the blockage in her lungs at the surprise that statement had cause her.

Mona rolled her eyes, "Right, I forgot you're 'business partners'" She rolled over onto her side, turning her back on Glory, making it clear she was done with the conversation. Glory pushed up off the bed and made her way to the door. She might spend her day giving love advice but that was over the internet and not in person. In person she seemed to lack the actual skills need to be helpful.

"Mona?" Glory paused at the door, glancing over her shoulder, "next time you have love troubles...try talking it out first..." She tried to give some actual advice.

Mona looked over her shoulder with a frown, "Yeah...I learned my lesson."

As she left Mona's bedroom she ran into their mother, who happened to be waiting for her a little ways down the hall. The tension was so thick Glory was certain she could have cut it with a knife, "I was just saying goodbye..." She floundered for an excuse to have been talking with Mona.

"I know what you're trying to do Miss Novachek." Mrs. Fox spoke in a rigid tone, not trying to put on any airs about about her reason for approaching Gloriana.

She lifted a confused brow, "I wish I knew what you were talking about..."

"You're just like your mother." The insult came as a slap and a surprise. She hadn't known that the Fox's had ever been intwined with her family, though she could say she recalled her earlier years all that clearly anymore, "She was a little snake in the ground as well. Whispering all her words into in my husband ears while nobody was watching. Like mother like daughter. You're as much of a snake as her, trying to weasel into my sons life and twist him up over the things he wants." Glory stiffened at her harsh words, narrowing her eyes slightly but holding her tongue until she had heard every last word the old witch had to say.

"You're nothing by a passing fancy in my sons world. He might flounce around with women like you but he marry's women like Isobel. If I were you I wouldn't get to comfortable, I know my son better than you." Her words stung and Glory tried her best to keep them from cutting to deep.

She gave Mrs. Fox a small smile, "I wish I could claim to be as clever as you think I am. Unfortunately I'm just trying to make some extra money to pay for my shitty apartment because my shitty job barely covers it. Most of my money goes into feeding my obese cat duke...did you know cat obesity is almost as much as problem as human obesity? who would have known..." Glory purposefully rambled on as she moved away from Mrs. Fox toward the stairs. This was a tactic that she had learned as a teenage when her parents tried to interrogate her about where and who she had been with. If she kept talking that would distract them long enough for her to make her get away.

Mrs. Fox watched her with cold eyes, but Glory never let up, "Either way, there is nothing happening between Arden and I, other than professional interactions." She had her hand wrapped around the rail at the top of the stairs.

Mrs. Fox was following her every step of the way, eyes full of judgements, "Only a fool would believe that Miss. Novacek, I see how my son looks at you. This is the only warning I'll give you. Stay away from my family." She seemed deadly serious. Gloriana was certain that she had the money and connections to ruin her life if she wanted. She passed by Glory with her head held high, meeting Arden who was waiting at the bottom.

Glory followed behind her with a tension in her that hadn't been there before. Arden met her gaze as he came to greet her, leaning his body toward her, "Everything okay?" She could hear the concern in his tone.

She found Mrs. Fox watching the two of them and she forced herself to step away from Arden, "Everything is fine."