Champagne Problems (Ransom Drysdale)

Chapter 2 - The Socialite

The  angry screams sounding from the bedroom of the Rattenberry household, and the smashing of various items could only imply one thing. Harrison Rattenberry had delivered the news to his daughter.

And from the level of noise that the servants were hearing (and perhaps the whole of Boston at this rate) it was not going well...

"Congratulations dear, you've broken her." Helen Rattenberry drawled and rolled her eyes at her husband, watching a glass smash against a wall while her daughter threw various things across her room.

Effie turned to her parents and took a deep breath, her disposition becoming sweeter and calmer. "I'm sorry...can you just repeat that? You're marrying me off to WHO?"

"Ransom Drysdale..."

Her face turned sour, and she launched the nearest book at the wall. "I hate you both! Why the hell are you doing this to me!"

Harrison smirked. "Simple, to teach you a lesson. You do nothing other than try and max out my American Express and sleep around. Having a husband will open your eyes and make you see that not everything revolves around you."

He was enjoying this more than he should, and Effie's face said it all. The fact her parents would go to these extremes and marry her off? And to Ransom bloody Drysdale? He was the worst that they could have picked out the bunch. When she'd stated this she'd then learned that he was the only one in the running for the 'husband of the year'. 

He was anything but that! Husband material? Barely!

"I won't." she glared at both Harrison and Helen, crossing her arms in once last act of defiance. "I won't marry him. Simple."

"So then you'll have to find somewhere to live and get a job...just like any normal person." Harrison shrugged, "But don't expect a penny from us. You'll be cut from the will."

"And if I marry him, then what?"

"Well that's the easy part, you don't get written out of the will, get to keep your inheritance. It's a good deal." Harrison said.

"Is that all I am now? A fucking business deal!" Effie said angrily. "I'm your daughter!"

Harrison sighed. "And you're a pain in the ass that's for sure. But this will do you some Eff. You'd be a silly girl not to agree."

He'd built his business from the ground up. They'd started out in London years before and then moved to America when it went worldwide. Effie had been educated at an all all-girls school, but they'd moved in her last year. In some ways Harrison and Helen blamed themselves for not keeping their daughter on a tighter leash, but she was their only child and had always had everything she wanted at the snap of a finger. She'd found the crowd of popular girls upon moving to Boston and that was that. As soon as school was over, she was out being the wild child and their name was being thrown about for all the wrong reasons.

She had no choice and finally she huffed. "Ransom Drysdale is a reptile."

"Well I'm sure that you can change that darling." Helen mused.

"So when is this taking place?"

"Preparations are already underway. The Thrombey's are kindly hosting the engagement party on Saturday."

"Wait! THIS SATURDAY?"

Helen nodded. "Harlan's idea, not ours."

Of course it would be Harlan Thrombey's idea. He was the one in the family who called the shots. The family that were soon to be her family too.

"How wonderful." Effie's tone couldn't have been anymore sardonic. "Whatever, just make sure there's enough drink for me to drown myself in." and brushed past her parents. She needed to get away from them for a few hours and think things through.

Like how to survive a marriage to the biggest playboy in all of Boston.