Royalty // Chuck Bass

Chapter 42

The Debarted

This year had been Anna, Noah and Diana's first Thanksgiving without Andrew and Diana decided instead of mourning in the city, the family would fly out to her parents place to spend the holidays instead.

Upon returning from her grandparents', Anna found she had missed a rather dramatic Thanksgiving dinner at the van Der Woodsen's after Blair thought her mother was pregnant but it turned out to be Dorota while Eleanor and Cyrus would be moving to Paris. Jenny called out Eric over his plan to destroy her Cotillion night.

Vanessa's mother attended the dinner and it became clear to everyone why the pair never exactly saw eye to eye and why Vanessa had opted out of spending Thanksgiving with her parents before her mother arrived in the city.

Rufus found out that Lily had been lying to him about her mother, CeCe, and where she had really been over the course of the summer.

And everyone had found out about Serena's affair with Tripp, including his wife Maureen who was also in attendance at the dinner with her husband after being invited by Lily who was unaware of her daughter's situation with her boss.

It was fair to say that the Hawthorne's had missed yet another interesting Thanksgiving on the Upper East Side but knowing their friends, there would be plenty more to come in the future.

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They say there are no accidents. Sometimes reality comes crashing into us. Other times, it's dawns on us slowly despite our best efforts to avoid it.

Today was a day that Anna never thought would arrive. She had officially lived an entire year of her life without her father before she was even 21 years old. Anna didn't want to let the grief and sadness of today consume her and she decided her best distraction was to throw herself into work.

Anna got out of the back of the limo and stood in front of the building with her bag in her hand looking up at the 7 story high building. She sighed as her mind began to run wild with thoughts about everything to do with today.

"What am I doing here?" Anna asked her quietly as she looked at the door in front of her.

"Doing what I would do." The voice of her father spoke back although she knew he wasn't really there but it was like he was standing next to her.

"You're not real, so get out of my head." Anna told her father as she started to walk into the building for her meeting. She wiped the tear from her eye to prevent it from falling as she headed towards the reception desk.

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Anna stood in the elevator of the Empire on the way up to the penthouse. She had left Chuck several messages but hadn't gotten a reply from anything of them. Knowing Chuck, her mind automatically assumed the worst like he had gone out and gotten drunk so she decided to check on him.

"You're a good negotiator. You got that from me." Andrew Hawthorne told his only daughter and successor. "That guy dropped a whole 15 grand off the deal."

"I know. I was there. I did it." Anna replied, trying to push her father's voice out of her head. He had been dead for a year, why now was he deciding it was a good time to visit.