"Hello miss Elinor! Uhhhhhh...Dealer's choice I suppose? What's up?"

“Well, let’s start with the good news first. You won’t have to worry about the funding needed to rebuild your Concert Hall. Now onto the bad news. The money was donated by none other than Amor Rose.”

"No."

"I don't want him to use that as an excuse to absolve him of his wrong doings. Us accepting anything from him after that HNN article broke is probably illegal isn't it? At the very least it's just down right wrong. I can get my concert hall fixed by my own efforts."

“I am glad to hear that the fate of your Concert Hall does not rely on money from strange benefactors. And I agree This won’t absolve him of his wrongdoings. But whether we deny it or not he already has the moral high ground, at least if you ask me. I am sure there are people that will disagree with me on that, and I understand if you are one of them. But the way I see it when people inevitably ask him if he has put in efforts to apologize, he can with honesty say that he has.”

“Whether it’s illegal for us to accept the money is… how do I say this… A grey area? Yeah, the money was donated through a charity, so technically he didn’t have anything to do with it. But it does lead back to him.”

“But being the main villain of a scathing news article in the HNN does not make someone a criminal, even if the story is true… Unless you’ve filed charges with the police since last we spoke then in the eyes of the law Amor is currently not a criminal.”

"He did make another sizeable donation to The League, though that money is meant for another purpose entirely...

"Really? That's what you chose to say?"

"It was members of the council telling me to not take action. I would have pressed charges otherwise."

"Take it from someone who grew up around the rich. He's trying to buy his way back in, as soon as you do something he doesn't like he's gonna make moves against you. This is probably money to try and have the sanctions removed. I don't want that money, if I have any say in what it's used for. Donate it to a charity about Pokémon who were misplaced by abusive trainers or displaced."

"I need to go. Thank you for letting me know. Goodbye Elinor."

For a moment, she pinched the bridge of her nose perhaps a bit too roughly. She had been too blunt. The moment the words had left her mouth she had known Melody wouldn’t take them kindly.

But Elinor had nobody to blame but herself. Perhaps if she had gotten that extra shot of caffeine this might’ve gone differently. But no, instead she had pushed Melody away, kept her at arm’s length like everyone else.

Elinor kept quiet letting her emotions tighten in her chest as Melody kept speaking. Though before she was even allowed a moment to speak Melody had to go. She scrambled to get a “Goodbye Melody” in before the beep of an ended call announced itself.

She felt her fingers tighten around the phone case, threatening to crack. HOW DARED Melody have the audacity to lecture her about growing up rich? At this moment she didn’t know what irked her more the fact that she had inadvertently pushed Melody further away or the fact Melody clearly assumed her of poor origins. Whatever the answer may be Amor Rose would definitely have to repay her for the efforts she had to expend to keep his little slip-up under control.

With angry footfalls and an annoyed gaze did she leave the office.