“Yes ma’am,” the maid said, making a little bow. “Lisbeth and ZK have been very chummy lately,” Tabitha added to refocus her mother. The comment made me flinch. It took a moment to realize that Tabitha had no idea what had happened since she disappeared into her room.
“What a lovely boy. ZK is my favorite,” Eva said. Zoya arrived with the martini, and Eva’s eyes widened as she reached for it. “It’s always more fun meeting people over martinis, don’t you think?” She took a long swallow and seemed to come alive.
“Mother’s here to talk to Robert,” Tabitha said. I tried to decipher her expression; she seemed to be trying her hardest to appear calm and assured.
“Oh Tabby, you worry too much about these things. Everything will turn out fine, you’ll see. They always do, don’t they?” she said and ran her skeletal hand through Tabitha’s hair.
Eva Eden totally creeped me out. I couldn’t imagine a more terrifying mother, and it wasn’t like my mother was easy.
My phone buzzed. When I checked, it was a text from Jess. I used it as a reason to get away.
“I hope you don’t mind if I excuse myself,” I said, holding up my phone. “This is Designer X now.” I rose to leave.
“I hope we talk with you again soon,” Eva said.
I smiled and nodded, feeling terrible leaving Tabitha, but it was all more than I could deal with. I swiftly walked toward my room, glancing down at the text message.
“COUNTDOWN HAS STARTED !! WHEN WILL YOU BE HERE ?!”
59
I turned off my phone and threw it on the bed. I couldn’t read another text from Jess. I opened the closet door in the guest room and curled up into a ball on the carpeted floor. I remembered all the times I had drifted off in my closet to “Moon River” and the Breakfast at Tiffany’s DVD looping over and over until I awoke for school.
Jess’s show was the most important thing, but my head hurt every time I thought about it. I closed my eyes, remembering the empty villa bedroom by bedroom and how I felt before everything went bad.
I couldn’t believe how long I slept.
The modified Chanel caught my eye as I sat up. The black dress was embellished with a spray of multicolored jewels, shortened and tightened at the waist. I reached out, taking my silver flats and the dress, and stepped into the bathroom. I washed my face, put on some makeup, and pulled my hair into shape. Checking in the mirror, something felt off. I hardly ever thought about Nan’s lucky talisman before, and now my wrist felt bare without it.
I wondered if Tabitha and her mother had already left, but when I checked the driveway from the balcony the white limo was still there. Eva’s Superman was flirting with some of the maids.
I walked over to Tabitha’s bedroom and heard voices inside arguing. Before I could turn away, the door opened and Tabitha came out looking terrible. She had been crying.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” she said, closing the door behind her. She seemed anything but fine.
“We have to stay a little longer. I can’t go until I work this out with Mother. Robert always charms her,” she said.
“I understand,” I said as comfortingly as I could. She returned to her room.
Deciding to act as if I wasn’t upset, I turned on my phone and texted ZK, as though nothing was wrong.
“See you @ Robert’s ;)”
There was no answer. I waited some more and noticed an unread text from Jess.
“I CAN’T W8 TIL U GET BACK. CAN’T DO THIS WITHOUT U !!”
I wondered how I would pull myself away and get back to the city. I couldn’t even focus on what I should do. I decided, no matter what, to take the Jitney back in the morning. I couldn’t fail Jess. I couldn’t stand waiting at Tabitha’s either. I marched outside to find Mocha. He was about to leave on an errand and I hitched a ride.
60
Even after Mocha passed through the gates and turned down the driveway, it was a full ten minutes before we caught sight of the looming three-story Tudor-style manor. When I entered, there were two beefy security guards at the door. They nodded as though they knew who I was before I could give them my name.
I passed through doors as thick as bank vaults into the main entrance with its grand matching staircases. Following the other guests into the first-floor library, I ran into Balty and Flo. They had stopped at Robert’s on their way back to the city. They were abuzz with the news of Eva Eden’s arrival and more than happy to fill me in on the dirt.
Balty took special pleasure in dishing Eva. “Tabitha’s mother is a generous longtime charity donor to the Addiction Relief Foundation in the U.K. and the chairwoman for their fund drive,” Balty said with a smirk. “At the same time, she has a heroin habit that would kill most people.”
“You’re so unfair, Balty,” Flo said, chastising him, rolling her eyes. Flo was wearing an exquisite black sequined dress and a silver necklace that sparkled with diamonds. Everything she wore was well matched to her supersleek red hair.
“I guess you’re right,” Balty agreed, laughing. “I mean, they only found eight grams of the lovely white powder and two hundred and fifty milligrams of diazepam in her Rolls when they stopped her.” Tabitha’s alcohol problem seemed tame by comparison.
I heard a familiar dog yap and turned to see Robert holding Morris on the far side of the room chatting with Dahlia. I don’t know why it was surprising to see them talking. Perhaps it was my mood, but there seemed something sinister about those two together. What could they be plotting? And where was ZK? That’s what mattered.
I hoped to slip away unnoticed, but Dahlia seemed to have extrasensory perception when it came to knowing I was around. She turned my direction and gave me an icy smile. Managing to smile back for form’s sake, I found myself rubbing my wrist where Nan’s bracelet used to be. I hadn’t realized how many times I had unconsciously reached for that good-luck charm.
Excusing myself from Flo’s company, I searched from library to gallery, through the walnut-paneled ballroom, asking for ZK, but nobody had seen him. The nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach was draining all the energy out of me.
I overhead someone say there were twenty-five bedrooms in Robert Francis’s mansion; I felt like I had searched half of them. The mansion was so enormous that I never doubled back on my path.
Passing through room after room, it seemed as though I’d entered a kind of Escher painting of never-ending rooms and staircases. I turned down an unfamiliar hall and noticed that the crowd had thinned out, so I headed back downstairs, where most of the partygoers were gathering.
“Looking for me?” I knew that voice, unfortunately.
Morris barked twice in Robert’s arm, the dog’s tiny tongue sticking out, panting.
“No, actually,” I said.
“Here, let me get you something to drink.”
“No thank you. I’d rather not,” I said, watching Morris wiggle uncomfortably in Robert’s arms.
“Of course not.” Did I detect a wounded tone in his voice? “Determined to avoid me, I suppose. Even though I’ve helped your good friend Tabitha evade arrest and scandal for the umpteenth time.”
I glowered at him silently.
“I won’t keep you,” he said, sounding resigned. “At least let me show you the best view in the house.” He led me through a doorway toward two huge bay windows.
The mansion had a view of the churning ocean unlike any I had ever seen before. The lighting from the house illuminated the dunes in sharp waves of light and dark. Chiaroscuro, I think my high school art teacher would have called it. Through the interplay of shadows I could see the Atlantic’s explosive white foam, but the windows were so thick that besides the murmurs of partiers elsewhere in the house, the wind, the ocean’s waves, and everything outside was unnaturally soundless. All the drama of the crashing waves took place in eerie silence.