Ashanti tried calling Kendra, even though she knew hersister wouldn’t answer. She didn’t, but she immediately texted back.
Ignore Kara. I’m fine.
Don’t want to talk tonight. We can talk tomorrow.
Just after Ashanti sent Kendra a thumbs-up emoji, Ridley called.
“Can you believe this shit?” Ridley said the moment Ashanti answered. “After all the work we put into this New York trip, it all goes to shit because of one damn Instagram post.”
“Rid, what happened?” Ashanti asked, her pulse rate skyrocketing.
“You haven’t seen the post?”
“I’ve been in the air for the last three hours.”
“Oh, shit. How did I forget that you all had to switch to a later flight. I thought you would have heard by now.”
“Heard what?” She was going to strangle someone if Ridley didn’t tell her what the heck was going on. “Kara sent a bunch of vague text messages but didn’t say what they were about. Only that I’m getting my butt kicked in the contest. I don’t understand how that can be when I was so far ahead of the entire pack just hours ago.”
“I’ll tell you how,” Ridley said. “Because you are not cousins with one Pilar Jones.”
“The singer?” Ashanti asked as the plane finally pulled into the gate area. “What does she have to do with this?”
“Turns out she and the owner of Raw Beauty Products arefirst cousins. Pilar just posted a video plugging the beauty lineandthe contest to her forty million Instagram followers. You can forget the contest, Shanti. Raw Beauty is running away with it.”
Ashanti’s heart dropped.
“Maybe there’s—”
“Honey, they’re up by forty-two percent,” Ridley said. “Duchess and Puddin’ are cute and all, but they are no Pilar Jones.”
Ashanti put her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. She wanted the $250,000 prize money, but sheneededthe loan that would be offered to the winner. She could never get those favorable terms from a bank.
She felt that house in the Lower Garden District slipping away, and it made her sick to her stomach.
“We’re moving,” Thad told her. People on board had started to deplane.
“Rid, I have to go.”
“Call me later. I’m sorry,” Ridley said before ending the call.
Thad stepped back so that Ashanti could go ahead of him. She wasn’t sure how her legs were still working when she could barely feel them.
The moment they entered the concourse, Thad took her by the hand and brought her to an empty seat in the gate area. He stooped down and looked into her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing,” Ashanti said. “We have to get the dogs.”
“The dogs will be fine for a few minutes. Is someone hurt?”
She shook her head. “No, no. Nothing like that.” She blewout a breath. “I’ve mentioned that online contest, right?” He nodded. “I thought it was a sure thing because of all the publicity Duchess and Puddin’ have gotten this week, but one of the other contestants got a celebrity to endorse them and now they’re running away with the votes.”
“Damn,” Thad said. “I’m sorry. But at least you got some good publicity out of it.”
“You don’t get it, Thad.Everythinghinged on that contest,” Ashanti said.
“I’m gonna assume that is hyperbole,” Thad said.
