Vanessa glanced at the flowers. “The roses and the note. They made my day.”
More silence. “Vanessa, I didn’t send you any flowers or a note.”
“You didn’t?” A chill trickled down Vanessa’s spine, and she squared her shoulders to clear it. Her days of paranoia were over, she reminded herself.
“No. Hang up. I want to FaceTime.” The line went dead. Seconds later, a video call came in, and her sister’s face appeared on the screen. “Show me.”
This was silly. If the flowers weren’t from Lucy, then they were probably from Natalie, or maybe even Colin. An apology for calling her a snob.
She flipped her phone camera and showed her sister the flowers.
“That’s a hundred-dollar bouquet, at least,” her sister pointed out.
“Yeah, which is why I thought it was from you. Who else would send me something like this when it’s not my birthday?”
“You’re sure they’re for you?” Lucy asked.
“Well, my name was on the envelope, so yeah.” She opened the card to double-check.
“What did the card say?” Lucy’s voice was tinged with concern.
“Okay, will you stop sounding so paranoid? You’re freaking me out. It’s flowers. If they’re not from you, they’re from someone else I know. No big deal. I’ll figure it out eventually.”
“The card, Vanessa.”
Ugh, big sisters. She read the card out loud.
“Haters? So someone who knows what happened at the club the other day.”
Vanessa sighed. She wasn’t trying to make light of it, but she didn’t want her sister to worry. Chances were there was a perfectly reasonable explanation. “Everyone knows what happened at the club. It’s all over social media.”
“Exactly. I don’t like it. People are weird, and the longer I’m married to Joel, the more I’m starting to realize that.”
Vanessa swallowed a laugh.
“Okay, that came out wrong. Joel’s not weird. The opposite, really. But having this much money and influence makes the people around us weird. I never thought we needed security, but you can’t be too careful. People do strange things.”
Vanessa twirled a long strand of hair around her finger. “I get it, trust me. I’ve been in this business long enough. But I’ve been MIA for six months, and nobody’s really been paying attention.”
“You have over a million people following you on Instagram, and you post almost daily. That’s not exactly MIA, sister dearest.”
“Well, for me, it is. It’s been refreshing having some anonymity in this town. No one really cares about high fashion here, and other than a few teens, no one appears to know me from the show. So I think we don’t have to press the panic button yet. The roses are probably from Natalie.”
“What do you mean, people don’t know you? There were thousands of videos of you kissing Jordan circulating the internet universe, and we both know they’re not from Natalie. She’d never spend a hundred bucks on you.”
True. The cousins had a twenty-dollar rule when it came to gift giving, which meant most presents ended up being ridiculous gag gifts they ordered online.
“Maybe it was Mom.”
Lucy guffawed. “Don’t try to be funny. This could be serious.”
“Fine, it wasn’t Mom.” Her mother thought big bouquets were ostentatious and a waste of money. She probably didn’t even know about what happened at Silk since she didn’t use social media. “But I’m sure there’s a logical explanation.”
Over the phone screen, Lucy offered a skeptical look. “I think I need to come home.”
“You do not need to come home.” Vanessa reassured her. The last thing she’d meant to do was make her sister worry about her. “I should never have called you. Can we forget I did? Can you invoke temporary amnesia or something?”
“I cannot invoke temporary amnesia, Vanessa. You’re my little sister. It’s my job to worry about you. Especially with—well, everything.”
