Lou
The festival was almost over, and everything was unraveling. There had beenanotherscreening of the movie, which meant more people fillingmy direct messages with questions about what my role had been exactly.
I was running out of lies, out of time, out of dignity.
At night I lay awake, wondering why Odetta Olson had done this to me. She had chosen me for the role. She had given me hope. And then she’d ripped it all away from me without warning.
It became an obsession: she owed me an explanation, face-to-face.
That’s the only reason I agreed to go to one last party.
Marnie swore it was a huge deal. Very exclusive, with only the crème de la crème. And it was starting in two hours.
“What kind of crème?” I’d asked, dubious.
“I have the guest list in front of me,” Marnie said. “Dorian Fisher will be there. Odetta Olson. All the big names.”
The thought settled in my head. I would talk to Odetta Olson, and I would feel better. I wasn’t sure how or why, but I needed to do this.
So I dragged myself to see Constance.
I tried on a dozen gowns, pretending everything was fine.
I chose the most extravagant one of all, a bubblegum-pink shimmeryconfection, complete with a matching cape. I looked like Batman’s bride, if Batman’s bride was Stereotypical Barbie. This wasn’t about looking good or having fun. It was about getting noticed. Getting revenge, maybe. Who has fun on their own deathbed anyway? Odetta Olson couldn’t ignore me in this dress. I’dmakeher talk to me before I accepted that it was all over.
Later, I met Marnie in the marina, and we waited to have our IDs checked. The yacht was anchored a few hundred feet into the sea. We would be boarding a small boat that would take us there. I may have attended a lot of parties in the last few days, but this was different. The security was tight, the vibes subdued. I didn’t recognize the guests ahead of us—the real celebrities would likely arrive later—but I could sense how important they were in the way they held themselves, in their whispered conversations. We were in presence of real wealth, unlimited power. Of all the places I hadn’t belonged to in Cannes, this was at the top of the list.
“Should we wait for Constance?” I asked, as we neared the front of the short line.
We’d gotten here early, almost unfashionably so. Marnie had insisted on it. Now I almost wanted to turn around. And if I’d known what would happen that night, I would have run away as fast as I could.
“She just texted me. She’s not coming. Said she wasn’t feeling well.”
“I wasjustwith her. She was fine.”
But then again, I was fine, too, technically.
“I didn’t believe it either, but it’s her choice.”
Constance had dropped off a simple black dress at Marnie’s room. At leastshecould go unnoticed. She kept scanning the pier, looking tense, as if she was waiting for someone. Someone she maybe didn’t want to see.
We got onto the boat with only three other people. The salty breeze felt nice on my skin, and my hair still looked mostly okay once we arrived at the gigantic yacht. It was the size of an apartment building and had itsown heliport.
On board, a uniformed woman handed us wet towels with a pair of metal tongues, so we wouldn’t spread our germs all over the leather upholstery. The staff all wore earpieces and whispered seriously into walkie-talkies, sometimes even covering their mouths so no one could hear what they were saying. There were three, maybe even four levels, though the party was concentrated in the main and upper decks.
A server was waiting to hand us coupes in the finest crystal I’d seen all festival. The champagne itself was the most delicate I’d had, and there was so much of it.
Not that I’m trying to blame what happened later on the alcohol. By the end of the party, everyone was drunk, but not everyone was a murderer.
Constance would be missing all of this, which was too bad for her but lucky for me. Lucky because, right before leaving my hotel room, I’d slid the diamond necklace into my clutch. I couldn’t leave it in a toiletry bag on such a special evening.
Now that Constance was a no-show, I could wear it, too.
Marnie gushed as soon as I pulled it out. “Oh wow! Where did Constance get this?”
It was a very good question indeed, but I wasn’t about to admit that this piece wasn’t part of Constance’s plan for my outfit tonight. I stopped myself from wondering whether she’d noticed it was missing yet, if she’d been panicking, turning her room upside down, swearing out loud about where the fuck it might be. I’d had the necklace for days now, and she hadn’t mentioned it at all.
Marnie leaned closer. “That is alotof diamonds.”
