I’m not sure if that will help or hurt the sting of betrayal, but since Holden didn’t even bother to acknowledge me this morning, I’m definitely snitching.
“So, think there’s any of Tanya’s clues hiding out in Daria’s house that she doesn’t know about?” Micah asks.
We rack our brains trying to figure out where else Tanya could be trying to lead us. There has to be another clue we haven’t found yet.
“I think we need to find Daria,” I concede when my brain feels as if it’s going to explode.
We never got the full tour of the house, so Micah and I stumble around, carefully peeking into room after room in search of Daria. There isn’t any sign of her, which is strange, because she said she’s normally an early riser. I’m hoping to at least bump into one of the nurses so I can ask them where she’d be.
As I start to open one door, I trip and slam through the opening.
“Woah,” Micah exclaims. Inside, we find a mini showroom. It’s the size of a large walk-in closet packed with mannequins decked out in fabulous clothing.
Before we can step into the room, we hear Daria’s voice behind us. “Oh, there y’all are.”
“We were looking for you,” I say. “But, um, what are these?” At first glance at the outfits closest to me, I can tell Daria didn’t design them. They’re beautiful, but they’re not her. They lean too much on the chic side than the edgy.
“Sorry. I was sitting on the upstairs balcony. These”—she pauses as she joins us at the threshold of the showroom—“are Tanya’s designs.”
“Wait, what?” I ask.
She smiles as she walks into the room and picks a book off of one of the shelves. She flips open to a random page that has a pantsuit roughly sketched on it before plopping it down on the table below the shelves.
“You know Tanya loved to pick up random skills. She got hooked onProject Runwayand started learning how to draw clothes just so she could sketch designs with me.” She looks down at the sketch, then out to the sea of designs before walking around each mannequin dressed in Tanya’s pieces. She strides around each garment with purpose, so gracefully her feet almost look like they’re floating, stopping at the exact suit from the sketchbook. “You should’ve seen this when she first sketched it. It looked like a poncho made for a giant.”
And now it looks damn good for a novice. I have to give her credit; she never held on to her hobbies for long, but she never let them go until she damn near perfected them.
Micah grabs the sketchbook and flips through it feverishly, looking up to the ceiling when he reaches one page in particular.
“What is it?” I ask him.
He puts the sketchbook back down with his index finger on top of the page. “She designed this?” he asks Daria.
I look at the sketch and freeze. It’s the dress Tanya was wearing in her casket at her funeral.
Unaware of the emotions clogging our throats, Daria smiles at the sketch in question. “Yeah. When I told her that I had started sewing her designs, she asked if I would ship that one to her. She said people had to see her in it.”
And that they did. When I saw her lifeless body in that pink dress at the funeral, I wanted to laugh. Only she would pick a hot pink dress as her final resting outfit, but knowing that she designed it herself adds all the color I need to understand why.
Micah and I share a look, silently agreeing not to tell Daria where she wore it, but we tell her that we indeed saw Tanya in the dress, and that seems to give her comfort.
“Good. I’m glad someone saw one of her designs. Actually, do you want to take the rest of them? You can add them to her auction. They deserve to see the light of day.”
Micah furrows his brows. “You don’t want them? Make them part of your next launch?”
She looks over all the mannequins, tears welling up in her eyes. “They’re not mine. I don’t know if I’ll ever design again, but I can’t pass off Tanya’s creations as my own. I just wanted to bring her vision to life, you know?”
Tanya wouldn’t have cared what Daria did with the garments. She would probably be honored to have her designs grace one of Daria’s shows, but I understand where she’s coming from.
An idea starts brewing in my head. One that I think would both honor Tanya and help Daria find her way back to her destiny.
“We would love to include these in the auction. But, do you mind if we use them for something first?”
She hums. “Use them for what?”
I clap my hands in excitement. “Leave everything to me. I promise I’ll take good care of them.”
She taps her finger against her chin. “Secrecy. I like it. Go on.”
