Isaiah winked. “Don’t worry. When you see it, I’m sure it’ll speak to you.” Before Gabe could speak anything to that, Isaiah swanned away toward the waiter carrying the tray of mini lobster rolls. He was carrying a big bag, I noted. He’d be feasting on lobster for days.
Despite all the nerves trying to come up my throat, I couldn’t resist the grin that snaked its way onto my face once the artist was fully out of earshot. “What do you think, Gabe? Does it speak to you? Should we hang it in the place of pride in our living room?”
“Oh, it speaks to me, all right,” Gabe grumbled. “It says,Gabe, art is fake and nobody has any idea what they’re doing.”
Cora and her husband entered next. “Pom!” she said, stepping hesitantly, then less hesitantly as she saw what was, hopefully, a welcoming expression on my face. “I wasn’t expecting an invite now that you know who I really am.”
“You are not your family,” I said, leaning in automatically for a cheek kiss as her husband gave Gabe what I assumed from the wince on his face was a bone-crushing handshake. “I know that better than anyone.” I hesitated for a moment, then said, hating myself a little bit as it came out, “Have you been to see her recently?”
I couldn’t bear to say her name, but obviously we all knew who I was talking about. Cora responded softly, “She’s doing okay. Somehow she has a feather mattress in her cell, and she raised a stink in the cafeteria because supposedly she’s allergic to soy, which is in pretty much everything, and I’m not sure how the dots were connected but now she has a private chef sending her meals.”
Despite the circumstances, in that she’d made a blood relative of mine very bloody and that she’d also tried to kill me, I wasglad to hear Opal was doing okay. Well, about as okay as you could do in prison. “Another few years and she’ll have become, like, a mob boss,” I said. Cora laughed weakly, her smile now forced. I nodded and moved her along before either of us had to acknowledge the weirdness of the situation.
A bunch of others came in next. Millicent and Coriander, Coriander wearing those ugly decoy glasses again as if they would win her extra points with me, the two of them literally tripping over each other to say how beautifully the room was decorated and how noble my cause was. “Thank you,” I cooed, air-kissing them both. “And what exactly is that cause?”
“Uhh…”
“Uhhhhh…”
I swooped in to rescue them after a moment. Okay, after a few moments. (Sue me, I enjoyed watching them squirm.) (No, don’t actually sue me, please—I was going to have to be in court enough to testify after tonight.) “I’m glad you both came,” I said, very kindly, more kindly than they deserved. “We’ll go out again soon. I hear there’s that new underground club in the Village that plays nothing but amped-up classical music?”
“Thank you, thank you,” Millicent gushed, blinking tears out of her eyes. Coriander probably was, too, only you could barely see her eyes past those big, ugly frames. “You won’t regret it.”
“I hope not,” I said. “I’ve always liked Beethoven.”
Next up came Nicholas and Jessica, who looked very chic tonight in an Emblème handkerchief dress that looked a little like a fun, sexy Persian rug. “Pom!” Jessica said brightly, swooping in for air kisses like a pro. “I’m obsessed with the new cardamom currant buns! They’re so good!”
I beamed. “Thank you! Ellie and Sage were pushing me toward cardamom lime, but I’m glad I stuck to my guns.”
“Me too.” She gave my hands another squeeze and moved deftly to the side to greet Gabe. Which, rather unpleasantly, left Nicholas before me.
“Big brother!” I said, trying to match her chirpiness, but it elicited nothing but a dour stare.Deep breath.
“You made me miss an important business meeting when you hijacked the jet.”
I rolled my eyes. “You make it sound like I put a gun to Captain Ted’s head. Anyway, how’s the business?”
His face didn’t change. He clearly had no idea our parents had told me what he’d been up to, which was a fair assumption, considering my parents very rarely told me anything of importance. “Not excellent, as you would know if you ever came to a board meeting,” he huffed.
“Why would I come to a board meeting when I’m not on the board?”
“You are on the board.”
My eyes widened. “I am? Really?”
He let out a long-suffering sigh. “You’re an Afton. All Aftons have a place on the board.”
“Huh.” Good to know. Maybe if I’d gone to board meetings, I’d have learned about his attempted coup sooner. With one final roll of his eyes, he and Jessica moved farther into the ballroom.
To be replaced by my parents. Great. “Oh, darling,” Mom said, placing her hands on my shoulders and pushing me back slightly so she could look me over, top to bottom. “Who told you yellow was your color, and did you tell them immediately that they needed to go to the doctor for an eye exam?”
I gritted my teeth. Going low-contact would begin soon, I told myself. I just had to get through tonight. “Hello to you, too, Mom. You look beautiful.” I hated to admit that she actually did. Black was her color, which suited her personality just fine. “Hi, Dad.”
“Hi, Pom.”
Providence granted me a wonderful gift when Bibi swept in just then in a whirlwind of scarlet silk, too quickly for my parents to get out of the way. “Richard,” she said, all teeth. “Grace.”
My mother bared her teeth in response. “Roberta.” A beat. My mom stood there for a moment in silence, emphasizing it, as if to say,This is where I’d greet your husband, except that he’s dead.
