Lark responded with a GIF of Alice in Wonderland curtsying.
I checked the time. “Fuck,” I groaned. I was running behind for my lecture. I thrust my phone back in my pocket, grabbed my notes, and darted out of the room. It was a reprieve to have a full hour not to have to think about how I was going to break it to Natalie that I was seeing the crew again.
I decided to just send a text as I was walking into Rowe’s apartment. She wouldn’t like it either way, and I could hardly blame her for that. But I’d explained what the crew meant to me. How I could hate them and care for them in my own fucked up way. That they were family. More my family than the one I’d grown up with.
One of our own had been taken down. It felt wrong not to be together for that. Like we’d been together when Katherine’s father was put away. Or when her brother, David, had disappeared. Or when my father had died. Or for Lark’s ex-boyfriend’s bullshit.
The elevator dinged open to reveal the stark white interior of Rowe’s place. I had a sense of unease. The last time I’d been here, we’d had a fucking intervention. I’d gotten into it with both Lewis and Katherine. Lark, ever the peacemaker, had wanted us to all still be friends. We were connected. I felt that even now as I stepped inside to find Rowe seated at his computer and Lark staring out the window to Central Park and Katherine sipping a martini. Lark and Rowe looked the same. It was Katherine who looked a mess. It wasn’t her clothes or the makeup or the perfect dark hair. But something in her eyes. Something in her poise. Something lost. What the hell was going on with her? And should I even care?
There was an empty spot next to her on the couch where Lewis typically sat. It felt like a hole in the room.
“Penn,” Katherine said, looking me up and down, examining my dark blue suit coat, gray slacks, and bow tie. “How professorially of you.”
I dropped my leather messenger bag onto the white chair and undid the tie at my neck, letting the material hang loose. “It’s a uniform. As much as your…” I gestured to her designer dress and heels.
“I wasn’t complaining,” she told me with a sly smile. But it wasn’t the same. It had lost its heat.
“Have you heard from him again?” Lark asked, stepping away from the window.
“No,” I told her. “Anyone else?”
They all shook their heads. Rowe continued to stare blank-faced at his computer. I peeked over his shoulder to see he was reading endless articles that had come out about it after the one from the Times.
“Who could have leaked this information?” Lark asked with a sigh. She sank down next to Katherine.
Katherine just snorted. “Anyone.”
I agreed. “Literally anyone. There were so many names listed in that article, I’m shocked it wasn’t all pieced together before this. It makes me wonder how many others they’d paid off to stay quiet.”
“Many,” Rowe said. “They’re coming out of the woodworks.”
“Great,” Katherine grumbled.
An anxious tension permeated the room. We didn’t have to say anything to know all the ways this could go wrong. We’d all gone through things before but nothing like this. Not for one of our own.
And in some strange sense, it felt like the shine was gone on reality. For a long time, I’d seen the corruption in my world. I’d tried to stay out of it. I’d walked that fine line between the two. But somehow, we always came out on top. No matter what came our way, we always succeeded.
But I didn’t know how Lewis was going to get out of this one. There were life-altering consequences to this. Far-reaching implications for the company and his family.
It was as if…we really weren’t invincible. In a world where we always had been before.
Chapter 26
Natalie
Trinity was empty.
I’d seen it in all its glory on the night of the soft opening. With Elizabeth Cunningham revealing a collection down the runway before Christmas. And then again on New Year’s Eve at the giant masquerade that had started it all again with Penn.
But on a random Tuesday afternoon at the end of March, it was empty. The main lights activated to illuminate the large space and the bars that lined the room. Bottles full but no bartenders.
Yet, in my imagination, I was envisioning all the ways that I could transform it. All the ways that we could use the space to my advantage.
Jane stood at my side in Lululemon leggings and an open-back sweatshirt. Her feet in tiny silver-lined Nikes and her signature oversize sunglasses on her head. She had about a hundred pairs. Today, they were Tiffany blue.
“Well, what do you think?” she asked.
Harmony nodded on my other side. Her stylish dress couldn’t be further from Jane’s purposeful athleisure. “I think it’ll do.”
“Me too,” I agreed.
I, after all, had been the one to suggest that I host my party here at Trinity.
A few days after I’d gotten back from Charleston, a literacy charity had reached out to me about hosting a function to raise money for their cause. I was uncertain at first whether or not I could even pull something like that off. But after some consideration, I decided it was too good a cause not to.
Plus, Harmony had thought it would take my newfound socialite status to the next level. And had promptly decided to join my “team” for the event. It was a good thing, too, because I’d never planned a party in my entire life. Let alone something on this scale.
“Great,” Jane said, jumping in. “I’ll get together a contract by tomorrow and email it over. I’m so excited that we’re doing this. It’s going to be such a great event for you and the club.”
“Have you decided on a theme yet?” Harmony asked.
I shook my head. “Still thinking it over. I have some ideas, but nothing seems right.”
“It’ll come to you,” Jane said.
I sure fucking hoped so or else this was all going to be a disaster.
“You know what I think you need?” Harmony asked.
I shrugged. “What’s that?”
“A trial run.”
“Hmm…what do you mean?”
“I was thinking girls’ night out. We invite a group of girls that we want to attend the event. Then we corral them to be part of your team. It’ll look good for you and for them. You can delegate some of the responsibility and get your name out even more.”
“A girls’ night sounds fun,” Jane agreed.
“It does sound fun.”
“I remember one of the first events I ran by myself. It was so horribly overwhelming. It would be good to get everyone on board,” Harmony said.
A girls’ night out did sound like a good way to test the waters. It was a huge undertaking that was causing me more than a little bit of stress. So much so that I hadn’t even been able to write while dealing with all of this. I wanted to pull it off as seamlessly as Katherine had pulled off her Halloween event. And every other event I’d been to since then. No one should know the difference.
“Let’s do it.”
“Do you want me to send invites out?” Harmony asked. She pulled out her phone and started scrolling through Crew.