The party was an event for their company, family, and friends to show off their wealth and hopefully generate some goodwill by stuffing people with alcohol and food. It was the last place I wanted to be, especially since I knew Brad and his family would be there. Was this another lame attempt on my mother’s part to get me to reconcile with him?

“Why do you need me to go?” I did consider the fact that she might just be lying to me if our mom was manipulating her.

She let out a big breath. “Because I’m going to tell our parents that I’m not marrying Howard and that I’m in love with Santiago.”

My head jerked back, almost as if she’d been able to smack me through her phone. “You’re going to what? Do you want to die just before Christmas?” Or possibly send my parents to the hospital after they had dual heart attacks?

“It’s time. I have to tell them before things go any further. I know Howard’s planning on proposing tonight. Mother’s going to make a big show out of it. I have to stop it, and I need you there with me. If you want to be.”

“Of course I will be! Whatever you need. Only, I don’t have a dress to wear.” This event was always black tie.

“I can send over one of your dresses from your room. Or I could get one of my personal shoppers to pull some gowns for you and send them over.”

The idea of a new dress sounded intriguing, and would technically be no cost to me (since I knew Violet would cover it), but I wanted to stop being indebted to people. I couldn’t claim to be standing on my own two feet if my sister was buying me ball gowns.

“Maybe the dark-green velvet that we got in Milan two years ago?” I asked. “That would work for a holiday party. And I’ll borrow some jewelry if you have some extras lying around.”

“Done!” Violet said, and I could hear real happiness in her voice. “I can’t believe I’m doing this!”

“I can’t believe you’re doing it, either. Look at you being a rebel. I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you tonight.”

I hung up and then called Shay to let her know what had happened with Oksana and where I would be for the rest of the evening.

“Call me when it’s over. I would offer to go with you, but I don’t want to. Even though the temptation of observing the apex predator in her natural habitat is intriguing. So I’m going to need a full reporting of how things go with your family,” she said. “I’ll wait up. And good luck!”

My next call was to our dog walker, asking her if she’d come by tonight and dog sit. She said she’d be happy to do it. I knew that was overkill, that Pigeon would be okay, but I hated the idea of leaving her alone while I went to this thing. Especially because I didn’t know how long I’d be gone. Would Violet tell them right away? Or would she wait a few hours? Figuring it might take her some time to screw up her courage, I decided to make sure that a recovering Pigeon was looked after.

I texted Tyler.

He responded:

With my heart in my throat, I messaged him back:

My dress arrived a couple of hours later, and Violet had included a pair of black high heels to wear with it, along with diamond earrings the size of small ice cubes and a diamond choker that I thought belonged to my grandmother. This wasn’t jewelry I’d ever had access to before, just Violet and my mother (something Vanessa complained about endlessly, but things tended to go missing after she wore them). I figured this was probably Violet’s way of signaling to my parents that she had at least one person on her side.

I also made a mental note to return them before I left for the evening so that I wouldn’t be accused of stealing them.

A few hours later, as I got ready, it felt like I was putting on actual armor, readying myself to go into battle. I wasn’t getting dressed up because of their expectations; I was doing it for me and Violet. I needed to know that what I was wearing would be flawless.

Then everything seemed to be happening at once. The dog sitter arrived and then Tyler texted me he was in Houston heading in to work, saying he’d missed me and was counting down the minutes until he could see me again, and Julio was there to pick me up. I brought Kailen up to date on Pigeon’s situation, showing her where the dog food was, responded to Tyler that I was just leaving and would be back in a few hours, saying I’d missed him, too, and then went down to meet Julio.

When I got to the mansion, the doors were open as guests trickled inside. Even though I was at their house, I felt giddy and buzzed. Tyler wanted to be with me. He wanted to kiss me. Not even my mom could kill this feeling.

All the same, I was glad to be surrounded by people, as my mother would lean toward not making a scene that could embarrass her or my father.

Although it made me wonder again if Violet was somehow setting me up. If my mother wanted me here solely to show their business associates and friends a united front. We always had to appear to be one big happy family to the outside world.

There was a sign by the door welcoming everyone to the Huntington Victorian Christmas, where we would be edified and uplifted by the decorations and entertainment. I tried not to snort. Nobody was leaving this party smarter or better off. Just hungover and regretting their life decisions.

Coughlin took my coat with a nod of his head as I walked toward the ballroom.

For a second I thought I saw Frederica—there was a woman with her hair color wearing a bright-red dress going into the room. But why would she be here? Were she and my mom on speaking terms again? It was so hard to keep track of when they were friends and when they weren’t.

But if Frederica was here, then that might be good for me. It took very little to make her get into a fight with my mother and all Mom’s hateful energy might be focused on her sister and not on me.

When I got into the ballroom, I saw that it was my aunt. I waved to her, but she walked off in the opposite direction. As if she hadn’t seen me when I knew she had.

What was that about? I thought about following her but surveyed the decor instead. There were thick garlands, the old-fashioned lampposts set up in the corners with wreaths on them, curtains of twinkling lights hanging down from the ceiling. The orchestra wore Victorian outfits, complete with bonnets and hats, and I wondered how long they’d be able to keep them on before they got too hot.

As I was looking around I saw Brad, standing with his parents. I squared my shoulders, preparing a whole speech in my mind for what I’d say when he came over. Reiterating that we were through and were never getting married.

But all he did was raise his glass to me, with one of those knowing looks on his face that made me want to punch him.

Vanessa was the person who approached me. “You have a lot of nerve showing up here.”

“Violet asked me to,” I told her, grabbing a flute of champagne from a passing waiter. If I was going to have to deal with my sister and my mother, I would need the liquid assist.

“Interesting.”

“Whatever. Are you just here to torture me?”

“About how you were a fool to walk away from Brad and now you get to suffer our parents’ wrath? I’m always happy to fill in.”

I sighed. “Sounds about right. You want me to be unhappy like you, right? You don’t have to be, you know. You could even run for Senate instead of your husband. We both know you’d do a much better job. It would give you something else to focus on besides me and my problems. It’s pretty great when you stop letting everyone else dictate your life and you get to make your own choices.”