Page 30 of Mama Si's Paradise

And then we were a floor below, and I had yet to make sense of this whole thing.

“All right, dolls! You know the rules! Don’t get greedy, don’t overspend, and most importantly—have fun!” Adam said.

The girls cheered. Before the minute was over, they were all running toward the stores—open, all of them. Open and empty, save for the security guards at the corners, watching the girls in awe.

Adam turned to me.

“What are you waiting for, baby girl?”

I shrugged. “I…I don’t know.”

He grabbed me by the shoulders and leaned down until his face was all I could see. “You’re in an empty mall witheverythinginside those stores at your disposal. We’re going to go in these shops as fast as we can, and we’re going to take everything you like and need and want—do you understand?”

“I do, I do,” I said, nodding until I got dizzy. “I just…I’m just not used to this.”

Adam chuckled. “Nobodyis, sweet-cakes! But you’re Mama Si’s doll now. Your life is a fairytale.” He gave me a kiss on the forehead. “Take advantage of it.Now.”

He turned around and slipped into a lingerie shop together with a bunch of other girls, leaving me to pick my jaw up from the floor and get my shit together so I could follow.

“There she is!”

I smiled and it was big and it was genuine. Authentic. I felt so fucking good in my skin it was almost funny.

“Good morning, dolls,” I said, cheeks flushed and eyes low as Marissa held the chair ready for me to sit down at the long table, half of it outside in the backyard. The dining room herewas in one of those half-open rooms, in a different part of the mansion.

Yes, I’d come out of the room to eat with the girls.

And did I mention that I had clothes now?

So many freaking clothes. Almost seventy percent of the giant closet was already full. Designer brands, soft fabrics and sparkly jewelry, high end bras and panties and nightgowns to die for. I had yoga pants and running shoes and twenty different sandals, and fancy lotions for my face and body and six different perfumesfor every mood, according to Adam.

I don’t know what it was about having all those things that had put a smile on my face the second I’d woken up. I couldn’t fucking help it—and so what if it made me vain?

Turns out, I liked to be spoiled. Turns out, when I told Brandon I didn’t give a shit aboutthings, that I could do with a pair of pants and two shirts forever, I was lying through my fucking teeth. Turns out, I liked having lotions with shimmer in them—I wantedallof it, in all scents.

And Mama Si had gotten it for me.

“Last night was the best sleep I’ve gotten in weeks, as is the case every shopping night,” Coco informed us.

“And it’s not just the exhaustion,” said Mia, nodding in approval. “It’s the feeling.”

“It’s theprivilege,”Melahni said, munching on her croissant.

“It’s knowing that we’re surrounded only by the best of the best, as we deserve,” said a girl I’d only met last night—Peanut was her name. She assured me she’d picked it herself—and that she tasted just as good.

“What about you?” Amber asked me, and I stopped with my eggs halfway to my mouth, straightening my shoulders again.

“Uh…I don’t know,” I said, but they were all looking at me still, all waiting for my answer. “I guess for me it’s the pleasure ofowning a lot of things I probably will never use, but still…you know.I havethem.”

They all burst out laughing like I’d said the funniest thing they’d ever heard. I was giggling, too. A little bit.

The help was there to fill up their plates and their glasses and they all acted like they didn’t even notice, like this was every day. And later, when they invited me to the HeartPool for mimosas and a day out in the sun, I put on a yellow bikini, and I went. I sat with them on a lounger and listened to them talking about everything and anything, and I was able to ignore Hannah’s sneaky stares just fine, like I had the night before at the mall.

I wouldn’t let her get to me. She wouldn’t scare me away from these girls. Just to watch them talking and moving and laughing was enough.

Thiswas their life. They focused on enjoying their time, taking care of themselves, and looking pretty.

And somehow, in some mad fucking way, this wasmylife now, too.

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