Page 102 of Lavish
“Cute charm,” Jenese said.
Yes, it had been thrilling.
Exciting.
I had felt truly alive for the first time in years.
But it waswrong.That’s why I walked away from it. Her. She’d been a great mentor for a time, but the lying, the stealing, all that got old. I wanted everything I ownedto be because I worked for it. Not because I did something underhanded to get it.
“Where is the Harrington estate? You said two weeks. It’s been four.” Jenese glared at me.
“Legalities take time.”
“Don’t insult me.” Her voice cut sharper now. “I trained you better than that. You’ve been stalling. You’re not slick, sugar.”
“Jenese—”
She leaned forward, eyes glinting.
“But here’s the thing, baby girl: I don’t bluff. I sent a little something off to theLush Chronicles. Just a teaser. Names omitted. For now.”
My heart skipped, but my face didn’t move. I couldn’t let her see it.
“You couldn’t.”
She slid this week’s paper over to me, with a section circled for me to read.
Dear Dahlia,
What’s a woman to do when the girl she molded and raised starts playing queen? When the protégée becomes a backstabbing little heiress with a taste for dirty money and even dirtier men? Asking for a friend. Maybe two.
—Retired, Not Finished
“It’s one of thoseDear Abbysections, but I love the name Dahlia. I knew a girl named that twenty years ago. Skanky hoe. But I know the old ladies in society are gonna be talking about this column for a while.” Jenese leaned back, crossing her legs, entirely too pleased with herself.
I crushed the paper in my hand. I needed to buy every copy of that magazine in town. Right now. Burn them if I had to. Call in favors, cash in leverage. Whatever it took to bury this before it bloomed into something I couldn’t control.
She smirked. “All roads lead to you eventually.”
“You spiteful bitch.”
Jenese didn’t even flinch. “Takes one to know one.”
“How’s your food?” Jenese cut into her veal without looking up.
She promised to teach me how to be like her. Demand respect.
Now I felt like I’d been used.
For months we’d just been doing this. Dinners and watching people. I’d messed up again yesterday, and Mama’s put-downs were still echoing in my head.Weak. Naïve. Mistake.
“Okay, what’s happening? Aren’t you going to teach me?”
Jenese didn’t even look up. “I told you, wait and see.”
I sighed in frustration. That’s all she said.Wait and see. Patience.I was beginning to think I got scammed. I’d been too desperate. She’d taken the easy mark I’d been.
“I’m just going to go?—”
