Shake Down the Stars Read Free Page B

Just leave her out of it, okay?”
    â€œBut it’s a blessed event, and we need to have her presence here.”
    â€œBlessed event? What makes an engagement party a blessed event?”
    â€œIt’s blessed to me. Curtis and I are making a holy promise to each other. Daddy agrees. I think it would be nice if he said a few words. Just a few, that’s all. I want everything to feel spiritual, and I want my niece to be with us.”
    I shake my head in disbelief. “This isn’t about Hailey, Margot; it’s about you.”
    â€œMe?”
    â€œYes, you. Look at all the money you’re throwing around, and it’s not even your wedding yet. Everything is out of control.”
    â€œAnd so what if it is? Curtis and I have been through a lot, and now we’re tighter than ever. I want this party to represent that.”
    â€œBeen through a lot” meaning Curtis has
cheated
a lot. Only eight months ago he was caught messing around with a groupie. Margot forgave him, spurred by his tearful apology and the pair of diamond earrings he gave her. The marriage proposal followed soon after.
    I feel the troll’s breath on my thigh, slow and labored. I wonder if he’s passed out under there, but there’s nothing I can do. I need to make sure Margot doesn’t sabotage me. “It’s your engagement party,” I say. “Your marriage, your life. Just whatever you do, please leave Hailey out of it.”
    â€œShe was my niece, you know. I miss her, too. We all miss her. We will
always
miss her.”
    â€œI don’t want her mentioned during your party, Margot. I don’t.”
    â€œWhy do you have to be so stubborn?”
    â€œWhy do you have to be so selfish? Just leave her out of it, okay?”
    Resigned, she rises from the bed. She glances at the drink on the nightstand, then makes a point of staring at Selwyn’s drink on the opposite table. “You need help, Piper. You really do.”
    â€œOkay,” I say. “As soon as you leave, I’ll get on it. Thanks. See you later.”
    She saunters to the mirror in response. “I just need one more thing.”
    â€œWhy am I not surprised?”
    â€œThe girls aren’t feeling well. Hélène says it’s a mild fever. I just checked on them, and they seem fine. Anyway, she says she has some family thing she has to go to—a christening or something—and has to fly to LA. She says she told me, but I swear she didn’t. Of course she gave me one of her voodoo stares. I’m certain she’s put a curse on me.
That’s
why it’s so cloudy today.”
    â€œYou really need to quit with the stereotypes.”
    â€œI wanted everyone to see the girls in their chiffon dresses, but now I’m not sure.”
    Margot’s ten-year-old twins, Sophia and Little Margot, are the product of her relationship with the hockey player no one speaks of. Like my own father, the hockey player disappeared after he learned he was going to be a father. Unlike my dad, he’s been sending monthly checks since the girls’ birth—enough money that they attend one of the most expensive schools in the Bay Area, have a nanny who may as well be their surrogate mother, and are set through college.
    â€œJust how sick are they?”
    â€œSophia’s been throwing up, and Margot has a mild case of diarrhea.”
    â€œMargot!”
    â€œWell.”
    â€œDid you call the doctor?”
    â€œOf course I called the doctor. She said to watch them overnight, make sure they get their fluids, and if they’re still under the weather, bring them in on Monday.” She shrugs. “I think they’re making a turn for the better, but I can’t see forcing them to participate. And I can’t ask Mom to watch them—
I need her.
”
    â€œSo you want me to watch them.”
    â€œWould you mind?”
    â€œOf course not.”
    â€œThanks. I knew