CHAPTER 17

We were going to a fundraiser tonight.

That was all that was written on the small note that I found in my room this morning, and before I could go downstairs to find Christian and ask why he was just telling me about it at the last minute, Tina informed me that he was already gone. I ate breakfast alone with Valerie, silently cursing out Christian in my head. And by the time the afternoon rolled by, a thousand people that I didn’t know were in the house. One group was rolling suitcases in, another was bringing in racks and racks of clothes, and shoes. There was such an insane flurry of activity, and before I could blink, my butt was firmly planted in front of the vanity in my uncomfortably large dressing room. We still had five hours before the fundraiser, and when I made this fact known to the stylists and hairdressers hovering all around me, they graciously let me know that these things usually took that long. And boy, were they right!

My hair was washed and blow dried, even though