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“Good idea,” Savannah said. “Let’s go shopping this week, and when we’re done you can help me sort through my stuff.”
Courtney nodded, although she hoped Savannah wasn’t going to go too crazy with buying things. Then she remembered why she was here. “Do you think this looks okay?” she asked, motioning to her dress. “I usually wear it with a sweater.”
Savannah stepped back and examined Courtney’s outfit, raising her index finger to her chin like this was the most important assessment in the world. “It’s fine, and you definitely don’t need the sweater,” she finally said. “We’re going to dinner in Vegas—not church at home. And flip-flops? Really? Please tell me you weren’t actually thinking of wearing those. I’ll find something else.” She ran to Courtney’s room, coming back a minute later holding the pair of shiny white pumps she’d forced Courtney to buy at a clearance sale at Payless last year. Courtney had tossed them into the back of her closet, so they were still brand-new. “These would be much better.”
Courtney put them on and looked into the mirror. She hated the extra height, but Savannah was right. The white pumps transformed the dress. “I guess it does make a big difference,” she said, practicing walking a few unsteady steps. Hopefully her feet wouldn’t be covered in blisters by the end of the night.
“More than that!” Savannah insisted. “It makes you look like a supermodel. Anyway, what’d you think of Damien? He’s hot, right?”
Courtney shivered at the memory of the conversation they’d had with him earlier. They hadn’t talked with him for long, but she’d gotten a bad vibe from him. He seemed too...smooth. It was rare for someone that attractive and overconfident to have good intentions. Courtney wasn’t an expert with guys—she’d never had a boyfriend—but the way he’d eyed Savannah when he’d mentioned seeing her tonight unnerved her. She didn’t want Savannah getting in over her head with him.
“He’s attractive,” she said. “But you need to be careful. The guys here aren’t like the ones in Fairfield.”
“What do you mean?” Savannah asked.
“There’s just something about him I don’t trust.”
“Well, I thought he seemed nice.” Savannah picked up her straightener from the vanity and ran it through her hair. “And you don’t know him, so it isn’t fair of you to judge him.”
“It’s just a vibe I got,” Courtney said.
“You and your vibes.” Savannah rolled her eyes. “But he seemed into me, right?”
“He was giving you more attention than Peyton or me,” she said truthfully.
“Good,” Savannah said. “I thought so, too, but I wanted to make sure. I hope he doesn’t have a girlfriend. But it didn’t seem like it from the way he was talking to us. I mean, he was practically asking me out. Don’t you think?”
The doorbell rang before Courtney could respond. She’d have to deal with Savannah’s infatuation with Damien later—preferably after she gathered more evidence of how he was not the type of guy that Savannah, or any girl with self-respect, should swoon over.
“Omigod.” Savannah dropped the straightener down on the vanity, her eyes wide as she looked at Courtney in the mirror. “That has to be him.”
Courtney’s stomach swirled, the morning’s anxiety returning. She wrapped her arms around herself and took a few deep breaths to calm down. It didn’t work. She felt more nervous than ever.
“You ready?” she asked.
Savannah nodded, and together, they gathered enough courage to walk out of the room. Courtney wanted to grab her sister’s hand for support, but she didn’t want to seem like she couldn’t handle the situation and was panicking about meeting her father.
Her father. It sounded so strange.
Peyton walked into the foyer at the same time as Courtney and Savannah. She was wearing one of her signature “going out” outfits—a short leather skirt, a tight black tank and stiletto knee-high boots. Normally Courtney would suggest she put on a jacket to make the outfit less provocative, but now they had something bigger to worry about. The three of them looked at each other, and Courtney knew the wide-eyed anxiety and straight-lipped worry on her sisters’ faces were mirrored on her own. Their lives were about to change forever, and she didn’t feel close to ready.
She stepped forward to open the door, but the handle moved before she got a chance, and it swung open.
A man walked through, and there was no doubt he was their father. His medium blond hair was clean-cut, and his eyes were the same blue as theirs. And he was tall. The navy suit he wore and his strong, high cheekbones made him look like an aristocrat from an old movie who knew what he wanted and the right way to get it.
“Peyton, Courtney, and Savannah,” he said, looking at each of them as he said their names. “Did I get it right?”
Courtney nodded, unsure how to reply. “Hi” felt too casual. Her mouth went dry, and she swallowed again, trying to think of something to say.
“You all look just like your pictures.” He glanced at the table in the foyer and ran his fingers over the glass surface. “I see you got your credit cards. Good. Have fun with them, but don’t do anything too extreme.” He walked through the foyer, his black leather shoes tapping against the marble floor. “I’m Adrian Diamond.” He cleared his throat. “Your father. Although I suppose you’ve figured that out already.” He laughed, but it wasn’t enough to take away the heavy awkwardness in the air. “Welcome to your new home. I trust everything is to your liking?”
Courtney had a million things she wanted to say to him, but she felt useless. It was like the world was spinning out of control, and she couldn’t figure out how to make it steady again.
“We did get our credit cards.” Peyton stared him down. “And then I threw mine in the trash.”
“Really?” Adrian actually chuckled, even though Peyton was still giving him a hate-glare. “Why would you do that?”
“She didn’t really throw it in the trash,” Savannah chimed in. “Well, she did, but nothing else was in there and I rescued it.”
“Good to know.” He still had an amused smile on his face, which Courtney guessed wasn’t the reaction Peyton had been expecting. “If you don’t want your credit card, that’s your choice—I don’t mind if you toss it in the back of a drawer in your room—but they can’t be thrown away due to security reasons.”
Peyton set her jaw and didn’t respond.
“It was kind of you to give them to us.” It was the best thing Courtney could think to add to the conversation. “We’ll use them as responsibly as possible, and only for emergencies.”
“That’s very mature of you, Courtney,” he said, and while she shouldn’t have wanted to earn the respect of the man who had abandoned her and her sisters, she felt proud of his approval. “But you can use your credit card for whatever you’d like—as long as you don’t do anything too extreme, like buy a yacht or charter the jet around the world. You’ll have to ask permission before doing anything like that. But most everything else—shopping, food, spa days or whatever else you want—is fair game.”
Courtney wrapped her arms around her stomach, unable to meet his eyes. She knew she should thank him, but this huge gift made her feel as if all the money she’d worked for around the clock over the years meant nothing now. All that time she’d slaved away mixing coffee drinks for minimum wage felt demeaned knowing that Adrian could have just handed her an unlimited credit card. A lump formed in her throat at the thought that it had all been for nothing, and she swallowed it away. That work wasn’t for nothing. She’d earned that money through her own means to help out her family. She would always be proud of that.
“So I can get a designer tote bag for school?” Savannah asked. Courtney wanted to tell her not to take Adrian’s generosity for granted, but she was glad the attention had shifted from her. “And designer sunglasses, and clothes and shoes?”
He smiled at her enthusiasm. “I know someone who will be more than happy to shop with you for whatever’s going to be popular next season,” he said, a knowing glint in his eyes. “But aside from that, we have a lot to discuss. I was sorry to hear about your mother.” He paused and glanced out the window, his thoughts seeming far away, as if he were remembering a time long past. Then he refocused and returned his gaze to Courtney and her sisters. “I didn’t know just how rough this past year has been on the three of you until your grandmother informed me. I’m sorry you had to go through what you did.”
“Why did you wait until now to do something?” Peyton crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him.
“I knew things were bad, but I wasn’t made aware of the extent of it until your grandmother called me,” he said. “After the divorce your mother forbade her to contact me, but I suppose that, given the circumstances, she decided to take charge. She always was a spirited one. I suppose that’s where you get it from.”
“I don’t mean months ago.” Peyton ignored his semicompliment. “I mean for our whole lives. We didn’t know if you were alive until now! And now we find out that you’re....” She paused, as if searching for the right words to describe him. “Well, that you’re you.”
“Mom always said you were bad news.... She let us think you were a homeless drug dealer or something,” Savannah added. “Why would she want to keep us away from all of this?” She motioned around the condo to show what she meant.
“Your mother never approved of the three of you growing up in this environment,” Adrian said thoughtfully. “And I didn’t disagree with her. The Las Vegas Strip is not the...safest place to raise children.”
“Couldn’t you have moved?” Courtney finally found her voice. “So you could be near us?”
“No.” He shook his head. “It’s best for my business if I live here.”
“And your business is more important than your daughters,” Peyton said.
“Some parts of my business are dangerous no matter where I live, especially for those close to me,” he said with what Courtney could have sworn was resentment. “But we’re already ten minutes late for our dinner reservation, so I’ll go more into detail about that once we’re seated. You three have arrived on a very important day. Not only is tonight the Fourth of July party at Myst, but today I had a meeting with a colleague regarding a proposal for a beneficial partnership.” He paused to look them over again. “You’re all ready to leave?”
Courtney nodded along with her sisters and tried to smile. Didn’t Adrian care about sitting down with them privately so they could get to know each other? To explain why he’d ignored their existence for their entire lives? Instead, they were going straight out to dinner. Yes, he’d said he would explain more to them once they got to the restaurant, but Courtney hadn’t expected that discussion to take place somewhere so public. The thought of being on display like that took away any semblance of an appetite she’d had until now.
But maybe she was thinking about it wrong. Maybe he thought taking them out to dinner would be considerate. Which, she supposed, it was.
“Good,” he said. “We have a private room, so we’ll be able to talk without other people listening. I also have two people who I want you to meet. They’ve been looking forward to this, so I would appreciate it if you were on your best behavior.”
They hadn’t been here a day yet and he was already going to introduce them to people? Courtney felt nauseated at the prospect. What if she said something wrong and made a fool of herself?
“I know you might feel out of your element,” he said, “but please roll with it, and remember that I’ll answer any questions later.”
He looked at the three of them again and walked to the doors, leaving them no choice but to follow his lead.
chapter 7:
None of them spoke as Adrian led the way down the hall.
Peyton hadn’t expected him to bombard them with bear hugs, but she wasn’t prepared for him to be so formal. He was treating them like they were a business deal instead of his own daughters. He’d even laughed about her throwing the credit card in the trash. What was up with that?
After a silent, uncomfortable elevator ride, Adrian escorted them through the casino to a balconied area with two escalators curving around to the floor below. Peyton felt like she’d been dropped into an alternate universe. Huge chandeliers hung from a high circular ceiling—she guessed there were ten of them in all. They were different shapes and colors, most of them red, orange and yellow. It was like being in a cavern, with chandeliers instead of stalactites. But despite it being beautiful, Peyton made sure to look bored and uninterested. The last thing she wanted was for Adrian to think she was happy to be here.
At the bottom of the escalator, Adrian walked through an archway with the words Five Diamond Steakhouse in cursive on the top. Peyton had never been to a restaurant this fancy. White cloths covered the tables, and silk drapes fell over parts of the burgundy walls. Bronze chandeliers that looked like hanging lamps dropped down from the ceiling, their golden glow bringing the restaurant to life. Not that it needed it. Every table was occupied with people engaged in lively conversation.
The host spotted Adrian and hurried to the four of them. “Good evening, Mr. Diamond,” he said, bowing his head like Adrian was a king. “Your table is ready.”
Most of the people dining looked up at Adrian as he walked by, whispering and pointing as he passed. How many of them knew he was the owner of the hotel? Even if they didn’t, Adrian had an air about him that announced he was someone important. He greeted people as they passed, shaking hands, smiling and joking like he was best friends with everyone. Peyton could see why people liked him. Why couldn’t he act this friendly around his own daughters?
She supposed it made sense, though—dealing with teenagers wasn’t part of his job description, but making hotel guests happy was.
His “regular table” was in the back of the restaurant in the private room he’d mentioned, and the two people he’d warned them about were already seated. One of them was a guy who appeared to be around Peyton’s age, and while he wasn’t as obviously good-looking as Damien, he was attractive. His face was round, and his green eyes had a faraway look, like he was trying to distance himself from the world. He was underdressed in a T-shirt and a black hoodie, but his mom must not have cared enough to tell him to change.
At least Peyton was 99 percent sure that the woman sitting next to him was his mom. She had a young-looking face, with the same high cheekbones as the boy. She’d pulled her hair back in a bun, and the strand of large pearls around her neck gave her a regal appearance. Adrian smiled when he saw her, his eyes becoming soft and loving.
Who was this woman, and why was Adrian looking at her like she was more valuable than any diamond in the world?
“Girls,” Adrian said, “this is my fiancée, Rebecca Carmel, and her son, Brett. They’ll be joining us for dinner this evening.”
Fiancée? Peyton looked at the woman in disbelief.
Rebecca softly cleared her throat and shifted in her seat. She straightened her silverware, and Adrian rested a hand on her shoulder. Peyton couldn’t blame her for being nervous. This was an awkward situation, and Rebecca was now front and center.
“You have a fiancée?” Peyton finally said to Adrian, not caring that the doors to their private room were still open. “And you didn’t think it was important to tell us this first?”
“I didn’t want you to have any preconceived ideas about Rebecca before meeting her,” Adrian said calmly. He motioned to the doors, and the host closed them as he left their room. “Plus, I thought this conversation might be easier for the three of you with a mother figure around.”
“We already have a mother.” Peyton crossed her arms, standing her ground. “We don’t need another one.”
“Maybe we should do this another time....” Rebecca reached for her handbag, and she looked so uncomfortable that Peyton felt a little guilty for being outwardly mean to her.
“No.” Adrian put his hand on top of hers and slid into the seat at the head of the table, looking at her in what seemed like desperation. “It will be best for all of us if you stay.”
Peyton couldn’t believe it. Adrian seemed calm and collected, like he could handle anything. But could he actually be so nervous to be around them that he needed Rebecca there for emotional support?
Her stomach rumbled; the restaurant smelled like fresh bread and perfectly cooked steak, and she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. She took the seat next to Brett, which was as far away from Adrian as possible.
She placed her napkin on her lap and looked at her silverware in confusion. Why did she need two forks and two knives? And why was the spoon so small and above the plate?
“Start at the outside and work in,” Brett whispered to her. “And don’t touch the spoon until dessert.”
“Thanks.” Apparently she’d looked as confused as she’d felt.
Adrian ordered a bottle of champagne after they went through the introductions. No one mentioned that they were underage, and the waiter didn’t care. Brett didn’t seem fazed, either. Peyton accepted a glass—she was nothing like her mom and could handle her alcohol just fine—and Savannah got one, too. Courtney gave Savannah a warning look and said she was fine with water.
Peyton wondered if Courtney would ever let loose and have fun. They weren’t at home anymore—they were as far from it as possible. Not geographically, obviously, but Vegas couldn’t have been more different from Fairfield if it tried. Peyton wasn’t going to let Vegas change her, since she was fine just as she was, but it might not hurt Courtney to live a little.
“I hear you three will be attending Goodman in the fall,” Rebecca said, playing with her pearl necklace as she waited for an answer.
A pit of dread formed in Peyton’s stomach. She recognized the name of the school Damien had mentioned, but she wouldn’t be in Vegas long enough for school to start. Their mom had to get better before September.
If it ended up taking longer and she and her sisters had to do a few weeks at Goodman, no one had told them yet. Anyway, what was the big deal about the school? It wasn’t like they had an option where they would go. How different could this Goodman place be from Fairfield High?
“Yes,” Adrian said. “After I informed the headmaster that I would make a generous contribution toward the new sports center, I mentioned my three daughters were moving to town and hadn’t picked a school yet. Coincidentally, Goodman had three spots waiting to be filled.”
“How wonderful.” Rebecca beamed. Peyton wasn’t sure if she was fake or trying really hard to get them to like her. Judging by how nervous she seemed, she suspected it was the latter. “It’s the best school in the state. Brett goes there. He’ll be a junior in the fall, so he’ll be in Courtney’s year. He can introduce you to the other students this summer so you’ll know people once school begins.”
“Because you know how much I hang out with the prep school crew,” Brett said. Rebecca gave him a look that said, Stop being so insolent, but Brett just smiled and took a sip of water.
“Back up a second,” Peyton said. “Isn’t it too early to worry about school?”
“I know no one wants to think about going back to school when it’s only the beginning of July, but this was late notice,” Adrian said. “Their deadline for applications is January. Luckily for the three of you, they were able to make an exception.”
“That’s not what I mean.” Peyton clenched her fists, angry at how he played head games with his words. “If Mom’s better in a few weeks, by September we’ll be back home and at Fairfield High. We shouldn’t think about school here until we know when she’ll be out of that place.”
“Oh.” Rebecca’s face crumpled, and she looked at Adrian in question. “They don’t know yet?”
“Know what?” Courtney asked softly.
“I would have said something earlier, but my meeting ran late and we had to hurry to dinner,” Adrian said. “Plus, I thought your grandmother would have told you herself before you left....”
“Well, apparently she didn’t.” Peyton couldn’t take this anymore. “So spit it out.”
Adrian took a sip of water and cleared his throat. “Your mother is in an extremely difficult, stressful point in her life,” he said, looking seriously at each of them. “Once she’s released from inpatient treatment, she’ll have many struggles ahead while getting her life back on track. I’ve purchased your grandmother a larger house—she wasn’t happy about it, but she eventually accepted—and your mom will move in with her once she’s released. This way she’ll have your grandmother’s support while recovering. So until the end of the next school year, the three of you will be living here, with me.”
Peyton slammed her hands down on the table. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said. “This is going to be my senior year. It’s the last year I’ll have with my friends before we graduate. And now you’re saying I’ll have to spend it here, with total strangers? No way is that happening.” She checked to see if her sisters were just as pissed. Courtney’s face had gone white—she seemed shocked, not angry—and Savannah had the nerve to look excited. What the hell was wrong with them? Didn’t they also want to go home?
“You’ll be staying here for the next year.” Adrian didn’t flinch. “It’s in your mother’s best interest. I understand you’re missing home, but I hope you want to do whatever you can to help her recover. She needs to focus on herself in the upcoming months, and that’s going to be easiest for her if she doesn’t have to worry about taking care of anyone else.”
Peyton pressed her lips together, her breaths coming fast. Way for him to make them feel like an unwanted burden.
“But won’t Mom want us around?” Savannah asked with tears in her eyes. Peyton didn’t want to see her cry, but at least this was better than her being excited about staying in Vegas.
“Once she begins outpatient treatment, you’ll be able to visit her,” Adrian said. Then he got very still, as if what he was about to say was hard for him. “But, while I know this might be difficult for you to believe right now, you’re here because I want you to be here, too.”
Peyton leaned back and crossed her arms. No way would she believe that crap.
At the same time, she wanted her mom to get better, and she refused to do anything that might send her spiraling. If staying in Vegas for the year was what it took, she would tough it out and get through it. But she wouldn’t make it easy for Adrian. He hadn’t wanted them in his life until now, and she wasn’t about to smile and forgive him.
“Fine,” she said. “But Goodman isn’t a private school, is it?”
