Page 54 of The Revenge Plan

This time I laughed. She flinched like I had offended her. “Come on Hailey, You want me to believe that the spoiled princess of Manhattan wanted to become independent?” She crossed her arms against her chest. She was serious. “Have you met my family? I didn’t want to associate myself with that name. After I found out what my father did, I could no longer square myself with spending his money. It felt tainted.”

But then you ended up working for him against me. I didn’t say that part aloud. “What about your friends? You could have stayed with them.”

She gave me a baffled stare. “My old friends from high school hated my guts and enjoyed watching me fall. My newer friends were more like party friends. They liked me as long as I had money. And since I no longer had any and was no longer throwing parties, well, they disappeared.”

“You should have called me. I would have done something.”

She laughed, “So you could enjoy watching my downfall. ”

She was wrong. I would have done something. I hated her, yes, but not that much. I let the issue rest. There was no use arguing over could haves.

31

The next day I went shopping for Caiden’s birthday present. It felt right since he had given me one and I hadn’t. And I felt I had to give him something to say, I’m sorry. A “sorry I spied on you” token. His birthday was exactly two weeks after mine, a fact that was always at the back of my mind.

I didn’t know what to get for him. What does one give a man with everything? My first instinct was to go to the Cartier store. I’ve never seen him with a watch, so I guess that was the one thing he didn’t have?

An attendee immediately greeted me and showed me the pieces they had on offer. The watches were expensive, I should have expected that. The best ones had astronomical price tags. In another time, I would have bought any of them easily, but not now. I was still deciding on what I should do when I heard two familiar voices behind me.

“Hailey!” One said before I could make myself disappear. I turned around and put on my best smile. “Sophie. Dana. Fancy seeing you here.” Ever since I learned about what I had done to Sophie, I had been trying to find a way to apologize to her. Now I had met her again, and without having done so.

Dana peeked behind me and spotted theBallon Bleu Tourbillondiamond watch. The attendee was showing me.

“Wow. Is that what you’re thinking of buying for Caiden?”

I had to suppress my laughter. The watch cost a cool million. Money I definitely didn’t have. I shook my head, “Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be the type of thing he would want.”

The attendee, hearing me, took away the watch from the counter, clearly disappointed, and stored it away.

“You were looking for his present?” Sophie asked.

I nodded. I would no longer buy one. An idea for the perfect present had popped into my head when they were coming over.

They both looked at each other. Some communication passed between them, then Dana said, “what do you think of coming to a party, the both of you, over the weekend.”

Caiden had mentioned something about not being in the country then. He would go back to Paris to finalize the deal with Marco.

“Caiden won’t be around, unfortunately.”

“He doesn’t have to come,” Sophie said, “It’s more of a girls’ thing anyway, and some of our old friends wanted to catch up with you.”

“Really?” Something was off about this invitation. A little voice in me was telling me to say no.

“We would love it, if you could join us,” Dana said. She sounded sincere and didn’t seem to have the former malice that I had seen in her before. What could go wrong?

“It’s a costume party.”

“Oh?”

“You know, like the ones we used to do in high school. Slutty saints and sinners.” I knew the ones. I had hosted most of them.

“They say it’s not a party if Hailey Lyndell isn’t there,” Sophie added.

If they were expecting Party Girl Hailey, I was going to disappoint them, but what would the harm in it be, anyway. It was just a party. And it might be a great opportunity to apologize to Sohpie.

“Sure. Why not?”

They both beamed. “Perfect,” Sophie said, “you’re gonna love it.”

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