Page 89 of Be With Me
I hoped next year would be better, though I wasn’t as confident as I wanted to be.
The campaign buzzed with energy, and while we were all trying to stay levelheaded, everything pointed toward my dad’s victory. I was happy for him, but…I was also anxious.
If my dad won, he was preparing for an all-out war against the Ferraros. He was already working with the DA to build a bulletproof case. I didn’t know the details, but the thought of Romolo’s name potentially appearing in the case made my stomach twist.
In addition, Jenny had started hinting at what my obligations might look like once he was elected.
Obligations I wasn’t supposed to have.
When she'd spoken to me about it, Romolo’s words had played at the back of my head.“Tell me…who takes care of you?”
His delivery had been unnecessarily rude, but…it had made me think.
Was there ever going to be a time when my parents wholeheartedly supported my career? Or would it always feel like a negotiation—me trying to carve out time to follow my ambitions, while they told me my time was better spent somewhere else?
I wasn’t opposed to still attending an event here and there with my dad after he became mayor, but if it looked like it was snowballing into something more, I’d have to put my foot down. No matter how uncomfortable the thought of doing that made me feel.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I turned onto Broderick Lane. I was still a few blocks away from the studio when something made me stop in my tracks.
I stared at the storefront to my left.
It was Kassandra’s studio. Or at least, it had been.
It was empty. A For Lease sign dangled from the door, swaying in the late afternoon breeze.
What?Kassandra had been in that space for at least ten years, and now she was just…gone. The last time I’d walked by here was maybe a week ago. It hadn’t been empty then.
I stepped closer, peering through the glass, half expecting to see some kind of note or a sign announcing to a new location. But there was nothing. Just the empty space inside, stripped bare.
Strange.
When I reached my studio, I barely had my coat off before I was flipping open my laptop. There had to be something online. A post, an announcement—something.
But I didn’t even have to search.
The answer was sitting in my inbox.
A message from a former client—one who’d left me for Kassandra—asking if I’d consider taking her back.
Apparently, Kassandra had sent out a notice to her client list just this morning to say she was shutting down her business and moving to Vermont.
I pressed my fingers to my lips.Wow. That business was her baby.
What happened?
CHAPTER26
MIA
“Eliza! Over here! Look this way!” photographers called out, vying for my client’s attention.
I fixed a wrinkle in her skirt. “Go ahead.”
“You’re not coming with me?” she asked, a flicker of surprise crossing her face. She looked stunning in her custom-made brocade gown, a masterpiece that had taken me and a local designer weeks to create.
“I’m going to head straight inside.” For Eliza, this was a big red-carpet moment, but for me, it was a chance to spend one night under the veil of anonymity.
A mask—velvet with a pearl trim that matched the details on my gown—covered the top half of my face.
