“What’s today’s date?” Lex asked.
“August eleventh.”
“Dad is in Finland. Tomorrow his band goes off to Norway.” Eddie Easton’s Headbanger Glam Metal Show toured as the longest-running concert to come from one studio album in music history. On his fifth year, he’d come home to see Lex and Birdie—twice. Lex slammed the window shut and, in her bare feet, climbed the fire escape to her own apartment.
“Coming.” Tabitha sprayed air freshener, hit the ceiling fan and lit a vanilla-scented candle. After unlocking the door, she jumped on the bed and shouted, “Come in.” She turned to see Mr. Constance, her family’s butler who’d lived with them for as long as she could remember.
“Your parents request your presence in the study.” He wiped his eyes when he stepped into her room and picked her jeans off the floor.
“Are you crying?” she asked and sat her Seventeen magazine down. Mr. Constance was never upset, at least not in front of her. “You okay?” Tabitha reached out to give him a hug.
He shook his head to reassure her. “Go see your folks, right this instant.”
“Yes sir.” Lately, she’d grown to hate any interaction with her family. This month they’d gone cuckoo, similar to Lex’s mother, Birdie, and they didn’t make much sense. Her mother had hit the gin, and in return, her father had hit his wife.
At her parents’ request, she came off the landing on the second floor and walked into the study. Her mother sat on the sofa, unable to make eye contact with her. Weirdo.
“Tabitha Adelaide, take a seat.” Her father greeted her from the room’s far side with an unrecognizable, icy expression.
She stepped closer and tried to forget the article she’d read upstairs. “Hey, Daddy. Hi, Mommy.” Tabitha sat in a comfy chair opposite her mother on the sofa. The blue fabric warmed her bare legs. She used to sit in the same place as a little girl when her father rehearsed his lectures. “You wanted to see me?”
“Honey, your father has decided—”
“We!!! We decided,” he corrected her mother.
“Your father and I think it would be best if you—attend boarding school this fall while we sort things out at home.”
“Where?”
“The Avon Porter Academy.”
“It’s in Cheshire, Connecticut,” her mother reassured her as if she’d come visit on the weekends. Could Irma make the trip? Lately, the woman couldn’t wash yesterday’s makeup off her face, let alone navigate herself down one city block.
“Why?” Tabitha searched her mother’s eyes for cause. “I didn’t do anything wrong…” She observed the frown that had set into her dad’s face weeks ago deepen.
Lost in a trance, Countess Irma stared at the silk fringes on the rug. Her mother held the tumbler she’d sipped booze in up to her thin lips and emptied the remains down her throat.
“Daddy?” Fear twisted inside her and demanded a reason. “I’m your girl. You promised you’d never send me away to school.”
“You’ll leave in a week.”
“For how long?” Her world felt destroyed.
Her parents ignored the question. She realized they meant for good. “The Eastons are sending Lex this fall. You two will attend school together.” His voice became a gnat in her ear. “Go into the kitchen and help Mr. Constance with dinner.”
Barely able to stand, she bit the inside of her cheek to still her lips from a scream. She ran from the room and slammed the heavy door behind her. Tabitha put her ear against the entrance and listened as she always did.
“You could still act as if she’s your daughter,” her mother cried.
“She’s not.” His voice sounded weird. Tabitha never heard these words come from him.
What were they talking about?
“You can still love her, Joseph.”
“Our daughter is from your affair. I always knew you and Birdie Easton shared a lot in common—pill popping and booze. Who knew you both fucked the same—”
“I don’t want you listening.” Mr. Constance came up behind Tabitha and pulled her away from the doorway. “Come, help me with supper.”
* * * * *
Tabitha caught on quick to toughen up to what life threw her way. When her parents never came to visit her at boarding school, she didn’t get upset. No, she knew she wasn’t wanted. She’d gone through her entire childhood and never heard “I love you” from them.
Nor was Tabitha shocked when she spent Christmas and Easter with Mrs. Pringle, her gym teacher. And she wasn’t discouraged at eighteen when her Aunt Muffie came to her graduation and told her the college trust fund she’d counted on for Columbia University was empty.
Birdie gave her centerfold contacts for Playboy. At eighteen, Tabitha became Playmate of the Year. She secured a spokesmodel gig for a pushup bra and soon realized two things. One, women should never push up anything. And two, bunny ears didn’t look good on her. Tabitha preferred to be behind the scenes, where she could retain more control over what the press would write instead of being just another pretty-faced model. This insight motivated her during her junior year in college to create Brill, Inc., her own public relations firm, and specialize in all things glamorous. She did whatever was required to make it in New York City. With no shame, driven by determination, she wouldn’t be defeated by her parents’ wrongdoings.
Her walls remained up.
Tabitha grew tough and was deemed unscrupulous by her actions to get ahead. Some identified her as a bitch. Those who worked at her media company called her Miss Taddy Brill.
Chapter One
Good Morning, Warner Truman
Present Day, December 20
Tribeca, New York City
If Paris was called the City of Romance and Shanghai was coined the Pearl of the Orient, then Manhattan was the Metropolis for Singles. Twenty-eight percent, to be exact, of the Big Apple was indeed unhitched. In the metro area, men had over thirty-five thousand restaurants to take their woman to on a date. And if they hadn’t met her yet, they could at any of the city’s thirty-eight thousand bars. Warner Truman knew this already. However, that winter he’d done his best to remain single and sleep alone.
Or so he thought…
Warner rolled over, burying his not-yet-awake face into the nape of an unfamiliar bleach-blonde. Her processed hair crunched harshly against his skin. He cupped her lackluster breasts with his hands and pulled her close. I love tits.