When I woke up the next morning, Liam was gone.

There was a note on the nightstand.

Tevi and Marnie will arrive at noon to begin getting you ready for the party this evening. Text me if there are any problems.

Short and to the point, with no mention of where he’d gone or when he would be back.

I glanced at the clock. It was already 11:45. I couldn’t believe that I’d slept so late, although it made sense since I’d been up until dawn.

I got up and opened the blinds, watching outside as a thin fog swirled over the redwoods behind the house. My phone buzzed, and I picked it up. Liam.

Be ready by five.

I bit the inside of my cheek, trying not to scream in frustration.

Where are you? I typed.

His reply came swiftly.

Taking care of something. There will be new security guarding the house. They are meant to be invisible, but if you see them, do not be alarmed. If you try to leave, they will alert me immediately.

What the fuck? My fingers moved swiftly over the screen.

What the fuck, Liam??

I waited as three dots appeared on the screen and then disappeared. He’d started typing something and then thought better of it.

I typed a row of question marks and was just about to push the send button when I heard the sound of two pairs of legs rushing up the stairs, along with muted giggles.

I quickly deleted the text and rushed to answer the knock on the bedroom door.

Tevi and Marnie stood there, smiles on their faces, like they’d been sharing a private joke. But as soon as they saw me standing there, their faces instantly got serious.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Marnie said quickly, glancing at Tevi nervously.

I sighed. “Please,” I said. “You don’t have to be afraid to laugh in front of me, or talk to me like I’m a normal person.” Liam had really put the fear of God into these two. He was like a dictator everyone was afraid of pissing off. “I could use a laugh this morning.”

I opened the door wider and the two of them walked into the room with their jumble of makeup cases and supplies.

“It’s just… Liam’s mom’s face when she saw us,” Marnie said. She was wearing a simple black tunic over black leggings, but her hair was woven with streaks of bright blonde, purple, and pink. She glanced at Tevi and the two of them giggled. “You could tell that she thought we were going to rob her house or something.”

“Why would she think that?” I asked, frowning. “Didn’t Liam tell her you were coming?”

“Oh, she was totally expecting us,” Marnie said, not elaborating as she ushered me into the bathroom. She began checking my extensions, her hair moving through the strands, checking the top of each one. “Have you been pulling on these?” she demanded.

“No. I mean, uh, maybe a little,” I said, remembering my little freak out in the casino hotel room.

Marnie made a sound of disapproval.

“Wait, so this was Mr. Rutherford’s room?” Tevi asked, standing in the doorway to the bathroom as she looked around. “Was it like this to begin with? Or did his parents clear it out once he moved out?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, even though Liam had told me his parents hadn’t changed his room. But to tell someone this felt like some kind of betrayal.

“It was probably like this to begin with,” Marnie said. “You can tell from the way his mother was acting What’s her name again?”

“Annabelle.”

“So pretentious!”

“What do you mean, the way his mother was asking?” I asked, as Tevi moved past me and turned the shower on, pulling the curtain closed.

“Well, look at the house they have,” Marnie said. “It’s beautiful, but you can tell they’re sort of living above their means. Liam grew up in this house, right? But his father started his restaurant business, like, five years ago, and it’s allegedly super successful. So then why do they live in the same house?”

“Because they wanted to save money?” I tried.

“No way.” Tevi shook her head. “They’re obsessed with appearances. Like this bathroom. It’s obviously an add-on.”

“An add-on?” I asked.

“Yeah. They added it on. Probably because they can’t afford to move to a bigger house, so they want this house to be big. You can tell from the way it’s decorated. There’s an addition on the back, too. You can see it from the road. It looks like they just shoved a couple more rooms onto the back.

Marnie nodded. “You should listen to Tevi. She knows all about these kind of things.”

“My dad’s a contractor,” Tevi explained.

“It makes sense,” I said. “They’re really into appearances, Liam’s family.”

“Oh, totally,” Marnie said. “Like we said, you should have seen the look she gave me and Tevi.”

“What kind of look was it?” I asked, desperate to hear about what Annabelle had done, and thankful I had someone to talk to about how strange she was.

“Oh, you know,” Tevi said, and shrugged. “Her eyes got all wide, and she looked behind us, like she was expecting some Armani suited man to show up instead.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, for some reason feeling the need to apologize.

“Oh, don’t apologize,” Marnie said. She leaned over the counter and looked at herself in the mirror, fixing one of her fake eyelashes and giving her reflection a satisfied smile, confident in herself and what she saw staring back at her. “She’s one of those people that’s all about appearances. Like, she’d rather have someone who looked the part rather than someone who’s good at what they do. You know what I mean? She’s more concerned with what other people think.”

“I cannot stand people like that,” Tevi said, shaking her head. “They’re so –“ She trailed off and straightened her shoulders. “Sorry,” she said. “I mean, I’m sure she’s perfectly nice.”

“Not really,” I said. “She’s just… ” I trailed off, realizing that no matter how much these two made me feel like they were my friends, I barely knew them. And they worked for Liam. And as much as I didn’t like that they were so scared of him, I also knew it would be completely inappropriate to confide in them. “It’s complicated,” I finished lamely.

My breath hitched as I waited for them to ask me more about what they meant, but the two of them were professionals.

They knew their clients had complicated lives, knew that they were paid to make them look beautiful, not uncomfortable.

It was just another reminder of how alone I really felt. Marnie and Tevi were fun to joke around with, but they weren’t my friends.

Maddie would have asked questions, would have pried until she got the truth out of me.

It was just another reminder of how much my life had changed.

* * *

Five hours.

That’s how long it took for me to get ready.

First there was a shower, followed by a mani pedi, followed by a waxing of, um, everywhere, followed by a touch-up of my extensions, then my makeup, which seemed to take forever, with about five different kinds of foundation, fake eyelashes, eyeliner, lipstick, lip gloss, and a finishing spray that Tevi declared would “make my look last.”

Finally, I was dressed in foundation garments, then my dress, then jewelry.

Then Marnie and Tevi were gone, with a quick squeeze of my shoulder, and exclamations of how beautiful I looked.

I stood in front of the full-length mirror they’d set up and left behind, studying myself.

My hair was lush and full, shiny and beautiful, the extensions cascading over my shoulders, indistinguishable from my own hair. A simple black sparkle headband pushed my hair away from my face.

My makeup was flawless, the techniques of a professional giving me shadows and contours that gave the illusion of cheekbones and full lips.

My dress was elegant and understated, black with cap sleeves and a nipped in bodice that flared to a skirt with just a touch of tulle to give it a puffy, edgy look without taking away the sophistication.

Simple black pumps encased my feet, and diamond stud earrings completed the look.

“You look stunning.”

Liam’s voice pulled me out of my reverie, and I turned to find him standing in the doorway.

He was dressed in a tuxedo, black with a white shirt, classic and elegant. His dark hair had been recently cut, and was perfectly coiffed. The garments were cut perfectly to his frame, expertly tailored to give him an air of sophistication and power while making sure he still looked masculine.

As he moved closer, the clean, crisp scent of his cologne hit my nose.

“Thank you,” I said, as he stood behind me in the mirror, his large frame dominating our reflection.

He reached out and slipped his hand through mine, and trailed his fingertips up my bare arms.

“Where were you all day?” I asked. “You didn’t tell me.”

“Emery.”

My eyes filled with tears, and I looked away, moving toward the chair in the corner where Marnie had left a simple sparkly black clutch. If I stayed near him, I was going to cry, and that would just ruin my mascara.

“Emery, look at me.”

“Please, Liam,” I said. “I just want to get through the night and then…”

I trailed off.

“And then what?”

“And then…” I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

He took a step toward me, but from outside, the sound of a car horn honking came from the driveway, echoing up the steps and through the open door.

“Liam! The car is here!” Annabelle’s voice pierced through the air, and I rushed out the door before Liam could stop me.

* * *

When we got to outside, a shiny black limo was waiting for us in front of the house.

A chauffeur stood next to the car, but he looked nothing like Liam’s driver, Gustav. Liam’s driver was older and had the air of a man who’d seen a lot, the lines on his face betraying his years of service.

This driver was just a kid, wearing a suit that looked too big for him and a hat that dipped over one of his eyes.

He had a spattering of acne on his chin, and his forehead was shiny.

He obviously wasn’t a private driver. Instead, he looked like the kind of driver who’d take you to the prom, like he’d been hired for a one-time gig from a service. Not that there was anything wrong with that – I never got the obsession with cars. Growing up my mom had always driven a junker that was constantly breaking down, the kind of cars you had to bribe someone at a shady gas station into giving you an inspection sticker for.

Annabelle stood in front of the limo, looking gorgeous in a long coral-colored A-line dress, her hair pulled back into a tight bun, a single strand of pearls around her neck.

Malcolm wore a tuxedo and shiny shoes, his salt and pepper hair slicked back from his face, giving him the look of an important mob boss.

“Surprise!” Annabelle yelled. “We got a limo!”

“That’s nice,” Liam said, sounding like it was anything but.

He was holding my hand, had taken it as soon as we’d stepped out of the house, as if his touch was going to keep me from leaving.

“So we’ll all ride together,” Malcolm said. He walked over and took my hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it. “You look gorgeous, Emery.”

“Thank you,” I said as I felt Liam stiffen beside me, not liking his father touching me.

“Shall we?” Malcolm asked, gesturing magnanimously to the limo.

“Actually, Emery and I are going to drive ourselves,” Liam said.

“What?” Annabelle looked almost panicked. “But we should all arrive together. It will be expected.”

“I don’t think anyone will care how we show up,” Liam said, shrugging. “Besides, I have a surprise for you both.” The tone of his voice was snide, his eyes flat. It wasn’t the way you told someone about a surprise, unless it was like, surprise, I have herpes! or something equally horrible.

My stomach flipped.

“What kind of surprise?” Malcolm said.

Liam pulled out his key fob and pushed a button, and behind us, the garage door began to open. Malcolm, Annabelle, and I all turned around to look, but Liam stayed facing forward, his eyes on his father’s face.

The garage was a two-car, and it looked almost out of place, as if it wasn’t big enough for the house since the extension had been added on.

The door finished opening, revealing a beat-up blue pickup. It looked old, and not in a good way. There was rust across the back, and the bumper looked slightly dented.

“What is that?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“It’s my truck,” Liam said, answering my question. But he was still looking at his father, and I turned to look at Malcolm.

The older Rutherford had a sick look on his face. He’d gone completely pale.

“Can you believe I tracked it down?” Liam asked. “It was at a dealership in Fresno, took me forever to get it back here.”

“That’s impressive,” his father said, staring back at Liam with cold eyes. “You always were good at finding things that had been lost.”

“Emery and I will be taking the truck to the party.”

And with that, Liam took my hand and led me to the car.

* * *

The venue was twenty minutes away from Liam’s parents’ house, and Liam was stoic on the ride over. Something about his demeanor led me to believe that I shouldn’t ask questions. But I was sick of it, was frustrated that I was never allowed to ask questions about anything.

I was about to confront him about why we were driving to a fancy party in a beat-up old pick-up truck when my phone buzzed with a text.

I looked down at the screen.

Annabelle.

Wondering if u had a chance to talk to Liam about the investment opportunity? I’m sure you could have such an influence on him!

Liam frowned as his own phone buzzed, pulled it out, and looked at the screen. My texts must have been mirrored right to his phone.

“Why is my mother texting you?” he demanded.

“Why are we driving to the party in a beat-up pick-up truck when you’re one of the richest men in the world?” I shot back.

“Answer my question,” he said, his hand tightening around my knee.

I sighed. “She got my number at the hotel, “I said. “She wants me to ask you about investing in your father’s restaurants in Portland.”

“She what?”

“She wants me to –”

“Yeah, I heard you, Emery. It was rhetorical.”

We were pulling up in front of the Palm Bay Yacht Club now, but we were at a different entrance than we’d gone in before. This entrance was in the back, and the cobblestone path we were on curved all the way around the building, behind the club and towards the ocean.

A valet rushed over and opened the door for me, not showing any reaction to the fact that we were in a dirty old truck.

When Liam came around and took my hand, he began leading me down the twisting cobblestone path toward the water, where a yacht bobbed in the harbor.

“The party is on a boat?” I asked. “When were you going to tell me that?”

He glanced at me. “Do you get seasick?”

“No.”

“Then what does it matter?”

“It matters because you don’t tell me anything!”

“Emery, please.”

“Why did we come here in a dirty old truck?” I demanded. “Are you going to tell me that at least?”

We were approaching the yacht now, which rose out of the water majestically. It was huge, much bigger than any house I’d ever lived in. It took my breath away, and momentarily distracted me from the conversation I was having.

“No,” he said. “I’m not.”

A man in a crisp black waiter’s uniform unclipped a rope and allowed us onto the boat. Malcolm and Annabelle weren’t there yet, not that I expected them to be.

The way Liam had driven here – fast and reckless -- had guaranteed that we would be here before they were.

But Vienna and Drew were there, standing by the railing that curved around the entire boat.

Vienna looked like a goddess, in a long white dress spun through with gold strands. Thin, braided gold straps rested against her shoulders, her body elegant and sanguine, like a gazelle.

Drew stood next to her, strong and intimidating in a dark tuxedo, his hand resting on her hip.

“There you are!” Vienna said, her eyes lighting when she saw Liam. “I was texting you.”

She was texting him? I glanced at Liam, anger flooding through me at the way he could text whoever he wanted, and meanwhile, my conversations with Maddie, who had been my friend forever, were monitored like she was some kind of criminal.

“Nice to see you, cousin,” Drew said, taking a sip from the glass he was holding. It was filled with champagne, a sparkly kind with a strawberry in the middle. “You look nice, Emery,” he said, leaning in to kiss both my cheeks, and I let him, enjoying the way Liam’s jaw twitched.

As I pulled away from Drew, I caught a glimpse of a tiny bruise that grazed his chin, and I wondered if Liam had put it there last night.

Drew saw me looking at it, and his eyes narrowed, like he was trying to figure out if I knew he and Liam had been fighting the night before. And yet there was a calmness there, too, almost like he wanted me to know, or didn’t really give a shit if I did. I quickly averted my eyes to his champagne glass.

“That looks delicious,” I said. It was really just an excuse to stop him from wondering what I was looking at, but as I said it, I realized I was telling the truth. I badly wanted a drink.

“Yeah, well, you can tell Annabelle picked the drinks.” He drained the rest of his glass. “Malcolm would never stand for this frou frou shit.”

“There was a waiter wandering around passing them out,” Vienna offered.

I glanced around, but I didn’t see anyone.

“Emery won’t be drinking tonight,” Liam said.

“Yes, I will,” I said, making sure to keep my voice light. “I just need to find someone with a tray of champagne.”

Vienna’s lips twitched into a tiny smile, as if she were enjoying the fact that there was tension between me and Liam, and her blue eyes fell to the space between us, where she watched as Liam’s hand tightened around mine. “There’s a bar downstairs,” Vienna said. “I’d be happy to take you down there, Emery.”

“That sounds great,” I said.

I hated her in that moment. Something about her just rubbed me the wrong way -- how she acted so cool and above it all, and I just hated that there were things about Liam she knew that I didn’t.

But my desire for a drink and to show Liam that I wasn’t beholden to his every whim overrode my distaste for Vienna.

So I followed her down a winding staircase to the lower level of the boat. The bar was situated in a huge room that was dotted with sophisticated black leather sofas. The bar took up one whole side of the boat, and bottles of alcohol were lined up against a mirror which had the disconcerting appearance of reflecting the ocean back on itself, like it went on forever.

Through the windows on the other side of the boat, the ocean sparkled, spread out in front of us like a jeweled runway.

Beneath us, every few feet, parts of the carpet were cut out, replaced by circles of glass, so that you could see through to the water below. It made walking hard – it gave a disconcerting feeling, almost like you were constantly stepping off an elevator or something, that same kind of dizzy vertigo hitting you with every step.

“It’s so you can look at the fish later,” Vienna explained. “When we get farther away from shore. Not like anyone on the boat does it. It’s gauche.”

“That seems silly,” I said. “Missing out on seeing something beautiful because you might look silly.”

“They won’t miss out, Em,” she said, intentionally shortening my name as she glided to the bar. And it wasn’t in a cute way, either, not like she wanted to use a nickname in an effort to forge a connection between us. No, sbe said it like she was trying to make me sound old-fashioned, like I was Auntie Em from the goddamn Wizard of Oz or some shit. “Most of us have been on scuba trips that make looking through a hole kind of anti-climatic.”

I ignored the dig and ordered a glass of moscato from the bartender, regretting it when I realized it was the same drink I’d ordered at the casino, when I’d met that man who’d accosted me. But I didn’t care. I needed a drink, and I hated the taste of wine. Moscato was bubbly and sweet, just the kind of thing you could drink and not feel like you were drinking alcohol until your head was too fuzzy to care.

Vienna ordered a dry white wine, something fancy and French that I couldn’t pronounce.

I set my credit card down on the bar, but when the bartender returned with our drinks, he looked at it and frowned.

“It’s open bar, Em,” Vienna said snidely.

Which she could have told me before he brought the drinks.

“Oh,” I said casually, as if I didn’t care about my faux pas. I took a sip of my drink and tried to pretend like my face wasn’t flaming.

Smartly dressed people wandered by on the boat, some of them nodding or saying hello to Vienna, but she made no move to introduce me.

“So,” she said. “Have you talked to Liam?”

“About?”

“About investing in his father’s company.”

“Liam makes his own decisions,” I said. “You should know that.”

“How should I know that?” she asked, and for the first time, she seemed a little rattled. There was nothing overt about it. Her voice didn’t crack, but there was something there, something pulsing below the surface. She didn’t like thinking that maybe Liam and I had talked about her. I could tell.

“Isn’t that why you came to the plane the other night?” I asked. “So you could try to convince him to get back together with you?”

“Is that what he told you?” She laughed. “I’m sorry, Em, if he made you feel insecure, but I’m with Drew now.”

“Yes, you guys seem so in love,” I said snidely, taking a sip of my drink. The long gulp went down smooth. This was some good wine, the kind of wine I’d never had before, the kind of wine that probably cost something obscene per glass, the kind of wine that could definitely get me drunk.

“We are,” Vienna said, just as snidely. “Of course, it’s like that when you have a history with someone. Liam, Drew, and I all grew up together. But I’m sure Liam told you that.”

“I assumed,” I said, “since Drew is his cousin.”

“Then you know about what happened between the three of us?”

I stayed silent, and my eyes fell onto my credit card, which was still sitting on the bar. My hands craved something to do, but I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of seeing me pick it up, like it was something to be embarrassed about.

“Of course,” I said.

Her eyes narrowed into little beads, and her mouth pulled into a thin line. “I really doubt it,” she said. “Because if he told you what happened, you wouldn’t be standing here talking to me.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re so blinded by love for him that you’d believe him,” she said. “That’s how it always is with the women he dates. They don’t know how to handle him.” She swigged back the rest of her wine in one fluid movement, then signaled the bartender. “Red this time, please.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, my heart pounding. Suddenly, I felt claustrophobic, like I needed to get out of there. “Anyway, I should probably get back upstairs. Liam will be waiting for me.” I grabbed my credit card and turned to leave.

But Vienna reached out and grabbed my arm, pulled me back toward her. “Listen and listen good,” she said. “I don’t know what exactly is going on between you and Liam. I do know that Liam sure as hell didn’t meet you asking for directions, and I also know there’s no way he told you anything about his past. That honor is reserved for the people who lived it.”

“That may be true,” I said, wrenching myself out of her grasp. She may have been beautiful and rich, but physically she was no match for me, and I took delight in the look on her face as I pulled away from her with ease. “But there’s a reason he’s here with me and not you.”

“The reason, Emery, is because he’s in denial. Like I said, I don’t know why he’s picked you to be the one he might listen to, but if you care about him at all, you’ll talk to him about investing in his father’s business.”

“If I care about him at all, I’ll let him make up his own mind.”

“You don’t understand,” she said, and now she seemed very upset, very mad, almost like a feral animal. “This is important.” She grabbed at me again, her nails digging into my skin, and when I tried to pull away, they scraped against my skin, causing scratches and scant lines of blood to appear.

“Let go of me,” I said, and when I turned, I saw Liam’s mother coming down the stairs.

At the sight of Annabelle, Vienna let me go, and I stumbled toward the stairs, falling when I reached the bottom. I heard the crowd of people who were huddled around the bar gasp, but no one moved to help me.

“What did you do?” I heard Annabelle demand of Vienna.

“She’s useless,” Vienna said. “She’s not going to help.”

I straightened up and rushed up the stairs.

My phone was buzzing when I got to the top, and I fumbled in my purse for it.

A text.

From Maddie.

I’m sorry, Emery, but I have to block you. Please don’t contact me again.

I cried out, both from the shock and horror of the text, and from the fact that I could finally get a good look at the scratches Vienna had left on my arm, which were now bleeding angrily.

Maddie had never sent a text like that to me, had never just given up on me. Even during our worst fights, she’d never, ever, shut me out. She’d never refused to talk to me, to try to figure it out. It was the thing I loved about her and our friendship, one of the things that bonded us together.

The boat began to move away from the shore, and I felt panic rising inside of me.

I needed to get away from here, needed to get away from this boat, from these people, from this life.

I searched for Liam, and when I saw him leaning over the side rail, my heart caught, that familiar feeling clutching and clawing at my heart.

I loved him.

That’s what I’d told him, and I meant it.

But I couldn’t do this anymore.

He looked up, as if he could sense my presence, and he rushed toward me.

“Emery,” he said. “What happened?”

“I want to go home,” I said. “Please, I just… I need to go home. Back to New York, please, I want…”

The rest of my words were drowned out by the sound of Malcolm tapping his knife against a glass.

“Attention, please,” he said, and everyone looked up to see him on the upper level of the yacht, standing on a balcony overlooking us.

The crowd around us cheered, as if he were a king coming out to hold court.

“I’d like to welcome everyone here tonight and thank you for coming to celebrate. This is a very special night, because not only are we celebrating our current success, but my son Liam has just announced that he will be partnering with me on expanding our current franchise into the Pacific Northwest!”

The crowd gasped and clapped, and a man with a press badge turned his attention to Liam and snapped a picture.

“What?” I asked, confused. I looked up at Liam, watched as his jaw set in a tense line. Why would Vienna have been asking me to talk to Liam if he’d already agreed to invest in his father’s business?

Unless he hadn’t.

I studied Liam’s face, could sense the fury pulsing underneath his perfectly arranged features.

He obviously hadn’t agreed to invest in his father’s business. Instead, Malcolm had taken it upon himself to make that announcement, knowing that if he said it in front of everyone, Liam would be forced to do it.

Liam was furious. But he stayed quiet, obviously not wanting to make a scene.

But I was past that point.

“No, he didn’t,” I said, yelling up to Malcolm. “He didn’t say he would partner with you. He didn’t want to.”

“Emery,” Liam said, and I felt him grabbing my arm, but I shook him off. The crowd was murmuring now, slowly getting wind of what was going on as I continued my outburst.

“You made that up,” I said. “He doesn’t want to partner with you, but for some reason you think that you can just say that he does, and that will make it true. It’s not true.”

The crowd was gasping now, their voices getting louder, and Malcolm looked confused, like he wasn’t sure what to do.

He laughed, like he was trying to make it out like I was playing some kind of joke, but it wasn’t a joke.

Not to me.

These people might have been committed to their secrets and their lies and their demons.

But I wasn’t going to be a part of it.

Not anymore.

“Emery Waters, everyone,” Malcolm said. “Liam’s lady friend. Apparently she hasn’t gotten the memo that Liam doesn’t share details of his business with everyone.”

The crowd nervously tittered, and my eyes locked on Malcolm’s.

I saw the fury on his face, saw that it was directed at me, like hot lightning that I could feel burning through my body. And for the first time since I’d gotten here, I was afraid of him. Very afraid of him.

He raised his glass to his lips, and I watched as he flicked his other wrist at a burly security guard, who was standing on the side of the boat.

The guard started moving his way toward me, but Liam stepped in his path. “Don’t you fucking touch her,” he growled.

I didn’t know where they were going to take me, what they were going to do. We were on a fucking boat, for God’s sake. It wasn’t like they could kick me off.

I ran toward the other end of the boat, and watched as the Palm Bay Yacht Club glittered on the short, only about fifty yards away.

It wasn’t too late.

I knew how to swim.

I stood on the railing, took a deep breath, and jumped.