Thirty-some-odd hours later, I was no closer to finding my sister.

“Any word on Lydia?” Jane asked, coming into the kitchen. I sat at the table, searching my phone.

I shook my head. “I called the police, but she’s an adult, and she isn’t really missing,” I told her. “And California is a big place.”

“I’m so sorry, Lizzie.” Jane put her hands on my shoulders and gave me a reassuring squeeze.

“My uncle is driving down from Sacramento today, but I’m not sure how much help it’s going to be,” I continued. “I forgot that our Mom and Dad were in the middle of the ocean on their cruise. I can’t even get ahold of them. Even so, they couldn’t do anything even if I could reach them.”

I looked down at my cereal and realized I hadn’t eaten a bite of it. It was now just soggy mush.

“How are you doing?” Jane asked. I could tell she was worried about me.

“I didn’t sleep the night of the party, and I didn’t sleep much last night. I just kept looking up and calling hotels,” I told her. I played with the soggy cereal with my spoon. I wasn’t hungry anyway. “She’s been in California for forty-eight hours, and I haven’t had a word from her. I worried.”

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Jane told me, but she didn’t sound like she fully believed it herself.

“I booked a ticket for a flight out,” I told her. “I was able to get a red-eye. It’s the earliest I could get.” I sighed and stared at my breakfast mush. “I don’t know what I’m going to do there, but I can’t just sit and do nothing.”

“You’ll find her,” Jane promised. I wanted to believe her so badly.

“I can’t believe she did this,” I said. Frustration welled up inside my chest and threatened to consume me. “She has no real money, she doesn’t know anyone out there, and she makes stupid decisions if someone tells her it will make her famous. I should have told her about Wickham.”

“We couldn’t have known this was going to happen,” Jane replied. “This isn’t your fault.”

“I am supposed to look out for her,” I replied, my voice coming out harsher than I intended. “She’s my little sister.”

Jane didn’t take my sharp tone personally. “Maybe it’s nothing,” she told me, looking on the bright side. “Maybe she really does have a real shot at an acting role. Just because he was fired doesn’t mean he can’t still have connections.”

I just looked at her. There was no way in hell that was even remotely possible.

Jane shrugged in acknowledgment of how ridiculous she sounded. “I’m just trying to make you feel better.”

I hardly acknowledged her. I just pushed my bowl of mush away.

Jane patted my shoulder and took the bowl to the sink for me. I stared out the window for a minute as she did my dishes. Jane was good to me.

I chewed my lip. There was something else I needed to ask Jane.

“Hey, I heard that Charles is back in New York,” I said after a moment. I turned in my chair to look at her.

Jane froze for a split second before putting on a fake smile. “I heard that too,” she replied. She shrugged casually. “But, we don’t exactly run in the same social circles, so I don’t think that I’ll run into him.”

She went back to scrubbing my cereal bowl with a vengeance.

“Are you okay?” I asked. I thought about getting up and helping, but the way she was attacking the bowl made me nervous. If I got too close, she might scrub me.

“I’m fine,” she replied, her voice flat. “I’m totally over him. He broke my heart, but I’m over it. I’ve moved on.”

I raised my eyebrows as she looked over at me. I didn’t believe a word of it.

“If I saw him on the street, I would simply wave and keep going,” she informed me, holding the scrub brush in a death grip. “No big deal.”

She turned and attacked the already sparkling kitchen sink. Our apartment was so clean she was going to have to start asking neighbors to clean their apartments just to have something dirty to tackle.

“Okay, then,” I told her. “If I see him, though, I’m going to punch him.”

“Lizzie!” Jane turned nearly threw the scrub brush at me before realizing it was a joke. “Don’t do that. Don’t punch people.”

“Fine. I promise.” I grinned at her. “Besides, he’s got security guards. I’d never get close enough.”

Jane chuckled and shook her head at me. “You did once.”

I shared a wry smile back at her. “You’re right. I did once.”

We shared a laugh. Then she sighed and grabbed the Clorox from under the sink, then began to scrub. I wondered how much a stainless steel sink would cost since she was going to scrub the varnish clean off of ours. It had to be half an inch thinner from just her scrubbing it this month.

I sighed and checked my phone for any messages or updates from Lydia.

There were, of course, none.

I tried to keep the rising panic in my chest under control by checking on the status of my flight tonight. I had no real plans of what I was going to do once I got to California, but I hoped just being in the right city would help my search.

And, if heaven forbid, Lydia needed me to rescue her from a terrible situation, I would be there and not a six-hour flight away.

I was mentally packing my bags with what I would need to bring and what could fit in a carry-on when the apartment door opened.

In walked Lydia with a big smile.

“Lydia?” I stood up, sure I was hallucinating. “Oh, thank god!”

I ran to her, wrapping my arms around her neck and holding her to me. My little sister was home and safe. She was fine.

“What in the world is up with you?” Lydia asked, gently pulling away. She looked at me like I’d lost my mind. She turned and instructed the man behind her. “Just put my bag inside here, Jeeves. Thank you.”

I watched as a uniformed man lugged her massive suitcase inside the door. I hurried to grab him a tip which he gratefully accepted before nodding his head and heading back down to his car.

“We were so worried about you,” Jane told her, running over to hug Lydia as well. I was glad to see she’d left the scrub brush at the sink.

“Worried about what?” Lydia scoffed. She threw her hair over her shoulder, just like I imagined a Hollywood actress would.

“You went to California,” Jane replied. “With Wickham. And you didn’t call.”

Lydia sighed like we were the ones being dramatic. “I didn’t have time to call. I have a real agent now,” she told us. “There’s no way I don’t become a star now.”

“A real agent?” Jane repeated. “I don’t understand. What happened with Wickham?”

“He’s old news,” she said, waving her hand through the air like we should have already known.

I stared at her, my mouth open. Jane quickly came over and took Lydia’s elbow before I smacked her.

“How about you come sit down and tell us what happened?” Jane asked, smiling and pulling her toward the table. “I’m afraid we aren’t well-versed in Hollywood.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t expect you to be, Jane,” Lydia replied. She smiled and sat at the head of the kitchen table. I stood off to the side with my arms crossed near the window.

I looked out the window just in time to see a limo drive away from our building. It had the Oceanic Airlines’ logo painted on the roof. More questions swirled in my head as Lydia cleared her throat.

“So, I told Wickham that I wasn’t an heiress,” she began. “You would have been proud of me, Lizzie. He didn’t care, but he did tell me that he had just gotten a new idea for me.”

“Right after you told him you weren’t rich?” I clarified.

“Yeah, but the timing was just coincidence. It had nothing to do with the deal he was about to set up for me.”

I managed to keep from rolling my eyes, and let her continue.

“Anyway, he brought me out to Los Angeles,” she continued. “I was supposed to meet with this big producer tonight in his hotel room.”

“Wait a second,” I interjected, unable to contain myself any more. “You were meeting with a producer in his hotel room? At night?”

Lydia rolled her eyes. “Yes. It’s very normal, okay?” She looked at me like I was the crazy one.

“If you say so,” Jane said, pacifying the situation. “Please continue, Lydia.”

“Anyway, it was about lunchtime yesterday when Wickham went off to set up some more meetings for me. He said he had other producers that were interested in my talents,” Lydia continued.

“I’m sure they were,” I muttered under my breath. Lydia didn’t hear me, but Jane glared at me.

“I went for a walk out in the California sunshine. I have to say that my hair and makeup were on point,” Lydia continued. “I looked good. So, I was just standing by the side of the road, minding my own business, when this limo pulls up. The window opened, and no joke, it’s Abram Jones.”

“Who’s Abram Jones?” I asked. Lydia rolled her eyes and glared at me.

“Who’s Abram Jones?” Jane repeated in a much gentler tone. Lydia patted her hand and smiled.

“He’s just the biggest agent in Hollywood,” she told Jane with a small chuckle. “He has all the major stars signed to him. Actors wait years just to be introduced to him, and he pulled up and asked to be introduced to me.”

She giggled and looked around the table. Apparently, we were supposed to be in awe.

“Oh, wow,” I replied. Lydia sighed, obviously unimpressed with my lack of excitement.

Jane’s phone buzzed. “Shoot, excuse me for a second. Keep going, Lydia. I just have to take this call. It’s work.”

Jane got up and went to the living room. I could hear her talking to someone on the other line.

Lydia didn’t wait to continue her story. “So, I got in the limo, and-”

“Wait, you just got in a limo with a strange man?” I interrupted. “What were you thinking?”

“You do it every time you get in a cab, Lizzie,” Lydia snapped back at me. “Besides, Mr. Darcy was with him, so I knew it was okay.”

His name hit me like a bag of bricks.

“Mr. Darcy was with him?” I asked, taking a step forward.

“Shoot. I wasn’t supposed to tell you that,” Lydia said. She pouted. “Please forget I said anything about him.”

I blinked twice. How was I supposed to forget something like that? Lydia just sat there, waiting for me to promise. She wasn’t going to continue her story until I said something.

“Okay, what’d I miss?” Jane asked, returning to the table. Lydia looked at me, her arms crossed.

“Lydia got in a limo with a strange man she didn’t know,” I replied. “No one else was in there. Go on, Lydia.”

“Good.” Lydia smiled and adjusted her shoulders to sit taller. “I got in, and he says that he loves my head-shots and that he has the perfect role for me. The part is basically mine. It’s a smaller film, and it’s only a supporting role, but Oprah Winfrey won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her debut role, so I think it’ll be fine. Besides, I think starting in a smaller role really adds to the allure of coming from nothing and making it big.”

I just stared at my sister. I didn’t even know where to begin with that. How in the world were we related? There had to have been a genetic mix-up somewhere.

“What happened with Wickham?” Jane asked, bringing the conversation back to where we started.

“Oh, right.” Lydia took a breath. “Since I had met with Abram, oh- he asked me to call him Abram, I didn’t need to meet with the producer that night. In fact, Abram told me not to. He had me get on a plane and come home right away so I can start preparing for my role.”

If nothing else, I liked this Abram. He got my sister to come home.

“I got to fly home on a private jet,” Lydia continued. “It was Abram’s. By coincidence, he happened to have bought it from your friend Mr. Darcy last year. It felt so luxurious and right to be on there. I don’t think I can ever fly normally again.”

“How nice,” I replied. There was more to this story than Lydia was telling me and most of it revolved around Mr. Darcy. What in the world had he done to bring my sister home? I could only imagine what hiring an agent like Abram must have cost.

I sat down hard on one of the kitchen chairs and looked over at my sister. She had no idea what Mr. Darcy had done for her.

“What are you looking at me like that for?” Lydia crossed her arms.

“Do you have any idea how lucky you were?” I asked her. I thought of all the bad things that had gone through my mind and shuddered.

“Well, yeah.” Lydia grinned innocently. “I just got my big break.”

I just sighed. She had no clue how close she’d come to losing that innocence.

“And don’t worry, Lizzie, you’re invited to all my premiers.” She smiled at me. “You and Jane are family. You two are going to get the perks of my fame. Like free sunglasses.”

I couldn’t help but shake my head and smile. Somehow, she managed to make me not want to murder her again with the simple promise of sunglasses.

“I’m going to go freshen up and then head to the gym,” Lydia announced. “I have to look good for next week.”

She grinned at Jane and me, and then bounced off to her room. Her long brown ponytail swung happily from side to side as she went. I just stared at her, glad she was still the same old Lydia. It was so much better than the alternative.

“Well, that wasn’t what I was expecting,” Jane commented as Lydia closed her bedroom door.

“Yup,” I agreed.

“How did she manage that? There’s no way that was a random event,” Jane said. She shook her head and sat back in her chair.

“I think Mr. Darcy might have had something to do with it,” I said after a moment. Guilt pulled at me.

“No, no way,” Jane replied. “Not after what he’s done to you.”

“I may have been wrong about him.” I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. “I actually don’t think he’s quite as much of a jerk as I first thought.”

Jane raised her eyebrows and looked sternly at me. “You were wrong?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged uncomfortably. I hated admitting I was wrong.

Jane nodded once. “Right.” She looked over at Lydia’s door and then back to me. “And on that strange note, I’m going to go to work now. Have fun with Lydia and trying to get her to accept any form of responsibility.”

I snorted. “Right. Because that’s gonna happen this century.”

“Have fun,” Jane told me, standing up and grabbing her bag by the front door. She waved one last time before heading out.

I sat in the now empty kitchen letting relief wash over me. My little sister was safe and was now in a much better position. She wasn’t going to get scammed and tricked by trying to follow her dreams. It meant I didn’t have to be afraid for her.

And there was only one person that could have made that happen.

I had to see him.