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“Two pink ice creams. Do you have waffle cones? Never mind. Any cone is good,” said Bellamy. The woman at the stand shook her head at our lack of finesse. She handed us two tiny cups of gelato with mini plastic spoons stuck in each one.
“This isn’t what I had in mind,” whispered Bellamy. He took a tiny taste with the itty bitty spoon, playing up its teensiness to be silly. I laughed a little.
“Emma,” said Bellamy, “I know you’re having your doubts about whether you should be here, but I want you to know that I like having you here, and I think you should stay. We have so many fun adventures ahead of us. Would you stay for me?”
“I’m not sure. I’m feeling really lonely,” I said. “It’s not your fault at all. It’s me.”
“I screwed up. I haven’t made you feel special. Can you wait here?” he asked, handing me his gelato and running off before I could stop him. He darted over the bridge and back to the other side where an assistant was leaning against an old stone wall, texting. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.
A moment later he was back. “Emma, would you accept this vintage ruby, emerald, and diamond octopus brooch from the Deluxe vault? It’s the only one like it in the world.” He held up the strangest, most magnificent piece of jewelry I’d ever seen. Each eye of the octopus was a sparking diamond. The legs were lined with graduated emeralds. Here and there a ruby was thrown in, reminding me of tests for colorblindness. It was bigger than my palm and as heavy as a small frying pan.
“It’s solid gold,” added Bellamy. “Look at the back.”
I flipped it over. Engraved in the middle was the signature of Leopoldo Vanti Deluccio, the original jewelry designer for Deluxe.
“Greta Garbo wore that brooch. Or was it Audrey Hepburn? Sorry, there was a card about it, but I only read it once and now I’m forgetting everything. I’m pretty sure it was Greta Garbo.”
The brooch had to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. “Are you sure you’re supposed to be giving these out?” I asked.
“I guess so. I overhead something about the owner of Deluxe going through a divorce and needing to liquidate assets.” The cameraman shook his head at that. “So, yeah,” Bellamy continued, “It’s yours. It’s the nicest one of the whole bunch.”
I drew in a deep breath. “I don’t know, Bellamy…”
“Come on, just take it,” he whispered. “And don’t tell anyone this, but we’re leaving for Paris tomorrow.”
“Well, in that case…” I said. The brooch made my stupid dress look magically, instantly, way less stupid.
Chapter 22
The next morning we were all lounging around our hotel suite eating fruit and drinking cappuccino. Our masquerade ball scheduled for the previous night had been canceled after everyone but me came down with food poisoning. I guess it must have been the fish soup.
No one was speaking to me. They had collectively decided that I was a big faker and that I had to go. In response, and also out of fear it would be stolen, I was wearing my brooch affixed firmly to the middle of the t-shirt I had slept in. At eleven o’clock there was a knock at the door. Before we could even get up to answer it, the door swung slowly open. There was Bellamy, dressed in a striped shirt not unlike the shirt he’d been wearing on the gondola. However, instead of a little Italian hat, he had a beret on his head and a baguette under his arm. “Bonjour,” he said.
“Eeeeeee,” screamed Vanessa, jumping up and down. Her cappuccino splatted onto the antique wallpaper but she didn’t notice.
“I guess Vanessa already figured out what I came here to tell you,” said Bellamy. “We’re about to leave for Paris!”
“But first,” said Catalina Cartwright, appearing in the doorway, dressed in a similar French getup, “there will be an elimination ceremony.”
“Oh no,” gasped Klassie.
“Klassie, you and Emma are safe since you both received brooches from the Deluxe vault yesterday. All of you please put on the masquerade dresses that were provided for you yesterday and join me in the mirrored lobby in one hour. Have your bags packed and ready because we will be leaving immediately following the elimination ceremony.”
“See you all soon,” said Bellamy, waving his loaf of bread at us. Then they were gone and we were all left sitting around, staring at one another.
“I can’t get up. I’m too tired,” said Alanna. “I was up all night. Again! I can’t handle this.”
“We were all up last night. Everyone except Emma,” said Jessica, glaring at me.
“Did you put something in our soup?” asked Alanna.
“Of course not! How dare you accuse me of such a thing?” I got up and took my dress from the rack by the door. It was midnight blue and came with a midnight blue masquerade mask. Everyone had complained when they’d seen our costumes, but secretly I loved mine and felt I’d gotten the only pretty one.
“I should have been given that color instead of you,” Vanessa said. “It doesn’t go right with your coloring.”
I ignored her. They could all sit around and spend their hour being miserable complainers, but I was going to start getting ready.
“It is a little funny how we all got sick but you,” said Deb.
