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“My god, did you see her at The Met?” Al shakes her head.
Maddie rolls her eyes. “With Rush Evans again? She’s so lucky—”
“Her dress was perfect.” Jemima sighs. “Versace?” she asks no one in particular.
It was definitely Gucci — I shouldn’t know that but I do. Plus, felt like it might have been for me. Not for me, at me, maybe? A solid ‘fuck you’, red carpet edition. I miss all her chatter about clothes. How much she loves them made me love them. She looks good, she always does though. Sometimes her photos just pop up. Algorithms and shit, you know? Also, I love her, so sometimes I peek. Bit weird, probably shouldn’t, but her face is her face and it begs to be looked at.
“People can be quite cruel to beautiful things. For no real reason at all.” My mum gives Jordan a thoughtful smile, but her face shifts and I can tell she’s missing the same girl I’m always missing even though I shouldn’t any more. Mum shakes her head, shakes it off like I should too. “Public fascination for Magnolia has always been a private burden.”
“Why do people care about her so much?” Jordan asks, and I think it’s a genuine question, even though Henry hears it as a sulk.
“Because she’s Magnolia Parks,” Madeline says. If Parks ever heard this specific sister of mine defending her she’d probably die happy. Wish I could text her, tell her, make her day. Hopefully Henry will because I know I can’t. She wouldn’t reply anyway. Wrote her a bunch of letters for months. Don’t even know how many. Never heard back.
I top off Jordan’s glass and look over at Henry. “Bit of a circus, then?”
“Of course it’s a circus, BJ.” Allie rolls her eyes impatiently. “She hasn’t been home since—”
“—Allison,” Mum growls.
“What?” She shrugs impatiently. “He knows he cheated on her. Everyone knows.”
“Allison,” Dad says this time.
“Are they expecting a lot of press?” I ask my brother, ignoring the rest of them.
Henry nods.
“Lots of people flying in for it.” He shrugs. “You know Harley.”
“Right.”
“They’ve booked her on a BA flight, told a loud-mouth travel agent she’s flying in on the Monday but she’s taking the jet on Sunday.”
“Smart.” I nod. I want to ask if she’s okay, but I can’t — can’t or shouldn’t? I don’t know — both, probably.
“So why is she coming, anyway?” Jordan asks brightly.
Madeline chimes as she pulls a face. “Awkward.”
I breathe out, shoot my youngest sister a look. “Her dad’s getting married.”
“To their childhood nanny,” Allie adds theatrically. “She used to come on vacations with our families. It’s so crazy—”
“I think I caught them once,” Jemima announces.
“You did not.” Mum rolls her eyes at the same time the young ones collectively gasp.
“Yeah, when we were in the water and he was helping us all back up, his hand was on her behind but when they saw me see it they just laughed and said something about it being slippery!”
“Gross!” Madeline scrunches her face up.
“Anyway, the wedding’s next week,” Allie announces. “We’re all going.”
“Well,” Madeline tosses Allie a bitch look. “Not all of us…”
“Madeline,” Dad growls.
“What?” She shrugs like she doesn’t know. She knows. Madeline is an A-grade manipulator. “She’s not…”
