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Chloe’s smile was as blinding as the rest of her. “The feminine waters. I like that.”
I followed her into an adjacent office. The room was larger than average for a city office with a brass, onyx, and glass design theme that matched the building’s eclectic exterior. The Greek key was present here as well, lining the door frame and a glass curio cabinet.
“How long have you worked for Eternity?” I asked, resisting the urge to ask whether it had, in fact, felt like an eternity.
“Since its inception. I own this company, along with my two older sisters, Annie and Laz. You’ll meet them in a few minutes.”
A family business. Nice.
She motioned for me to sit in the chair opposite her desk. It was made of plush black leather with arms that displayed the Greek tricolor key design.
“Before we get started,” Chloe began, “I’d like to run through a few preliminary questions. Standard procedure, of course.”
“Of course,” I said, sensing there was nothing standard about this place. It radiated supernatural vibes the way Kane radiated sex appeal.
Okay, not the analogy I meant to make. I cleared the demon prince from my thoughts and tried to focus.
Chloe settled behind her desk and consulted the shiny gold laptop in front of her. “Can you confirm that Lorelei Clay is your legal name?”
“Yes.”
“Any middle name?”
I hesitated. “Why do you need that?”
“Not to worry, Miss Clay. I have no interest in gaining answers to your security password questions. It’s simply that we have no record of you.”
“Well, you must have some record of me since you sent me an invitation to your office.”
“That’s the reason we invited you. We were curious to see if there’d been an administrative error somewhere along the way. It’s an extremely rare occurrence, you see.”
“Actually, I don’t see.” At this point, I was thoroughly confused. “Vincenzo Magnarella didn’t arrange this meeting?”
“No.” She looked at me expectantly. “And your middle name is…?”
“I don’t think that will help.”
“The computer will be the judge of that.”
I sighed. “Bertha. It’s a family name,” I added quickly.
Her gaze locked on mine. “Bertha? Who would do that to an innocent child?”
“It’s in memory of my great-aunt.” My grandmother’s sister was officially named Bertha, although people only knew her as Honey. According to my grandparents, my parents had been close with Aunt Honey, who died while my mother was pregnant with me. Why they couldn’t have given me Honey as a middle name, I’d never know.
“Your great-aunt must’ve been someone quite special to pass that name down the line. It’s grounds for generational trauma, if you ask me.”
My generational trauma spanned centuries and was far worse than an old-fashioned middle name, not that Chloe needed to know that.
“Bertha,” she repeated, scanning the screen. “You’re right. There’s definitely no Bertha either.”
“That information is confidential,” I added. My middle name was a secret I was prepared to take to the grave, apparently unlike the one that identified me as a goddess. Priorities.
She tapped her fingernails on the desk. “It seems that all your information is confidential. I can’t fathom why you’re not on the list.”
“For the gala?”
She peered at me over the edge of her laptop. “That isn’t the list I mean. According to our records, you don’t exist.”
