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“A charity event.” I fastened my diamond necklace.

“With who?”

“A friend.”

She raised an eyebrow. “This the ‘friend’ you were with when you were asking me about the others?”

I sighed and picked up the phone. “Yes.”

“This is pretty serious then, no?”

“He just needs a date so his father won’t try and set him up with other women.”

“Uh huh,” she smirked. “Flip the camera, let me see what you’re wearing.”

I walked over to my full-length mirror and turned the phone’s camera so she could see the dress.

She gasped. “La’Belle, that dress is stunning. Who’s it by?”

“Stella McCartney. He uhh…” I flipped the camera back to me. “He bought it for me.”

“Oh that cost a pretty penny then. At least fifteen hundred dollars. What else he get you?”

This is what got my mother excited. How much a man was willing to spend, how much could you squeeze him for. “Shoes, bag. Gave me money for hair and makeup too.”

“What’s the event?”

“The Harlem’s Children Foundation.”

“Never heard of it.”

I pressed my lips together. “You don’t know every high roller event, Mama.”

“Fair enough. Do you like him?”

“It’s complicated,” I replied, because it was the easiest answer.

“A man who spent almost ten thousand dollars on a woman for one night isn’t confused about what he wants. Maybe this is the one you finally try and get in good with.”

“We are absolutely not having this conversation. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Call me tomorrow.”

I disconnected the call before she could say anything else to piss me off.

I set my phone down and looked at myself in the mirror again.

The dress fit me the same way it had in the boutique—perfect—like it had been made for my body. With the hair and makeup, I looked like someone’s trophy wife. Like I belonged to somebody. And underneath all of it was a version of me that had finally let her guard down.

My phone buzzed on my dresser.

Cardez: Downstairs.

I sprayed my favorite perfume and did a final look over before grabbing my clutch and heading to meet him.⁠1

Cardez was leaning against a blacked-out Lincoln Navigator idling in front of my building. He looked like money and trouble in his black tuxedo, with an AP watch and pinky ring completing the look.

He kissed my cheek. “You look amazing.”