Chapter 26

This time there was no Elijah to help steady my nerves, and my hands worried at the little clutch I’d managed to wrangle out of the heap of clothes I hadn’t had an opportunity to wear in my time at Paris as the limo came to a stop. It was nowhere near the level of chic that Elijah’s dress lent me, but even Paula had agreed that it would do and that was all the assurance I needed.

“We’ve arrived, Mademoiselle,” Jacques said from his seat at the front when I hadn’t moved to open the door, and for a split second I considered telling him to drive me back to the Du Pont but decided against it and opened the door, stepping out feet first onto the red carpet that had been rolled out.

It was like the first day of the conference all over again, except a hundred times worse now that several A-list actresses and models graced the arms of some of the world’s biggest industrialists. Flashbulbs went off in front of me and for a second