Smile firmly in place, I breathed my relief and walked down the line, counting. My phone, which was clutched in my fist, vibrated with an alert that the other cars were three minutes away. And then my smile was genuine.

Guests filed into car after car, taking their drunken time, and by the time the first twenty had made their way around the block, filled up with people like clown cars, the final ten had arrived.

Sorina and her husband, Adrien, were last to leave, having waited to say goodbye to their guests.

Adrien climbed in with nothing more than a sullen nod in my direction, but Sorina stopped, smiling that dazzling smile of hers, to take my hands.

“You were wonderful, Lila. Thank you for making my baby’s birthday party so utterly flawless.”

“It was my pleasure,” I lied.

“We never could tell her no,” she said fondly. “I’m afraid to her detriment.”

Unsure how to respond, I landed on, “I’m sure she’s perfectly lovely. Just not to me.”

“That’s kind of you to lie, Lila. You might know,” she started, stilling and softening with the remembrance I’d read of in a dozen magazines, “when I was a girl, we had nothing. We were refugees, hungry and running from war and into France. When I was discovered in Paris, it was more than a job I was given. It was a way to save my family, save myself.”

A pause, pregnant with memories before she continued, “I shouldn’t spoil the girls as I do, but I never … I never wanted them to know what it was like. To be without.” With a breath, she straightened up, smiling. “Plus, with three older, ambitious sisters, Natasha has to fight for attention. Good attention or bad, it doesn’t matter. The show doesn’t help—so much of their behavior is for the cameras, for the drama of it all. But my girls have always been very”—she hesitated, searching for the word—“emotional and opinionated. They rarely make it easy, but you have managed them exquisitely.”

“Thank you, Sorina,” I said, not needing to pretend this time.

Another pause, her smile fading. If her brows had been able to move, I had the feeling they would have gathered with concern. “I realize the position you’re in. With Brock and Natasha. And I want you to know that I admire your grace. You are a diamond, Lila Parker—brilliantly shining and completely unbreakable.”

I would have been suspicious had she not been so earnest. And though her eyes were a little glassy, she didn’t seem overtly drunk. It was an admission, nothing more. And I appreciated it.

“If only we could be truly unbreakable,” I said with a smile to disguise the truth of that wish. “But I appreciate your support. There’s no need to worry for me.”