“Yes, of course. Amalie and Rosalee deserve a rich payday for all they’ve been put through by that man. Be generous, Abner,” Myra said.

Abner laughed as he rubbed his hands together. “There’s nothing I love more than giving away other people’s money. Even with La Natural tanking, the man has a vast fortune.”

“Not for long.” Myra and Annie laughed as they made their way to the main part of the house.

Back outside on the terrace, the women noticed that Maggie and the boys had just arrived. Chatter was at an all-time high as Maggie regaled everyone with their visit to Lincoln Moss’s estate. They all tried to ignore the tenseness in Amalie’s shoulders and her white face. Nikki reached out, and clasped her hand, and squeezed it. Yoko stroked her shoulder with one of her tiny hands. Amalie calmed almost instantly, and she even smiled.

Maggie finally wound down after she gave a description of what Lincoln Moss was wearing. “And the best part, ladies and gentlemen, is this. He didn’t even ask where I got his oh-so-private cell-phone number. How cool is that?”

“Where did you get it?” Isabelle asked.

“At first Abner got it somehow. But then I also got it from Rosalee. She said one day he left his cell phone behind, and I guess she knows how to figure things like that out. She told Amalie, and they both memorized the number. And then they gave it to me. If they’re right, it’s the phone Moss and the President use. And it is the same number Abner gave me.

“No one else calls on it. And, supposedly, no one else has the number. I’ve been expecting him to call ever since we left the estate, but so far he hasn’t,” Maggie said.

“That’s because,” Amalie said, “right now, he’s in a rage, with no one to take that rage out on. Don’t think for one minute he isn’t aware that you now have his number. I can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt, he is on a rampage, busting up furniture, banging holes in the walls, smashing windows, and God alone knows what else. Lincoln has a hair-trigger temper. The only person he never vents it on is the President. Never.

“In the beginning, when I first met Lincoln Moss, he had as we French say, a certain je ne sais quoi that I and my friends found irresistible.

“That went by the wayside very quickly, and over time, I learned to watch for the little things that would set him off. Rosalee learned, too, in case I missed it. Sometimes we would hide for hours in the pool house or the toolshed until he was done wrecking the house. If he wrecked the house, I was safe. If I was available, then I became the wreckage.”