“I don’t need to be there. We did pop-ups in Dubai and Hong Kong last year, and we’ve done several in London. I wasn’t at any of them. I was in Paris. This time, I wanted to see how it would work, and how the stock is moving, which affects our buy generally. If the press sees me there, it will distract them. It’s much more important that they see what guests are there and how great the clothes are.” They had invited three hundred people, and if even half of them came, it would be a mob scene in the store.

Valentina hoped she would change her mind by the next day, but Theo was quiet and firm, and had no intention of being at the party. She had no desire to ever go to a party again, although she and Matthieu had gone to many when they were newly married, and then had been at the heart of the Parisian social scene for their entire marriage. But now it seemed like a travesty to even consider it, with Matthieu and Axel gone. She had brought a simple black dress and high heels to wear, and she intended to stay in the back room, take a peek occasionally, and hear about it from the others. The noise alone would tell her how it was going, and the volume of sales. They had hired a pretty young girl to be at the door with the guest list, and a security guard to stand with her. The food and flowers had been ordered. Everything was set. Theo hadn’t forgotten a single detail. They’d invited half a dozen young movie stars, and hoped they’d come too. They’d offered each of them a free dress to wear and keep if they came to the opening party. Five of them had already agreed to do it and were picking up their dresses the next day before the party.

—

Mike Andrews had called Robert Richmond again that morning.

“I was thinking about Theo Morgan again,” he admitted to him.

“I think you’re obsessed with her,” Robert said coolly.

“What are the French police doing to protect her? She’s as big a target now as her husband was, more so because she’s a woman,” Mike said firmly.

“That’s true. But I have no idea. It happened a year ago. They’re not going to provide her bodyguards forever. She must have private security.”

“Do you suppose de Vaumont followed her to New York for a reason?” Mike asked him, worried and suspicious.

“Were they traveling together?” Robert sounded surprised. Mike hadn’t said so.

“Not that I know of,” he said sheepishly.