Mara rushed over to the bed, holding up a soft, petal-pink sundress with matching shoes. “We picked this out for you. See? I thought maybe gold polish and gold makeup highlights, because it has some gold accents on it.” She pointed at the tiny gold buttons leading down the dress and the gold straps on the shoes. It was a lovely dress, I had to admit.

“This… Did you buy this for me?” I spoke.

“Sure did. Well, Bri paid for it. But I found it,” Mara said happily, pointing over at Bri. Bri gave me a tight, awkward smile.

“Do you like it? I know you don’t wear many dresses, but I wanted to get something for you. And I want you to feel like a princess tonight!” Mara said. I noticed her lips were stained blue in the corners and her breath smelled heavily of Malibu rum and tropical flavors. It brought back thoughts of coconut and I cringed. Had Mara really done that on purpose? Her face when I looked across the table and saw her… She had almost looked proud of herself when Georgia collapsed.

“Thank you. I love it,” I said, uneasily. I ran my fingers over the soft fabric and fingered the heavy gold straps on the shoes. “I hope we can go out tonight. It’s raining so hard. Tinsley and I decided to walk back and got soaked.”

“Well, it’s supposed to clear up in a few hours,” Bri said, lifting a bottle of pink nail polish and turning it over to read the label on the back. “Mind if I borrow this one for myself?” she asked LeeAnn.

“No, of course not! Help yourself, dear!” LeeAnn chimed.

Moments later, they had all cleared out of my room and given me a few minutes to change. I towel-dried my hair and changed into an easy-to-remove, button-down shirt, as LeeAnn had instructed, so as not to mess up my hair when I went to change my clothes later.

LeeAnn was waiting for me in the hallway, her massive makeup case saddled in her hand.

“Are you ready for your Cinderella moment? Did you already do your massage? I don’t want to do your hair and makeup if you still need your massage,” LeeAnn rambled.

I thought about Georgia and Elizabeth downstairs, having their bonding moment or whatever it was, and felt a flicker of rage in my gut. Which one of them wrote those notes last night? I wondered, again.

The trip into town with Tinsley had cheered me up and provided a nice little reprieve from my worries. But now that I was back, I was fixated again—who was trying to sabotage my marriage? And why?

“No. I decided to skip the massage and get right to the beauty part,” I said, sitting on the edge of the bed.

LeeAnn started with makeup. “This is called ‘beating your face’,” she informed me.