“Oh, and that big surprise thing she’s planning, the one where we’re hiring—where she’s hiring Hélène Darroze. I still don’t know what’s up with that, but I guess that doesn’t matter. I’ll give you all that info too.” No way would Allie be able to keep up with a big project like that on her own.

“Jules.”

“And-and even when I’m gone, you can call me if you have questions, you can—”

“Jules!” To Jules’s surprise, Allie slipped one arm around her shoulders in a half hug. She didn’t look panicky, not right now: the opposite, in fact, like she was the one trying to calm Jules down. “It’s okay. We’ll work it out. We’ll manage.” She patted Jules’s shoulder.

No, you won’t, Jules wanted to say. Nobody can do what I do. I’m indispensable.

But she wasn’t. Nobody was.

Perhaps even Allie figured out what she was thinking because she added quickly, “But I will call you, if you don’t mind. I’m sure I’ll need to. There’s still so much I don’t know yet.”

“Right.” Jules had to restrain herself from rubbing her eyes because she’d just reapplied all her mascara and she wasn’t about to do it again.

Allie lowered her voice. “What’ll you do now?”

“I don’t know.” She thought about Simon’s job offer along with Vivian’s furious insistence that Jules could stay on somehow, even when she had to know that wouldn’t work. “Not yet.”

“Julia.”

Allie immediately jerked her hand from Jules’s shoulders.

Vivian was heading toward them. Her face was pale but calm, and Jules couldn’t read any particular emotion in her eyes anymore.

“Go home,” she told Jules, her voice flat.

Jules stared at her. “What?”

“I said go home.” Vivian slipped out of her coat and handed it to Allie, who scrambled over to the closet to put it away. Vivian took the opportunity to murmur, “It’s for the best, before word spreads. I’ll tell Allie to keep her mouth shut, and I’ll call you as soon as I can. I have to speak with Simon some more anyway.”

“Oh,” Jules whispered. “Okay.”

For just a moment, regret and anger flared in Vivian’s eyes again. She looked as if she were about to speak. Then Allie clattered back to her desk, and the moment was lost.

Vivian jerked her head toward the door. “Go on.”

Jules looked at all the stuff on her desk. “I have to pack this up first.” Her shoulders slumped at the thought.

“I’ll do it,” Allie said quickly. “I’ll make sure it gets to you. Don’t worry.”