Cruel Legacy (Cruel 3)

We were tangled up together more than I’d ever even realized.

For the first time, my loyalties felt conflicted. And I was glad I hadn’t told Natalie I was coming here.

Part III

Revenge Is A Dish

Chapter 15

Natalie

“Welcome to the Cunningham Couture event,” a lithe woman said at the VIP entrance to the runway show. “Let me assist you to your seat.”

“Thank you,” I said with a smile, handing her my invitation.

“Ah, Miss Bishop, wonderful. You’re seated in the front row, next to Harmony Cunningham and Jane Devney, who are both already in attendance. Do you need help to locate your spot?”

I leaned in and saw Jane and Harmony chatting it up like old friends in the first row. My heart pounded. First row! Elizabeth had given me first row. Of course, we’d talked about setting me up with one of the few reserved spots, but I hadn’t thought that it meant sitting with her daughter of all people. That was sure to make an impression.

“No, I see them,” I told the woman and then entered the large room.

I was halfway to Harmony and Jane when they noticed me approaching and waved.

Jane stood and kissed each of my cheeks. “You made it. Look at our seats. Perfect, no?”

“The best seats in the house,” I agreed.

Harmony pulled me into a hug next. “So good to see you again, Natalie. My mother has been raving about you since New Year’s Eve.”

“It’s so good to see you. Your mom is so kind.”

Harmony giggled. “She likes to invest in the right people. And I have to gush over your outfit. So, so cute.”

I ran my hand down the black cigarette pants that I’d paired with a white blouse and a forest-green jacket. “Thank you. Jane was the one who said I should get these pants. She has incredible taste.”

“Doesn’t she?” Harmony said with a grin as I took a seat. “Should be almost time to go. Do you all have plans to see more runway shows or shop the boutique pop-ups?”

Jane dished out all the invites that she’d received for Fashion Week and which boutiques she had to see before they left. It felt surreal that I was even here right now. I knew I wasn’t supposed to take pictures while the show was going on, but I snapped a few shots now, including one or two of the incredibly famous celebrity couple seated across the runway from me. Then I texted the whole lot of them to Melanie, who I knew would be green with envy.

My phone immediately pinged with a slew of texts from her. Most of them calling me horrible names for being there when she wasn’t. Of course, I didn’t point out that I had invited her to live with me, and she’d declined because of her boyfriend. She was talented enough to get into design school in the city, but she’d turned them down for him.

“This is Natalie’s first Fashion Week,” Jane said, pulling me from my phone.

“What?” Harmony gasped. “I can’t believe it. This is my, oh, who even knows how many anymore? Hundreds, I swear. But the first year that I’m not walking in any of them.”

I remembered all of Penn’s lessons about how to act and look and appear to other people. Always confident. Never letting them see my nerves. Careful to keep myself under control. Haughty if everything else failed. This was my first real test of the lessons that we’d had up to this point. I knew the gala would be something else altogether. And this was more like a test run.

I shrugged one shoulder. “Yes. This is a whole new experience for me. Not my typical area of art.”

“Right. You’re an author,” Harmony remembered.

I nodded. “Why aren’t you walking this year?”

Harmony wrinkled her nose. “It was time, I think. I’m going to take up the mantle of Cunningham Couture with mother for the spring/summer 2020 line show in September. We’ll start on it after this event.”

“That’s going to be so good for you,” I said.

“The brand is expanding so rapidly. It’ll be great to have another Cunningham on board.”

“Thanks for your confidence,” Harmony said, brushing back her sheet of blonde hair. “Oh god, what is she doing here?”

I followed her gaze and saw none other than Katherine Van Pelt striding into the now-full room. The poor woman who had told me where my seat was frantically rushed after her. As if Katherine wasn’t supposed to be in here.

“Ma’am, please, all of the VIP seats were assigned weeks ago. Mrs. Cunningham put them in place herself. You are not supposed to be seated here.”

Katherine whipped around and said something low to the woman. I assumed it had to be vicious because the woman blanched and then retreated to where she had been standing. She had made a big enough scene to draw attention, but when the woman walked away, everyone went back to what they had been doing.