Athena felt herself blush and prepared to say something profound. “As much as I appreciate your advice, I decided against it.” The extraordinarily determined glint in Makayla’s eyes worried Athena a little, but she couldn’t discuss the intimate details of her relationship with this young, impressionable girl. Although it was hard not to shout to the world, Thanks, Fates. Or maybe I kicked you in the butt—I’m where I want to be. With the man of my dreams, the love of my life.

She stopped herself, smiled, and uttered what she’d said hundreds of times to her sisters. “Don’t worry. I’m sure everything will work out.”

Makayla nodded. “Right. Actions speak louder than words. You wait and see.”

An hour before the black tie dinner, Athena and Makayla were both ready, waiting in the office to go downstairs to the exhibit hall, which had been transformed as she’d once tried to make Drew see. He still hadn’t arrived.

What will he think when he sees me in my black dress? The one I’ve worn only for him?

Happy Makayla had been here to get her into the dress, Athena smiled into the distance, dreaming about Drew getting her out of it.

“Bummer. I forgot my speech for when Miss Keene wants me to say a few words about my scholarship. I left it in the large Collection Room.” Makayla jumped to her feet, looking very young and hip in all black and biker boots. “Gotta go get it.”

Athena shook her head. “No, I’ll go. I’m so nervous I need to walk it off.”

Or see Drew a few minutes earlier than planned, dressed in black tie and coming up the staircase.

She didn’t see him, but she still floated down the steps, holding her dress by the elegant loop and dreaming about the moment when she would.

Drew, still fussing with his damn bow tie on the way up the staircase, saw Makayla waiting at the top.

“Hello—you look very pretty tonight.” He smiled into her watchful eyes. “Is Athena in her office?”

“No. Come with me. I know where to find Athena.”

She said it in such a stern, almost angry voice, he worried something might be wrong with Athena as he followed Makayla down into the bowels of the museum, where they’d gone the night they found the first Bertha Palmer dress.

Makayla opened the door, and he saw Athena obviously looking for something on the long table.

He stepped in to help her and heard the door lock behind him. He looked over his shoulder. “What the hell?”

Athena glanced up, a notebook in her hands.

“I believe your young intern locked us in here.” Amused more than concerned, he strolled toward Athena. He’d rather be here with her than at any party.

“Oh, no, she thinks she’s helping!” Athena rushed past him and tried the doorknob. It wouldn’t budge.

“Makayla, it’s all right,” she called through the wood. “Mr. Clayworth and I need to get upstairs.”

“You two need to talk first,” Makayla called back, the same note of urgency in her voice that she’d noticed earlier. “You have fifteen minutes before everyone arrives. I’ll be back in ten.”

Athena sighed, shrugging her beautiful shoulders. “She means well, really she does. The switchboard is shut down. Do you have your cell? I’ll call Leonard and get us out of here.”

“Now, why would I want such a thing?” Chuckling, Drew prowled toward her.

Laughing, she backed away. “Drew, stop it! You know how long it takes to get in and out of this dress.”

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” He swept a tangle of muslin off the table and lifted her up onto the edge, so they were gazing into each other’s eyes.

He kissed her warm forehead, her fluttering eyelids, and the soft skin at her throat, breathing in her scent.

“What is that perfume?” he muttered, nuzzling the valley between her breasts.

“Jicky,” Athena breathed with a little catch. “Supposedly Jackie O’s favorite. I should have asked when I saw her at the Secret Closet.”

His palms cupped the undersides of her breasts. Below the pit of his stomach, every organ tightened and grew.

“I love it… I love…”

The door creaked open and Makayla—crying, “I couldn’t stop them!”—rushed in, Venus and Diana on her heels.

Athena sucked in a sharp breath, her fingers tangled in his hair, and he froze with his hand cupping her breast.

“Athena, what are you doing?” Diana gasped.

“That’s obvious!” Venus stalked toward them. “I’d say unhand my sister, but she appears to be enjoying it.”

Prepared to handle this, Drew lifted Athena down from the table and held her protectively behind him, even through she struggled. “Venus, I want—”

“No, Drew.” Athena pushed in front of him. “She’s right. I should have told them.”

“I wish you had,” Diana sighed.

Venus tossed her hair over her shoulders. “The road to perdition is paved with good intentions, or some such cliché. You didn’t, so now we have this mess, Dad coming home any day, and Leticia Strong in Pandora’s Box not half an hour ago purchasing two pairs of Eisenberg Original earrings for two gowns. Shall I repeat that? Two gowns. She doesn’t know which one she’s wearing tonight. Is anyone else feeling the pressure here?”

He could get both gowns for Athena and protect Clayworth’s tonight before he left. He clasped Athena’s hand. “Yes. We’ll take care of it.”

Athena looked up at him, and everything fell in place. Together, they were stronger than apart.

“Yes, Venus, give me the address. Drew and I will take care of this.”

“You can’t have all the fun,” Venus insisted. “I’m going with you.”

“No, you’re not,” Athena ordered. “You and Diana are staying here to represent our family at the dinner.”

“And Connor will represent Clayworth’s.” Drew joined in.

“Joy!” Venus retorted, huffing and puffing and throwing her hair around.

“Don’t worry. We’ll do it,” Diana promised.

“And I’ll represent the Costume Collection, right?” Her brows lowered, the tiny diamond barely twinkling, Makayla gazed at Athena. “Are you, like, mad at me?”

Athena’s grip on his hand tightened, and the loving smile she gave Makayla spoke volumes.

“Like, I’m not mad, either.” Drew laughed, happier than he’d been in, Christ, he didn’t remember how long. “Now we’ll go find Bertha’s dresses and get them here where they belong.”

Leticia and Bertrum Strong lived in a crumbling mansion in the midst of overgrown, once magnificent grounds on Lake Michigan, only a few blocks from the Clayworth Compound in Lake Forest.

Athena and Drew had probably sailed past it dozens of times when they were young.

Before knocking on the door, she turned to look up at Drew beside her. Her partner. Her love. “If Leticia Strong has the gowns, we’ve found them all and no one has gotten hurt.”

“I know,” He pressed a kiss on the top of her head. “I’ve notified Lewis. Lake Forest Hospital is ready when and if I give the signal.”

I’ll never be alone again. We’re stronger together than apart.

Knowing it made her tingle all over as she pounded once with the brass knocker.

An older man answered the door, swinging a stunning pair of heavily jeweled Eisenberg Original earrings in one hand, and in the other he grasped the summer dress—black corded gauze with green and pink stripes over green taffeta that Athena had first examined in the top-secret closet.

Standing in the towering foyer, too stunned with relief to speak, Athena felt Drew sigh beside her.

A sound from above caused all of them to look up.

Leticia Strong glided down the sweeping staircase, wearing the champagne velvet gown Athena had lain beneath for an hour to become intoxicated with truthfulness.

Glassy-eyed like Shelby had been, Leticia appeared not to see anything but Bertrum, who gazed at her with complete and utter adoration.