Fashionista (11 page)

If Gary Wisnicki and the security guard hadn
’
t grabbed her, Mariella would have ripped Allegra
’
s face right off.
“
Let go of me,
”
she screamed.

“
You need to calm down, ma
’
am,
”
the security guard said.

“
You
’
re fired,
”
she screeched.

“
Okay,
”
he said and let her drop on the floor. As she scrambled up, the heel on her shoe broke sideways and she fell again. Furious, she snatched it up and began banging it on the floor like a child having a tantrum.

“
A Zangari shoe wouldn
’
t have done that,
”
Gary Wisnicki observed, because he knew Mariella was a label whore and often shopped rival brands.

Everyone in the office stared at the shoe Mariella was systematically destroying, trying to spot a label. Mariella noticed everyone
’
s attention.
“
Can someone give me a hand?
”
she screeched, not even bothering to ask nicely. No one offered to help her, not even Julia, who seemed rooted to the spot, watching her mother go non-linear with a fascination that bordered on the morbid. Mariella looked at her and then looked away.
You are dead to me
, her rejection seemed to say.

Mariella
’
s gaze fell on her youngest daughter and she held out her hand.

“
Sina?
”

Sina looked at her mother with tears falling down her cheeks.

“
You
’
re fired as my mother,
”
she said and then she walked out of the office too.

Hugo wasn
’
t sure what he thought Allegra
’
s apartment was going to look like. Most of the women he dated were on their second or third apartments after leaving their parents
’
home but still searching for a decorating style that suited them. He could tell most of them surfed the same shopping portals, because after a while, their homes all looked alike, with accessories sourced from One King Lane or Pier One, depending on their level of income.

The first thing that struck him about Allegra
’
s apartment was that it was messy
—
she clearly wasn
’
t a minimalist
—
but so colorful he felt like he
’
d walked into a Rousseau painting.

Outside it was gray and cold and rainy but inside her apartment it was warm and inviting with mustard yellow walls and upholstered furniture in dark turquoise and deep, eggplant purple and a splash of bright orange he thought was a pillow until it moved and he realized it was a fat orange cat.

The place somehow smelled like fresh rain on grass thanks to a reed diffuser that stood on a bookcase jammed with art books and novels and crowded with photographs in vintage frames.

In place of the movie posters and museum reproductions and elegant black and white cityscape photos so common they
’
d become clich
é
s, Allegra had real art on her walls, oils on canvas and watercolors on paper.

There was a small jungle of plants crowded into a corner, surrounding a wooden abstract sculpture made out of some exotic wood. Bailey noticed the sculpture too.

“
This is beautiful,
”
she said, stroking the wood.

“
Sina
’
s father made it,
”
Allegra said.

“
What kind of wood is this?
”

“
It
’
s called Amboyna Burl.
”

“
Is this representative of the kind of work Sina
’
s father does?
”
Bailey asked.

“
I don
’
t know,
”
Allegra said.
“
I
’
ve only ever seen this piece.
”

She
’
d never met Brian McIntyre, but knew that Sina had tracked him down to give him a piece of her mind for leaving the family only to find out that Mariella had blocked all of his attempts to contact his daughters. He
’
d finally given up when she
’
d sent back the high school graduation gift he
’
d sent Sina.

He
’
d been thrilled to see Sina and they
’
d been in touch ever since. But Sina hadn
’
t told Mariella that. The reason the sculpture was in Allegra
’
s apartment was that Sina didn
’
t want her mother to know she
’
d reconnected with her father.

“
I
’
d like to see more of his work.
”
Bailey said.

“
I
’
ll tell Sina,
”
Allegra promised.

“
Thanks,
”
Bailey said, and then paused, her attention caught on something in the corner of the room.

Allegra turned and saw her great-grandmother sitting on the couch, stroking Gus-Gus. The big cat was purring so loudly she could hear it across the room.

“
She can see me,
”
Ginevra said,
“
nodding her head at Bailey.
”

Allegra looked at Bailey who nodded slightly.

“
Ask Hugo,
”
Bailey said,
“
I
’
m psychic.
”

Hugo, who
’
d been reading the titles on Allegra
’
s bookshelf, pleased to see that her reading tastes leaned toward mysteries and not romances, turned around,
“
Ask me what?
”
he said.

“
If I
’
m psychic.
”

Hugo looked at Allegra.
“
She is. Ever since I
’
ve known her.
”

“
I like this one,
”
Ginevra said, studying Hugo with approval.

“
Me too,
”
Allegra said, then realized she
’
d said it out loud.

“
You
’
re psychic?
”
Hugo asked.

Allegra blushed as Bailey snickered.

“
Yes,
”
Allegra said boldly.
“
And right now I know you
’
re wondering where the famous Zangari shoemaker
’
s last is.
”

She went into her bedroom and came out with the wooden object she used as a doorstop.

“
I know it doesn
’
t look like much,
”
she apologized and Hugo thought that was an understatement. The wood was old and polished from use but he could see cracks and worm holes that went all the way through it.

“
May I have the shoe?
”
she asked Bailey formally.

Bailey handed it over, just as formally.

“
That
’
s a beautiful shoe,
”
Ginevra said as Allegra slipped it onto the last.

It was a perfect fit. Allegra let out a breath, unaware that she
’
d been holding it in.

“
On behalf of Prince
’
s Department Stores, may I say it
’
ll be a pleasure doing business with AZ,
”
Hugo said.

“
AZ for now,
”
Allegra said.
“
I
’
m getting my father
’
s company back.
”

“
Good,
”
he said.
“
And if there
’
s anything I can do to help, it will be my pleasure.
”

“
I really like this one,
”
Ginevra said.

Bailey laughed and Hugo looked at her oddly but didn
’
t say anything.

Allegra escorted Hugo and Bailey to the elevator.

“
Can we give you a lift back to Zangari?
”
Bailey asked.

“
I don
’
t think I
’
d be very welcome,
”
she said.

“
Good luck with that,
”
Bailey said and got into the elevator as it stopped on Allegra
’
s floor.

“
I
’
ll catch the next one,
”
Hugo said and she gave him a little nod.

“
So,
”
he said to Allegra as the elevator doors closed.

“
So,
”
she echoed hopefully.

“
Do you dance?
”
he asked, his voice a little huskier than usual.

He sounds almost shy
, Allegra thought.
You
’
d think he was asking me to prom
.

“
I know it
’
s last minute but Bailey
’
s Bleeding Heart thing is next week and I
’
d very much like you to come with me,
”
Hugo said.

“
As my guest,
”
he clarified.

Wow
, Allegra thought.
“
Couldn
’
t get a date, huh?
”
she teased to cover the sudden swell of excitement she felt.

To her surprise he didn
’
t crack a smile but reached out and stroked her cheek with a cold-roughened hand.
“
Please,
”
he said, and she knew that it was not a word he used often.

She wanted to play hard to get. She
’
d heard all about Hugo Prince
’
s reputation with the ladies, but she felt like they
’
d already lost so much time that she didn
’
t want to waste any more.

“
I
’
d very much like that,
”
she said.
“
It just so happens I have the perfect dress.
”

As it turns out, the offer from a Chinese tycoon to buy the House of Zangari and move production to Beijing was actually part of an FBI sting operation aimed at shutting down a drug-smuggling scheme that spanned two continents. The mysterious
“
Mr. Chu
”
was actually the cover identity for Special Agent Conor Wu, who normally worked out of the Bureau
’
s San Francisco office.

Evidence gathered in the investigation revealed that Mariella Zangari was the ringleader of the operation, which had been in place since before Enzo died, though Conor assured Allegra that there was no evidence that her father had been aware of what was going on or complicit in Mariella
’
s crimes in any way.

Julia, however, was looking at some serious jail time, so she threw her mother under the bus in return for a plea bargain that got her a sentence of five years in a minimum security prison; Mariella got fifteen to twenty. After they were sentenced, Sina got involved with Chicago Books to Women in Prison, a group that distributes books to prisons throughout the U.S. She also wrote letters to her mother and sister but when they never wrote back, she stopped.
“
Their loss,
”
Allegra told her, knowing it wasn
’
t going to make Sina feel any better, but feeling like she had to say something.

Over the course of the investigation and as a consequence of being in and out of the Zangari offices for weeks, Conor had come to admire Amira and soon after the case went to trial, he requested relocation to the Chicago field office, a request that was granted. He rented an apartment in the building where Allegra lived and under the watchful eye of Nabil, began courting Amira.

Amira, meanwhile, had met an overly caffeinated fashion writer at the Starbucks where she used to work, a meeting that led to an interview in
Chicago
Magazine. An hour after the magazine hit the stands and appeared online, people started sending emails wondering where they could get the dress Amira was wearing in her photograph. John Morgan Prince loaned Amira the money to start her own company and came aboard as a consultant. Within a month, the company announced plans to present their debut collection at the following year
’
s Fashion Week in Paris.

Still working out of the House of Zangari offices, Nabil and Sina brought in a team of artisans to execute their jewelry designs. They soon had boutiques at O
’
Hare Airport (right next to Montblanc), San Francisco International (thanks to Conor Wu, who knew the operations manager), and at Crystals in Las Vegas. Jenna Izquierdo, whose father was head of the Prince Department Store security team, graduated from RISD and went to work for them as a brand consultant. Among other things, she designed and coordinated the look of all their boutiques, which featured a signature color scheme of deep burgundy and bronze. Amira designed the dresses worn by the sales associates
—
a dark gray sheath that flattered a full range of figure types and were provided as a perk of the job.

After dating for a year, Nabil and Sina announced their engagement at a party planned by Bailey Wilkinson that doubled as a charity event benefitting Chicago
’
s homeless.

Bailey had broken up with the dancer by then, but she and the woman who provided the event
’
s goodie bags
—
which everyone agreed were amazing
—
discovered a shared fondness for cheesy horror movies and barbecued red meat and they were soon seeing more than a little of each other.

Grace and Iain with the extra I had quietly begun dating in the new year, keeping their relationship on the downlow because they didn
’
t want anyone at the firm to know they were an item. Their cover was blown one night when they ran into Grace
’
s parents at a restaurant but outside of a brief conversation she had with her father
—“
I hope you know what you
’
re doing,
”
Joseph had said
—
there was no further discussion of the topic. And so they continued to date and by summer, it was getting serious.

The same could also be said of Severine Belloc and John Monroe Prince. The patriarch of the Prince family had fallen hard for the Frenchwoman, and while neither was ready to talk marriage, they were enjoying each other
’
s company very much.

As were Allegra and Hugo.

Sometimes Allegra couldn
’
t help but think that she
’
d somehow landed in a fairy tale and that she was now living happily ever after.

And Hugo felt the same.