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Could she really just sabotage her mom’s show like that?

Meaning my work would be sabotage. Meaning I think it’s not

good enough to be there. No. No, it’s good enough to freaking

be there.

“Anyway,” Dani went on. She pulled the purple velvet bag

off the deck of cards she’d set out on the table. “I’m just

saying. You can pick and choose however you want it to go.

You might get more traction if you work on them slowly when

it comes to law school. That’s all I meant. How you go about it

is your business. As long as it doesn’t take more than a few

weeks.” She slipped out the deck, which was all black on one

side. “How much?” she asked again.

“I don’t know. I can pay you five grand. For two weeks.”

“Five grand?” Dani grasped the cards and held them to her

chest. Her pulse thrummed at the base of her neck and Emily

tried not to look there. She looked up, straight into Dani’s

disgusted expression. “That’s nothing. Five grand? Jeez.”

“Some people would—”

“Some people? Oh. You mean people like me.”

Dani was being purposely offended when Emily hadn’t

meant it that way at all. Apparently, this was where the

grovelling and humiliation came into play. “That’s not what I

meant,” Emily said firmly. “And my parents froze my

accounts a few days ago. I knew they were going to do it. All I

could get out before it happened was five grand.”

“So, five grand for two weeks of work? Seems like a pretty

paltry sum.”

“But it wouldn’t be two weeks. It would just be a few

appearances here and there. Probably for less than five

minutes at a time. Believe me, if you’re convincing, five