I undid my zipper and slid out of my skirt. I thought he’d left, but then I heard his voice close to the door. "Look, I know you have a right to be angry, but this isn’t completely my fault. I didn't know about you. I had no idea.”
I pulled off the leotard with more viciousness than I should have. I didn't want to be Kari anymore. If I could have yanked away the blond hair color and the extensions, I would have done that too. "When my mom got hold of your manager, he called her a gold digger and told her to leave you alone. She didn't press it after that because she didn’t want me to get hurt if you rejected me like you’d rejected her.”
He swore loud enough that I heard it through the door. "I wouldn’t have rejected you,” he said, "and I didn’t mean to reject her, either.”
I should have been happy to hear this, but I thought about all the times I’d wanted a dad so badly; all the hurt I’d had to struggle through. My pain had been for nothing. None of it needed to happen.
There was silence while I pulled on my shirt and jeans, and then his voice came again, this time sounding softer. "Do you sing?”
I bent down to put on my shoes. "Not as well as you or Kari.”
"Are you going to college?”
"WVU offered me a scholarship.”
"What are you majoring in?”
I tied my first shoe slowly. “I don’t know. Maybe biology, maybe physics."
"Physics?” He let out a low whistle. "You must get that from your mother.”
I didn't answer. To tell the truth, I didn't know if she had liked physics or not.
"How is your mother?” he asked.
I tied my last shoe. "Good. Busy. She's working and finishing her business degree. She's had to support my grandmother and me, but she's always been there for us. She worries about me a lot.”
"Good,” he said, but I wasn't sure what he approved of.
I smoothed down my hair, trying to shake as much glitter out of it as I could, then I stepped out of the bathroom.
He was waiting by the door, his hands in his pockets. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, the dressing room door swung open and Maren stepped in. Her gaze ricocheted between my father and me, then settled on me. "The driver is ready for you.”
I folded my arms and didn’t move just to show her I wasn't taking orders from her anymore.
"Maren,” my father said. "I'm glad you're here. I want to ask you a favor."
"Anything.” Her voice grew smooth and soft again. "Really, I’m so sorry about this—I was trying to help Kari—"
"I know,” he said. "And that's why I know you’ll be able to handle things with Alexia.”
“I've already taken care of it." She slid a challenging glance in my direction. "Alexia knows her place.”
He stepped over to me, putting his hand on my shoulder.
"No, I don't think she does, but I want to make it clear to her.” To Maren he said, "You didn’t know this before, but Alexia is my daughter.”
The smile froze on Maren’s face. She didn’t look at me, just blinked at my father. "What?”
"She’s Kari’s half sister. I just found out myself.”
Maren still stared at my father. Her voice came out high- pitched. "What?"
My father smiled, appraising me again. "It’s incredible, isn’t it? Can you believe how much she looks like Kari?” Maren stepped toward him but her gaze sliced over to me. "She can’t possibly be your daughter. It's a fluke that she looks like Kari—” She let out a sound that was half scoff, half snort. “Whatever she’s told you, it isn’t true. I found her in West Virginia, for heaven's sake.”
My father nodded. "West Virginia, I know. That's where I found her mother too.” He opened his hand and turned the sapphire pendant over in his palm. His eyes went to mine, and his voice dropped. "You tell your mom I’m sorry. Tell her—well, I'll give her a call myself." He slipped the necklace into his pocket and faced Maren again. "I imagine Kari will have to let most of her staff go until she can get her finances back in order, but I'd like to hire you to do some things. First, I want you to make sure Alexia has a first-class ticket to get back to West Virginia; a private plane would be better. I don’t want her bothered while she's traveling. And pack up and send Alexia’s belongings back to her house. Can you manage that?”
Maren took a couple of breaths, then gulped. Her voice, usually so silky, cracked. "Of course. I’ll take care of it right away.”
“Great,” he said, "because I’ve got some people to sing to.” He gave my shoulder a pat and then in lower voice said, "I will call you."
He turned to go, but before he could leave, I said, "Can I ask you for one thing?"
"Sure. Anything."
"Can you explain this to Grant?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't you rather do that yourself?"
I shook my head. Grant had already made himself clear about what he wanted in a girlfriend, and I didn’t fit the bill.
"Okay," he said, but his eyebrow stayed raised like he didn’t believe me.
"One more thing.” I grabbed my purse from the counter, pulled out a pen, then walked over to my father. I took hold of his hand and turned it over in my own until I could see his forearm. Then I wrote my home phone number in one- inch lettering up the length of his arm. "That’s so you don’t lose it."
He took my hand and squeezed it. "I won't.”
I gave him a smile, then walked to where Maren stood in the doorway. "I’m ready to go now."
CHAPTER 16
As soon as the limo pulled away from the coliseum, Maren turned and stared at me. I had seen and talked to her hundreds of times since I came to California, but this was the first time I'd ever seen her flustered.
"So," she said, "is it actually true you're his daughter?”
I suppose I deserved that comment after spending the last month and a half lying to people about my identity. “It's true,” I said.
Her lips pursed together. “Really? And who is your mother? Why didn't this surface before?”
Out the window I could see cars passing by as though the world hadn’t just changed. It seemed odd when everything felt different for me. I wasn’t even upset about the things Maren had said earlier or was saying now. Suddenly she didn’t seem very significant. "My father knows who my mother is. I don't have to explain anything to you."
Maren leaned back against her seat, turning to see me better. "So you’re saying it was a coincidence that I picked you—Alex Kingsley’s secret daughter—out of the millions of girls in America to be Kari’s double?”
"It wasn’t coincidence,” I said. "You picked me because I looked like her, and I looked like her because she’s my half sister. Our mothers resembled each other too. If he wants a DNA test for proof, that’s fine. But I doubt he’ll ask for one. He knows who I am.”
I think it was at this moment that Maren believed me. She let out a sharp breath and laughed. Not regular laughter—uncomfortable, stumbling laughter.
"Well, isn't that ironic. All this time. You're his daughter." She put her hand over her chest as though checking to make sure her heart was still beating. "You should have confided in me from the beginning. Things would have been different.”
"Oh. You mean like you wouldn't have slapped me back in the green room?"
She winced. "I’m sorry about that. It was the stress of the moment. If I had known you were Alex’s daughter—”
"Then you wouldn’t have threatened to press charges against me if I crossed you?”