“Tommy, your parents didn’t have a Ferrari, and I’ve heard all about your hell raising from your mother. You’re right: they wouldn’t have let you, but it wouldn’t have stopped you. You would’ve just snuck out and done it anyway.”
Tommy laughs. “Yeah, I know. I’m glad you don’t do stuff like that. Really, you’re a pretty good kid.”
“Gee, thanks, that means so much coming from a terror.”
“I wasn’t a terror. My mom exaggerates.”
“Last time your friend, Bobby, was here, he was telling us about the time you stole your mom’s car, climbed the water tower, and spray painted, this town sucks on it.”
“That is alleged. There is no proof I did that.”
Tommy is getting ready to plead his case when Avery rushes in the room screaming, “Look, Daddy! Look at this!!! Prince Eric gave me a note! See, it has an A on it for Avery!”
Tommy tries to read what she’s waving in front of him but appears to lose the battle. He finally shakes his head, gives up, and says, “Well, that’s really exciting, Ave. Did you all get letters from Prince Eric?”
Her eyes get big. “No, Daddy! Just me! I’m special!”
“Well, let me read it to you then,” he says, finally snatching the envelope out of her hand.
Tommy looks at the front of the envelope and turns a shade of green. He puts his forearms on the bar to steady himself and slowly says, “Avery, where did you get this?”
“We went to see the parade yesterday! You know that, silly Daddy! Nanny let us get ice cream.” She sucks in her breath and covers her mouth. “Merde. I wasn’t supposed to tell you about the ice cream.” She whispers to him, “Don’t tell Mommy. You might get Nanny in trouble. But it has to be from Prince Eric!! He waved ’specially at me in the parade. Read it, Daddy! Read it!!”
Tommy doesn’t seem to be able to move, so I walk over and see why. The envelope does not say Avery. It says Abby.
I swipe the letter out of his hand and examine it. It looks exactly like the letter Mom found in her trailer and like all the ones she’s gotten from the same fan over the years. Mom sort of blew off the fact that he got in her trailer, even though Tommy and James were upset about it. But this is different. This was in Avery’s backpack. That means he got very close to her. Which is why Tommy looks so green.
I bend down next to Avery and say, “Daddy has to go make a very important phone call, sweetie. I’ll read it to you. Prince Eric is my favorite too.”
Tommy swallows and pushes himself up from the bar.
I open the envelope and read.
Abby-
For years, I have idolized and loved you, but not anymore.
You are nothing more than a common whore.
You must pay for what you’ve done, and I already know the price.
—No longer your greatest fan.
Oh my God.
I feel faint.
Avery is pulling on my shirt. “What’s it say, Kiki? What’s it say?”
I find my voice and lie. “It says, Avery. So glad I got to see you! I waved at you in the parade. Love, Prince Eric.”
She tries to jump up and grab the letter from me. “Give it to me. I wanna go show my sissies!”
“Um, I need to show it to Daddy real quick, and then I’ll bring it to your room, okay! Why don’t you go get some gum for your sisters?”
She tears off, climbs onto the kitchen counter, gets gum out of a canister, and runs it to her room.
I take the letter into Tommy’s office.
“What’s it say?” he asks. “James is on his way. So is Garrett Smith, the president of the security firm we get our bodyguards from when we travel.”
I read the note to him.
“Oh my God. Do you think that’s what he means by the price? Do you think he’s talking about the girls? Is she the only one that got a note?”
“I don’t know. I’ll go check, but I need to make a fake one to give to her first. She thinks it’s from Prince Eric.”
I quickly write up a note to take to her. “I’ll go into the girls’ room and see if there’s anything else. I’ll be right back.”
Tommy nods and keeps staring at the note.
I go into the girls’ room, give Avery her fake note, and ask the girls to see if they have any notes in their pockets or backpacks. While the girls are busy, I take Nanny aside.
“The note was from that creeper dude. Avery thinks she got it at the theme park yesterday. Did she have her backpack with her there?”
The nanny thinks about it. “It had to have happened today. When I was packing Gracie’s pack with clothes for after dance, I found a bunch of melted chocolate, so I completely cleaned out all their packs. There were definitely no notes.”
“Where were you today?”
“We had gymnastics and dance this morning, got pizza for lunch, went to the park, and then got yogurt. I did leave their backpacks on the bench at the park while I helped them on the monkey bars. That’s kinda scary, really.”
“Yeah, it is. Okay, I’m gonna go tell Tommy. He’s freaking out.”
I go back into Tommy’s office.
“It’s got to be the same guy, right?”
Tommy nods. “Yeah. It’s the same type of print. Same envelope. Where did she find it?”
“It was in her backpack.”