Chapter 595
Chapter 595:
She walked past Victoria and Belle without a second glance. Harper followed close behind, wearing a massive grin.
Victoria stood frozen in the center of the room, staring at the empty green gown pooled on the velvet sofa. Her hands trembled uncontrollably. She pressed a hand to her chest, breath coming in short, furious gasps.
She had been utterly and completely humiliated.
Isolde, Harper, and Effie pushed through the heavy glass doors of Bergdorf Goodman and stepped onto Fifth Avenue.
The weather had turned violently. The forecast had promised a mild drizzle, but the sky was darkening at an unnatural speed, swallowed by thick, bruised purple clouds that blotted out the afternoon sun entirely. The wind howled down the concrete canyon of the street, whipping discarded newspapers into the air. The atmosphere smelled of ozone and wet asphalt. A massive storm was about to break.
“Damn it,” Harper cursed, shivering in her thin blouse. “I knew we should not have stayed out this long. The pressure has been dropping all afternoon p>
Isolde pulled out her phone and dialed her private driver. “We are at the south entrance,” she said, raising her voice over the wind. “Pull up p>
“I am so sorry, Ms. Carson,” her driver’s voice crackled with static. “There is a massive multi-car pileup on 57th Street. The police have cordoned off the entire block. I am boxed in. It will take me at least twenty minutes to reach you p>
Isolde hung up, her brow furrowing. “My driver is stuck,” she told Harper.
“We will take my car,” Harper said, digging her keys from her bag. “It is parked just down the block. Effie can sit on your lap p>
𝖱𝘦сo𝘮me𝗇𝘥 𝗴𝘢lnо𝘷е𝗹s.с𝘰𝗆 𝘵о 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝘳 𝗳𝗋i𝗲𝘯𝘥𝘀
They hurried along the sidewalk toward the red Ferrari. Harper pressed the unlock button on the key fob. Nothing happened. She pressed it again, harder. The car remained dark and silent.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Harper groaned, jabbing the button repeatedly. “The electronic immobilizer is glitching again. I told the dealership the sensors were acting up this morning, and now it is completely dead p>
The first drop of rain fell—enormous and freezing, striking the pavement like a heavy coin. The wind escalated from a howl to a deafening roar, driving the drops sideways in thick sheets. Within a minute the storm broke in full, and a torrential downpour flooded the avenue.
“Get back to the store!” Isolde shouted over the roar.
They ran back toward the Bergdorf Goodman entrance. But as they reached the doors, a security guard stepped in front of the glass and locked the mechanism, pointing to a sign indicating that entry was temporarily restricted due to the sudden influx of people seeking shelter.
They were stranded beneath the building’s narrow, wholly inadequate awning.