Love Redesigned - Jenny Proctor Page 0,35

do with Alex and the text he’d sent warning me to be careful.

But this could mean designing.

It could mean finally landing my dream job.

“If the line goes live in January, the dresses are done. That’s not even five months away. You can’t add an extra dress to an already finished collection.”

“I’m in charge,” Sasha said. “I can do whatever I want. We have half a dozen dresses to debut, and they’re very good. It’s why you’ve had to help so much with the spring line, Dani. I’ve just been so consumed by these dresses. And they’re fantastic. Truly. But this,” she motioned to Paige, “is too perfect not to be featured.”

“I still don’t know. Does it even fit with the rest of the collection?”

Sasha rolled her eyes. “They’re all wedding gowns. They’re white. There’s lace. Isn’t that enough of a unifying theme?”

Her lack of understanding grated on my nerves. How had she managed to get so far with so little understanding of how design actually worked? I shook my head. “I’d need to see the other dresses. Maybe if you let me see them, I could find some ways to tie them together, to—”

“Fine, fine,” Sasha said. “Whatever you want. But you can’t do a thing to this dress.”

I looked at Paige and she gave me an encouraging smile. “Will my name be on the dress?”

“Darling, you can bow from the runway at Fashion Week beside me. This is your big break, Dani. It’s time for your talents to truly shine.”

Paige squealed as she ran across the room and threw her arms around me.

“So I guess I’ll bring the dress to work on Monday morning?”

Sasha moved to the apartment door. “And not a day later.”

“Wait,” I called, stopping Sasha with her hand on the doorknob. “When will I actually start designing?”

“Start whenever you want. You’re a designer now. The faster you start, the better. Though”—she hesitated—“things are still hush, hush around the office. And I might get some push back bringing on my assistant as a lead designer on the new team. It’s probably best that you don’t say anything for now. Even to Chase. Not until we’re ready to go live with the big announcement.”

My heart sank. So I wasn’t really a designer. I would still be her assistant. At least for the time being. “But you said I should start designing?”

“Well, start sketching, at least. And you have a perfectly functional workspace here,” she said, though the look on her face said she found my loft anything but functional.

I nodded. “Okay. Sounds good.”

Sasha offered one last smile. “Good things are going to happen for you, Dani. Your loyalty won’t be forgotten.”

Chapter Ten

Alex

The wedding invitation came a few days later. I tossed it onto my desk unopened, disgusted by everything it stood for. Even though I’d accused everyone at LeFranc of corruption—my anger might have had some influence—my suspicions had originally originated with Sasha. I didn’t have concrete proof, but what I did know always seemed to trace back to her. It killed me that I hadn’t been able to stop what she was doing. Find the proof that she wasn’t what Alicio believed her to be.

I scrolled through the screenshots I’d saved before I’d quit—images of the corporate expense accounts and how they’d changed over the years. Every senior designer had access to a company credit card. So much of designing was finding the right fabric or accessory, Alicio had always said he wanted his designers’ inspiration to have free rein. Of course, the accounts were monitored and purchases indexed. If anything looked amiss, it was easy to track the overspending to the individual making the purchases.

I had had access to just enough of the numbers to see patterns develop from month to month—the rise and fall of the expense accounts over time. And I’d definitely noticed patterns. Specifically, a steady rise in expenses that coincided, quite conveniently, with the month Sasha was promoted to senior designer. Following a hunch, I’d tried to gain access to the individual accounts so I could see for certain that she was responsible for the increase. I’d been stopped before I’d been able to learn anything. The gatekeeper to the expense accounts? Senior accountant and older stepbrother, Victor.

“You’re digging for something that isn’t there,” he’d told me. “Relax. Take a vacation. Use your own expense account for once.”

It had only gotten uglier from there. It’s possible, even probable, that I’d let my personal motivations color my professional ones. I didn’t like Sasha.