Now That I've Found You - Kristina Forest Page 0,35

morning without much explanation, and I don’t know when she’ll be back. You said in your voice mail that you were looking forward to seeing her tonight, that you had something for her.”

“She was here,” Candice says. “She came by tonight before the gala started. She bought something that wasn’t for regular sale.”

“What was it?”

Candice shakes her head. “I’m afraid I can’t share that with you.” My eyes widen, and she quickly adds, “It’s just a portrait she’s wanted for a long time.”

I guess I’ll have to settle for this answer. “Around what time did she leave?”

“A little before eight,” she says.

My stomach sinks. If we hadn’t wasted time so that Milo could borrow an actual tux, I could have spotted her.

“She was in such a rush, she forgot to take this with her,” Candice says, brushing past me and grabbing a small envelope from one of her boxes. She hands it to me. Inside, there are two old photos and a USB drive. The first photo is Gigi sitting on her front stoop in Brooklyn when she was a little girl. She’s wearing a white-and-yellow church dress, with matching yellow ribbons tied at the ends of her pigtails. She’s smiling at the camera in a slightly mischievous way, like even back then she had a plan to go far, far away. The words Peggy, 1958 are written on the back.

“This is one of the first photos that I ever took,” Candice says. “We spent so much time playing in front of that old apartment.”

The other photograph is of Gigi when she was older, at least my age. She’s standing in a bar with a waitress’s apron tied around her waist, holding a microphone in her hand.

“I took that back when she worked at Don & Jake’s, where she used to sing sometimes. This was a few nights before she met your grandfather. I told her she would be completely mad if she went with him to California, but she left anyway. She was restless living here, unsure of where to go or what came next. When the opportunity to move presented itself, she left without giving it a second thought or saying where she’d gone. She never listened to anybody.”

I nod because I know this to be true.

“Weeks after she moved out there, she called and told me she was going by the name Evelyn Conaway,” Candice continues. “She asked me to visit her and said I should bring my camera, so I did. Everything changed for us within a couple of years. Funny how life works, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I say softly, staring at the picture of Gigi. The expression on her face is serene yet flirty, as if she knew in just a matter of months her life was going to change majorly. “She’s never cared what people think about her, not even when she was my age.”

“Ha! Now what makes you think that?” Candice asks, raising an eyebrow.

I think of the photo shoot I had with Candice on my eleventh birthday, and a slideshow of Gigi’s red-carpet photos flips through my mind.

“Well, you just said yourself that you’ve been taking her picture since you were kids,” I say. “She’s always been confident.”

Candice laughs softly, shaking her head. “No, she hasn’t. If you knew how many times she needed to be pep-talked before a photo shoot or an audition, you wouldn’t think that at all. Everything isn’t always as it seems. Peg got confident over time, but it took her years to not care about what other people thought.”

And now her resolve is unshakable. So much so that she doesn’t feel the need to accept a lifetime achievement award.

I place the photos back in the envelope. “What’s on the USB?”

“Just some videos I found on an old camera. I thought she’d want to have them.”

I look down at the items in my hand and feel more lost than ever. “Do you know where she went?” I ask. “If you do, please tell me.”

“I’m afraid I don’t.” She has a weird look on her face. As if there’s a lot more that she just isn’t saying.

“This is really important,” I stress.

“Truly, I don’t know. I didn’t have a reason to think she wasn’t going home. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I say, sighing. “It’s not your fault.”

What am I supposed to do now? This was the only lead I had. What will my parents say when they find out?

“If you’re looking for her, why don’t you get in touch with Esther?”