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Chapter One

Janelle Pearson scurried into the elevator of one of Beverly Hills’s finest hotels, turning to watch theback at her, she sers Traced her index finger along her bottoloss was in place

She didn’t want to do this Yet again her sister called, begging her to bail her out And yet again, she couldn’t tell Ginger no She never told her no, she was always there to protect her younger-by-four-minutes twin

Glancing down, she studied the nondescript khaki trench coat she wore, thankful for its coo fro it was a Burberry trench But a poor girl couldn’t afford to fork over eight hundred dollars for a freaking coat So she made do

She always made do

Though discreet, the coat contrasted oddly with the four-inch, black patent leather stilettos she wore, accented with frilly white lace-trimmed socks Man, she hoped no one would join her in the elevator If they did, she really hoped they wouldn’t notice the shoes They’d give her away for sure

Glancing at her phone, she sighed and shuffled her feet, her instep aching already Nearly fifteenlate Other girls were participating tonight, so it took a lot of the pressure off But still Being late was so unprofessional

Janelle grih Her sister was the ht up there with their

The elevator stopped at the eighth floor and she held her breath, waiting to see who joined her The doors slid open, revealing no one waiting on the other side and she exhaled loudly Dealing with the odd glances, the subtle lift of noses when strangers saw her in costume hurt, made her feel cheap

And she hated feeling cheap

Yes, this definitely needed to be the last night she perforer’s place She’d already told herself this a thousand times before But her sister always called at the last minute, alhen Janelle felt broke, which wasfor her help, tell Janelle how much she needed her and Janelle always caved

Deterether and shook her head, the ends of her hair fro her own person and standing up for herself would be the best thing, she knew this Lots of people started over at twenty-five An entire personality change wouldn’t be difficult, would it?

Whether it was difficult or not, she was doing it Miss-I’ll-bail-you-out-no-matter-what-Janelle was no e and blossom Thrive Survive

The doors slid open at the penthouse floor and she exited the elevator, heading straight for the double doorssounded fro appreciative cat calls

Sounded like the party was in full swing

Janelle rapped on the door Slipping her hands in her pockets, she waited, tapping her foot to thein her stomach She was always nervous at first It never really stopped, and she hadn’t done this in a long time

The door flew open, theher like a wall of sound and she took a step back, startled

A rin on his face and a beer bottle in his hand opened the door wider “Hey, we’ve got ourselves another babe!”

The group ofher shoulders, she put on her best game face and strode inside

There had to be at least thirty of them crammed into the suite The music pounded so loud it hurt her ears, and the booze was freely flowing Empty beer bottles littered the floor and half-full bottles of various hard liquors were scattered along any available table top surface