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Starr was the neatest thing since sliced bread. Sadie was a bigger fool than she was.
    Lily looked around the sunny apartment. Her home away from Ozzie Conklin’s survival camp for the rich and famous. Right now she couldn’t bear to think about her first real estate venture, the white elephant she’d purchased from Sadie last April at Ozzie’s insistence. You need to put down roots, he’d said. And, he’d gone on to say, owning a house is a tax write-off. Since that time the project had grown legs. The house was supposed to be her wedding present to Matt. For the past year she’d racked up huge telephone bills talking daily to the contractors, who specialized in restoring antebellum mansions. While she wasn’t a native of Natchez, having grown up in Florida, along with Sadie, she’d been coming here for years for visits with Sadie. Four years ago she’d leased an apartment in the Bienville complex on South Commerce Street, returning every winter with Sadie when Ozzie closed down the camp for three months. She preferred the laid-back life of Natchez to life in Fort Lauderdale, but coming here to soak in the milder temperatures during December, January, and February when Ozzie closed down had never really made her happy. Maybe that was because she was incapable of being happy. Maybe it all had something to do with Matt Starr and the fact that she’d signed the lease on the apartment, along with Sadie, after she’d finally given up hope of ever seeing him again.
    Lily kicked off her satin heels and watched them fly across the room as she burst into tears. “Damn you! Damn you to hell, Matt Starr.” She hooked her thumbs into the delicious V of the Demetrios gown and felt the material give way. Thousands of tiny seed pearls created a blizzard as they sailed about the room. She continued to rip and gouge until the elegant gown was nothing but shreds. When she realized she was still wearing the matching veil, she ripped it from her head and stuck her foot through the fine netting. Breathing like a racehorse, she hiked up her strapless bra and peeled off the lacy blue garter. She made a slingshot of it and watched it ricochet across the room to land near one of the white-satin shoes.
    She sat down on the colorful green-and-yellow sofa and cried because she didn’t know what else to do.
    Sadie Lincoln opened the door and cautiously entered the living room.
    â€œGo away, Sadie. I don’t want to talk. There’s nothing to say. Please don’t try to cheer me up.”
    â€œI wouldn’t think of it. I came up to commiserate with you. Everyone’s gone except Matt’s best man. I think it’s safe to say it was one pissed-off crowd. The Digitech crowd that is. You know, they missed the New Year’s Eve bash back in New York for your rehearsal dinner, then the wedding that didn’t come off on New Year’s Day. As Marcus put it succinctly, the wedding from hell that didn’t come off. Dennis is waiting downstairs. Why, I don’t know. My blood is boiling, Lily. I thought Matt Starr was one in a million. It looks like we were both wrong. I need to know what you’re going to do, Lily. I can’t go off to Australia tomorrow knowing I’m leaving you like this.”
    â€œDon’t worry about me. I survived the first time, and I’ll survive this time, too. The worst part of all this is I knew . I knew, Sadie. Something in my gut, my heart, my head, whatever, told me this was going to happen. When he called to say he wouldn’t make the rehearsal and the dinner last night, I knew. Even though he said he was probably going to be late and might not make it at all, something told me he was going to make a fool of me again. I played that stupid game of pretend, the way I used to do. I ignored what my heart was telling me even though I knew better. Ozzie taught us always to heed any warning, no matter how slight. Did I heed his