The minute he saw her he’d known he was fucked, not because she was taken or miles out of his league, but because she was rose gold. Whenever he looked at her, he saw the peach blush of sunset. You couldn’t replicate that colour with ink or paint or even tech. There was too much light in it. It glowed.
There was too much light in Nicole DaSilva, too. Too much goodness trying to get out. She hovered around Silver Daughters, polishing over problems. Her sisters called her a control freak, but he didn’t buy that. He had a feeling making other people happy was the only thing that gave her peace. And Sam and Tabby never gave her any credit—not only was Silver Daughters doing ten times better thanks to Nicole,theywere doing ten times better. Two months ago, both sisters looked like underfed vampires. Now they jogged and ate kale salmon salad and the shadows under their eyes were gone. They went on about how much energy they had, but never thanked their sister for cooking their meals and dragging their asses to the park to walk. And unlike a control freak, Nicole didn’t want any credit. She seemed happy being rose gold, transmuting everything into a prettier version of itself.
Noah knocked on the DaSilva’s front door. He could hear stomping and shouting but couldn’t make out what was going on. He hammered the door. “Hello? Sam?”
There was no response, but his phone vibrated. Bemused, he pulled it out and saw the DaSilva landline number. He swiped to answer. “Hello.”
“Morning, assclown.”
It was Tabby, irreverent and peppy as ever. He frowned. “How’d you get my number?”
“Secret government database. Why are you standing outside the door?”
“Can you let me in?”
“I asked my thing first.”
Noah waited, but Tabby just hummed the Star Wars theme. He resisted a few seconds then couldn’t hack it anymore. “I want to know why the meeting isn’t on. What’s happening?”
“Oh, the usual stuff. Rich get richer. Poor get poorer. Climate change. The ever-repeating cycle of birth and rebirth—”
“I meant ‘what’s happening inside your house?’”
She sighed. “It’s a long and complicated story, but essentially, we will not be having a meeting. In fact, I’m pretty sure Sam and Nicole won’t be coming downstairs today.”
“What’s happened? Is Scott’s old man back?”
A month ago, the DaSilvas’ old neighbour had tried to burn their house down in revenge for not selling the place to him. Greg Sanderson was supposed to be in a mental health facility in Queensland, but if he’d snuck out or something…
“Nah, it’s not Scott’s crackpot dad, it’s about…well I shouldn’t say…”
Noah gripped his phone. “Talk.”
“I don’t know, it’s a pretty big deal…”
“How big?”
“Absolutely amazing. Basically breathtaking. Completely confounding. Deeply dramatic—”
“Tabby, I swear to god.”
“—Epically enormous. Frankly formidable. Guaranteed game-changer.Hecticallyhuge…”
“Tabby!” Sam shouted. “The fuck are you going on about?”
“Nothing!” Tabby yelled. “Just focus on keeping her away from the cleaning products. I’m scared she’s going to do my room.”
Noah frowned. Keepingheraway? That sounded like… “Is Nicole all right?”
“Nah, but hang on. I’m moving to a more covert location.” There was some shifting around, then Tabby cleared her throat. “Nix got dumped.”
The sentence took a moment to seep into Noah’s brain. “Nicole?”
“Got dumped, yeah. Well, notdumped. Aaron, the big dickcheese, shoved some cunt ultimatum about going back to Adelaide in her face then fucked off, even though she paid for the Airbnb they were staying in…”
Noah stopped listening. A thousand victory flags were unfolding in his mind, waving scarlet, sap yellow and kingfisher blue. Nicole DaSilva, single. Ringless. Free to…what exactly? Where was he going with this bullshit?
“…then Nix came home all puffy and told me and Sam to hide her phone and credit cards. That was ten hours ago. We’ve hit peak chaos now.”