It was a great party. We all did our part to charm the guests—high-profile media mogul types who thought they could buy anything and anyone, and the rest of us were happy enough to let them believe it—but Janie seemed to do far more charming than any of us. She was always in the middle of a crowd of three or four of them, and they seemed to be falling over every word she said. “I’ve created a monster,” I muttered after a couple of hours of this.

Toward the end of the party, Janie shed her admirers and came over to me with a tray of drinks. She offered me one, and I took it. “This is such a great party!” she said. “Thanks for letting me come!”

I sipped the drink and managed not to snort. “Just be sure you leave with one of the really rich ones.”

“Oh, I don’t think that will be a problem,” Janie said, smirking. “I’ve got three of them ready to fight a duel over me. Can you believe that? I mean, I told them if there were three of them, it wouldn’t be a duel, but…”

That was when everything went blurry.