03

The cold storage door had barely swung open before they poured in like bandits sacking a village.

Deborah hauled out a whole case of the imported freeze-dried powder and tossed it straight at the woman in the leopard-print dress.

"Take it."

"A single box of this goes for over twenty grand out there. Today's on me. Anyone who doesn't use it is disrespecting me."

Every one of the women lit up and swarmed in at once.

Some stuffed product into their designer bags as fast as their hands could move.

Others tore the packaging open on the spot and smeared big dollops across the backs of their hands.

Then a woman in a camisole came out carrying a box of injectables.

"Deborah, can I get this one shot into me?"

Deborah glanced at the box and nodded like she owned the place.

"Of course you can!"

"How could the most expensive stuff be wrong?"

The blood drained from Yvonne's face. She rushed over to block them.

"Miss Dickerson, that one you really can't touch!"

"That's the Siren's Tears that just came in. The formula has to be mixed by a licensed attending physician."

"If someone opens it and injects it on their own, it can kill!"

Deborah's face darkened. She jabbed a finger at Yvonne's nose.

"Here you come again, ruining the fun."

"My brother's standing right here and he hasn't said a word. Who are you to tell me what to do?"

Yvonne was so upset she was near tears, and she reached out to grab it back.

Deborah's hand came up and struck her across the face.

Crack.

The sound rang out, sharp, and the whole lobby went silent in an instant.

Yvonne clutched her cheek and went down to the floor, half her face swelling before my eyes.

I hurried over and pulled her up.

Deborah folded her arms and looked at me, brazen.

"What?"

"You're going to stick up for the hired help?"

My phone buzzed twice in a row.

The future me had sent a very long voice message.

"The crazier she gets, the worse she'll go down."

"Three years of give-an-inch, take-a-mile. Do not clean up her mess today, whatever you do."

"Just remember one thing. Every camera in the store is running fine right now."

I swallowed the anger and helped Yvonne into a chair at the front desk.

"Go find some ice for it."

Her eyes were red-rimmed, her voice shaking.

"Astrid, we really can't let them mess around with that stuff. Something's going to happen."

I patted her shoulder.

"I know. Leave it to me."

Deborah snorted from across the room.

"What's the act for?"

"I'm taking things from my own family's place, and now I need your permission?"

I pointed at the big screen behind the front desk.

"The system's tallying it up."

"Use whatever you want."

"But we're all adults here. Whatever you take, whatever you use, in the end everyone pays for what they do."

Deborah looked like she'd just heard the funniest thing in the world.

"You hear that?"

"She really thinks she's the boss!"

The woman in the leopard-print dress leaned in and stirred the pot in that snide tone.

"Deborah, your sister-in-law's not actually going to make you pay, is she?"

Deborah tossed an injectable worth tens of thousands onto the couch.

"She wouldn't dare."

"My brother's right here. She takes one cent from me, and I'll have him throw her out of the Dickerson family."

Patrick came hurrying over with a plate of sliced fruit to smooth things over.

"No, no, of course we're not charging anyone. Everyone just enjoy yourselves."

Under cover of setting down the fruit plate, he shot me a vicious glare.

"Astrid, put today's tab on the back end for now. I'll settle it later."

"Don't stand here making everyone look bad."

I didn't even glance at him. I walked straight to the register.

A few quick taps in the system, and I put the running total up on the lobby screen.

The number jumped from a hundred and eighty thousand to four hundred and thirty thousand in an instant.

Deborah shot a look at the screen. Instead of reining herself in, she only got more worked up.

"Fire up the premium ultrasound-lift device for me!"

"And that gold radiofrequency treatment. Power it all on!"

"Anyone who hasn't spent five hundred thousand here today isn't allowed to leave!"

04

For the next three hours, the spa became these women's private playground.

The top-tier machines, the ones you had to book three months out to touch, Deborah handled like plastic toys.

She thought going one at a time was too slow, so she made two technicians run different probes across her face at once.

Then she complained there was no pull to it, and bullied the tech into cranking the power straight to max.

The machine started shrieking, a continuous alarm.

The probe ran so hot the technician didn't dare bring it near her.

Deborah kicked the console.

"What kind of garbage machine is this?"

"I paid all this money for it and I can't even run it on high?"

The technician gritted her teeth and backed away.

"Miss Dickerson, if we keep going it'll burn out."

"If the probe blows and burns your face, we honestly can't carry that kind of liability."

Deborah snatched the cup off the table and hurled it right at the technician's feet.

"Quit trying to scare me with that crap!"

"You won't do it, I'll find someone who will!"

She turned, walked to the sofa, grabbed the box of Siren's Tears that hadn't been used earlier, and tore the seal right open.

The wealthy wives crowded in at once.

"Deborah, you're really going to inject that yourself?"

"I heard it's a beta-test shot they just released overseas, effect's insane."

"One dose and every fine line on your face goes flat."

Deborah tipped her chin high.

"When have I ever steered you wrong?"

"Whoever lets me practice on her today, I'll gift her a full-year diamond card."

The woman in the leopard-print dress hesitated and shrank back.

"Doesn't this stuff need a licensed doctor to mix it?"

I took out my phone, opened the camera, and pointed the lens at them.

"I'll say this one last time."

"This batch of injectables has to be mixed with a physician present."

"Anyone who injects it on their own bears the consequences themselves."

Patrick came out of nowhere and grabbed a fistful of my clothes.

"Are you sick in the head?"

"What could possibly go wrong with a few extra shots?"

"Get these ladies happy today and my project actually has a shot. Stop dragging me down!"

I turned my head and stared him dead in the eye.

"And if it really does go wrong?"

Patrick's face twisted with impatience, and he even shoved me.

"Can't you ever wish me any luck?"

"I'm out there groveling to people for this family, and you? You sit here making my life hell every single day!"

Hearing that, Deborah's expression turned even more insolent.

"Sister, you hear what my brother just said?"

"My brother works himself ragged for this family, and you've still got the nerve to play boss in here."

She grabbed the syringe and waved the women over.

"Come on, I'll try it on you first."

"Anyone who chickens out today can forget staying in my circle."

The woman in the slip dress stuck her arm out immediately.

"Just go easy on me."

Deborah didn't even sterilize it. Copying some video online, she jabbed the needle straight into the woman's arm.

Yvonne screamed in fright.

"Miss Dickerson, you can't do this!"

"This is practicing medicine illegally!"

Deborah whipped around and jabbed a finger at her, vicious.

"Shut your mouth!"

"One more sound out of you and I'll rip your tongue out today!"

I didn't say another word to talk her down.

I just quietly switched the recording on my phone over to a live cloud backup.

I looked up at the big screen over the front desk. The running total was jumping like mad.

One million two.

One million six hundred eighty thousand.

Two million thirty thousand.

Deborah stared at the numbers, eyes glazed over, tipping into something completely unhinged.

"Ladies, you see that!"

"This is what class looks like!"

"Whoever spends the most tonight, tomorrow I'm covering her down payment on a sports car!"

By the small hours, Deborah was fully drunk out of her mind.

She decided the five-thousand-a-jar firming cream wasn't satisfying enough, so she unscrewed a dozen jars and poured them all into the drain just to hear the sound.

She decided the machines weren't new enough, so she lifted her foot and stomped down hard.

The premium ultrasound-lift device, worth over a million, toppled straight to the floor.

The precision probe crashed into the standing water on the ground.

"Zzzt."

A long string of sparks shot up, the machine let out a few dull bangs, then a plume of black smoke poured out and the screen went dead black.

A few women in the lobby screamed.

Deborah just stood on the scattered glass shards and raised the wine glass in her hand.

"What's everyone panicking for!"

"It's broken, so we buy new ones, simple as that!"

"Once my brother lands that city landscaping contract and clears a few million, I'll swap out ten of these for you, whatever!"

Hearing that, Patrick's face changed for a second.

But he saw those official's wives all clapping and cheering, so he swallowed the words already at his lips.

The woman in the leopard-print dress held up her phone, running a livestream in the lobby.

"Guys, let me show you what real money looks like."

"This is Deborah's own aesthetics spa."

"From now on, when us New York socialites get our faces done, this is the place!"

Deborah heard it and shoved her face right up to the camera.

"Exactly!"

"Tomorrow I'm having someone take down the sign out front."

"This place won't have that garbage name anymore. It's Dickerson Aesthetics!"

Patrick finally felt it had gone too far and hurried a couple of steps forward.

"Honey, Deborah's had too much to drink tonight."

"Don't take it to heart. We'll talk about the name change back home."

I looked at the ruined million-dollar machine on the floor, and my voice came out so calm it surprised even me.

"Whether this place changes its name now depends on whether the new owner agrees."

Deborah froze for a second, then doubled over laughing.

"New owner?"

"Did you take the wrong pills today?"

"My brother paid to open this store. If I want to change the name, who exactly do I need to ask?"

I picked up the spare service tablet at the front desk and walked over to her.

"Deborah, if you stop now, there's actually still time."

Deborah snatched the tablet, raised it over her head, and smashed it hard against the floor.

The screen shattered instantly into pieces.

"Who the hell do you think you are, trying to lecture me?"

"Today, even if God himself came down, this store is going to carry the Dickerson name!"

The words had barely left her mouth when the spa's sensor doors were shoved open from outside.

Cold wind rushed back in.

A dozen or so men in black suits strode in and quickly lined both sides of the lobby.

Right after, a voice full of raw pressure carried through.

"Who's trying to touch my spa?"