Charlotte is still groggy when she finally picks up her ringing phone. It has probably been ringing for a good three minutes.
"Uh, uhm, hello?"
"Janus!" exclaims the familiar voice of her supervisor, Vina Boyle. "Janus Allister! Are you awake?"
"Yes?" replies Charlotte as she looks at her ostrich-shaped clock through squinted eyes.
The world is still blurry, but she can just barely make out the hands of the clock.
It is five. In the morning.
'This,' she thinks, 'better be something fucking important.'
"I need you to listen carefully," Vina instructs.
"Listening," murmurs Charlotte as she stifles a yawn.
"Raylen Vale is going to hold a press conference. It is most likely going to be about his impending separation from Livia Astor."
Those words shock Charlotte wide awake. "What?!"
"You heard correctly. The conference is at eight. I want you to get ready and reach Vale Hotel at Fifth Avenue as soon as you can. I'll see you there."
"On it."
Although Charlotte is wide awake, she still needs some time to gather her thoughts.
Why is Raylen Vale suddenly splitting from Livia Astor?
Is Livia a gold-digger who has decided that it is, after two children, finally time to reel in her haul?
Or is it adultery? Irreconcilable differences? Emotional neglect? Financial abuse?
Or is it tension between in-laws? Everyone knows that Henry Vale is not an easy person to get along with.
Charlotte runs through the many possibilities in her mind while thanking the universe.
With Livia out of the picture, it may be easier to get closer to Raylen.
Unless… the cause of his marriage's deterioration is another woman. It is practically impossible to get a man's attention when he is entranced by a brand-new and shiny toy.
Charlotte is not sure her sister's face is enough to draw his attention in such a case. She will have to wait.
From what she has heard, Raylen, like his father, is a serial cheater.
She wonders, for what is probably the hundredth time, why Delaney ever dated such a man. For a decade too, according to some sources.
In fact, no one seems to know when exactly Delaney and Raylen got together. They were always close, making it difficult to discern when they stopped being friends and started being lovers instead.
They apparently never answered the question explicitly either.
"It was something that just sort of happened," recounted May Blackwood, one of their college friends, when Charlotte asked. "They were childhood friends. Or rather, they were childhood sweethearts. They had a tendency to dodge the question when asked. That's why I doubt Raylen himself knows for sure when they got together. Like I mentioned, it was something that just sort of happened."
Regardless, Charlotte will find out what has happened during the press conference.
"Marianne! Mary!" she yells as she jumps out of bed and runs towards her flatmate's room.
Remembering the time, she lowers her volume. "Mary!" she whispers urgently as she knocks on a bright blue door. "Mary! Can I come in?"
"Huh? Wha—"
"I'll take that as a yes," says Charlotte as she slips into the room.
Marianne's head is still on her pillow, resting above a halo of pink hair as bright as her door. There is no suggestion of her original hair colour except for her brown eyebrows. "Lottie, what do you want? If it's not something important, I'll kill you."
"Of course it's something important," replies Charlotte as she thanks the universe once again for her flatmate's good temper. "Raylen Vale is going to hold a conference in three hours and I need your help to transform into Janus Allister."
"Press conference? At this hour? What for?"
"He is," explains Charlotte, barely able to contain her excitement, "divorcing Livia Astor. Or she is divorcing him. I don't know and I can't wait to find out."
"Tsk," Marianne replies in mock disapproval as she wags a critical finger at Charlotte. "Taking delight in the misfortune of others. Tsk, tsk. How unacceptable. How unpleasant. How unladylike. How unbecoming."
Charlotte laughs. "Come on now, Mary. Don't tease me. I'm truly sorry for waking you up at such an ungodly hour and I'll make it up to you. Please help me. My supervisor wants me at the Vale Hotel as soon as possible."
"Alright, alright," says Marianne as she gets out of her bed. "Let me get my supplies ready. You can wear your contacts first. I expect a nice meal as compensation."
"Of course," agrees Charlotte as she slips back into her room and enters her personal toilet. Looking into the mirror, she performs what has become a daily routine—she covers her bright blue eyes with pale grey contacts.
It was an absolute pain to get the exact shade but, considering Raylen's reaction, it has been absolutely worth it.
It is not the only worthy sacrifice—her waist-length hair had to go too when she decided to take on this role.
She then hides her auburn hair—cropped short to make wigs easier to wear—under an elastic cap to make things easier for Marianne.
"Mary!" she calls out as she walks back to her friend's room. "I'm ready."
"Goodie. I'm ready too. Sit down and sit still."
Charlotte obeys without hesitation and Marianne begins to prove her worth as a special effects artist. She first works some silicone in the precise colour of Charlotte's skin till it is the right consistency. Next, she applies it to her friend's face before deftly shaping and blending it into a different nose.
She used to consult a few photographs from different angles but they have been doing this for so long that she no longer needs references.
The following step is to darken Charlotte's bleached eyebrows. It does seem a bit ridiculous to bleach her eyebrows only to draw them on again, but it is necessary for the illusion to be convincing. Marianne also hides the mole under Charlotte's eye with some concealer.
Lastly, Marianne puts a lace-front wig on her good friend and the person sitting before her is no longer Charlotte Sackville-West but the deceased Delaney Sackville-West.