The first floor of Prince’s Department Store was crowded and there was a line leading to the entry kiosk. As Hugo and Bailey looked down from the mezzanine at the controlled chaos, she was almost giddy. It was the last week that entries would be accepted for the Cinderella contest and the response had outpaced her wildest expectations. John Morgan had already culled bout 200 possibles from the entries and would be winnowing the pile down to 94 that weekend. Hugo had to admit that he hadn’t seen his father so engaged in years.

He could see him walking up and down the line of hopefuls now, stopping to chat every so often. “Oh my God,” Bailey said, pointing to the floor. “It’s Allegra Zangari. Did you know she was going to enter the contest?”

“No idea,”...

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