ERSON

FILTHY RICH

dramatically in anticipation.
of the earbuds: Britney Spears.
starts to dance, moving her

ng. She's twirling around and rab the clothes hanging up in thousand fans! Then she stops ly she's become fourteen again.

w is what she will wear to the

in impression. This will be her ot want to look like a child on

white jeans, puts on a freshly r flat stomach bare. The cross angs from her neck.

oney. Several weeks' wages at some old man a massage? She nto the closet, sings along with

c?
y perfectly. She turns to check
ig the scene with her fingers to

block out the Barbies behind her. Over on the Gold Coast, girls in big, high-ceilinged bedrooms have American Girl dolls. Dolls with natural smiles, perfectly vacant moon faces. American Girl dolls are beautiful. They're expensive. But you have to have one if Mom and Dad are willing to pay. Over on the Coast, most mothers and fathers are. But out in the sticks, where Mary lives, you get Barbies-passed down from mother to daughter, from sister to sister. They're rail-thin, missile-breasted. There's a touch of knowingness to the curl of their otherwise innocent mouths. American Girl dolls are girlie, but Barbie's like Britney Spears. Barbie's dangling her long legs over the line that separates girls from women.

Be like Barbie, Mary thinks.

She can't be nervous. Not now. Not today.

What she tells herself, over and over again, is: It's not that big a deal.

But, of course, it is a big deal. Before long, Mary's visit to the big fancy house will become part of a months-long Palm Beach police investigation-an affidavit for probable cause, filed by the Palm Beach PD-and, finally, the arrest and conviction of the home's owner, Jeffrey Epstein.

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{"people":["britney spears","jeffrey epstein"]}