Nate wished he could believe his father was bluffing. Wished he had the guts to storm out of the office without signing the papers. But the Chairman was right. If Nate’s sexual preference was revealed, it would destroy Nadia’s reputation as surely as breaking the marriage agreement would. And he would come out of reprogramming a changed person, his spirit crushed. The only person Nate had ever known who’d gone through reprogramming had come out the other end a shell of himself, a broken man who was no longer interested in men—or in life in general. It had been years ago, but if Nate remembered correctly, the guy had checked himself into an upstate retreat within three months of returning to society, and he’d been there ever since.
“You can’t do this,” Nate said, but the words came out sounding more like a question than a statement. “The recordings…”
The Chairman raised an eyebrow. “What about them?”
“We won’t let you do this.” But the uncertainty in his voice undermined any chance of being convincing.
“You’re suggesting the two of you will release the recordings if I change the marriage agreement?” The Chairman sounded in equal parts amused and condescending. “Here’s the thing about blackmail, son: it only works if I believe you’re going to follow through on your threat.”
Nate tried to dredge up some fire and conviction. “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her.”
“And you think releasing the recordings would protect her?” His father actually had the nerve to laugh. “Blackmail is like chess—you have to look past your next move and all the way to the end game. So let’s say I refuse to honor your demands. You then have to choose whether or not to release the recordings. What’s the upside to releasing them?”
Nate couldn’t have answered if he’d wanted to, his teeth clamped together so tightly his jaw ached. But his father wasn’t really interested in what Nate had to say anyway. This was a lecture, not a dialog.
“You’d probably get a little glow of satisfaction from sticking it to me, maybe even feel proud of yourself for proving me wrong. But I can’t see anything else good coming out of it, and that’s not whole lot of upside when you know releasing the recordings will cause riots at least, a war at worst. Now what’s the downside? Other than those thousands of people who might die if the worst happened?”
This time, the Chairman made no pretense of waiting for Nate’s response.
“The downside is that once those recordings are out, I no longer have any reason to keep Nadia alive. No reason to keep your boyfriend alive, either. So tell me, Nate: are you going to release those recordings?”
Nate was speechless, his mind searching desperately for a way out, a way to counter his father’s relentless logic.
“Nadia’s blackmail worked at the Fortress because with her life and yours both already forfeit, there wouldn’t have been much of a downside to releasing the recordings, and—in her starry-eyed worldview—there would have been the upside of stopping Thea’s experiments. I had reason to believe she would think that releasing the recordings was the ‘right’ thing to do. I don’t believe either of you would think that’s the case now.
“You’re going to sign the marriage contract,” the Chairman concluded, “and you’re going to do it now. We won’t make the announcement publicly until Agnes has come of age and signed as well, but I have already scheduled some time with Esmeralda and Gerald Lake to inform them of the change in plans.”
“Please—”
The Chairman picked up the phone. “If you haven’t started signing by the time I get security into this office, you’re going into reprogramming.”
He hit two buttons on the phone before Nate grabbed the pen. His hand was shaking with rage as he signed the contract, but he refused to accept the defeat. He had a little more than a week before Agnes would be old enough to sign the contract herself and seal their fates and Nadia’s. Somehow, he would have to find a way to get out of it before then.
There was no way he was changing his father’s mind. However, Chairman Belinski might be another story. Nate would learn as much as he could about his would-be father-in-law. And then he would find a way to convince the Chairman and/or his daughter that he was not the great catch they thought him to be.
CHAPTER FIVE
Nate left Headquarters as soon as he escaped his father’s office, his resolution to be a good heir blown out of the water. How could he possibly get anything done when the whole course of his life and Nadia’s had just been changed for the worse? Knowing that Nadia, his best friend, would one day be his wife had been a blessing. She knew about his secret life, and despite the expectations of Executive society, she had never condemned him for it. Certainly she’d never called it “sexual deviance,” as the Chairman just had. He’d never loved her as a man was supposed to love a woman, but she would have been the perfect wife for him, one who would never judge him or reveal his “shameful” secret to the rest of the world. Nate knew next to nothing about Agnes Belinski except that she had an old-lady name and had not made a good impression on the media, either with her looks or her demeanor. He didn’t have to know her to be certain she’d be far less accepting of him than Nadia.
But as bitter a pill as Nate had to swallow, it was nothing compared to the devastation the change of marriage plans would bring to Nadia’s life. The public humiliation she would suffer was something he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy. And it wasn’t the kind of thing that would blow over someday when the media found something more interesting to harp on. Her reputation could have been rebuilt after the scandal of her arrest, though not without difficulty, as evidenced by her stay at the retreat; but a second scandal, especially one of this magnitude, was a death blow.
Nadia wouldn’t be able to set foot in public without the media rubbing their hands together with glee as they dredged up her history. Not that she’d have much cause to set foot in public anyway. Executive society would ignore her as if she didn’t exist. She wouldn’t be welcome in anyone’s home, would receive no invitations, no visitors, no friendly phone calls. The ostracism would be complete, and Nate could only pray that she wouldn’t be bustled off to one of the upstate Executive retreats, never to be seen again.
Nate seethed for the entire ride back to his apartment, but there was a fair amount of dread mixed in with his fury. Someone would have to tell Nadia the news, and he feared that task would fall to him. Nadia would be allowed visitors at the retreat for the first time later this evening, and Nate had already made arrangements for a car to get him there the moment the gates opened. He’d assumed he’d be sharing the visiting hours with her parents and maybe her sister, but after his father told the Lakes about his change of plans … Nadia’s mother would be too devastated by the news—and too angry at Nadia, even though none of this was her fault—to go through with the visit. And if Esmeralda stayed home, her husband and Gerri would, too. Leaving Nate as the only person who could tell Nadia that her world was coming to an end.
Unfortunately, Nate had once again underestimated his father’s capacity for cruelty. When Nate entered his apartment, he was immediately accosted by Hartman, his majordomo.
“The Chairman called,” Hartman told him, and Nate’s insides froze.
“Whatever he wanted, I don’t want to hear about it,” he said, giving Hartman his fiercest glare. Hartman often seemed to be at a loss for how to handle Nate’s petty rebellions, but he apparently had no doubts this time. When Nate strode away, Hartman followed on his heels.
“I’m afraid he was quite insistent, sir,” Hartman said.