Dante nodded. “Your father is against it. Adamantly.”
Nadia stifled a half-laugh, half-sob. “Like that’ll do me any good.”
Dante hadn’t been with their household long, but he surely already knew that Esmeralda always got her way. If she thought sending Nadia away to some upstate retreat where she would never be seen again was necessary to salvage the shreds of the Lake family’s reputation, then that was where Nadia would end up. Regardless of what her father thought about it.
“Maybe it will,” Dante said, reaching out and squeezing her hand. “He fought for you. I’ve never heard him get so worked up about anything before. I’ve never heard your mother back down from anyone before either, but she did this afternoon.”
But they both knew that her father had only won the first battle of the war. There would be more to come, and long experience led Nadia to believe she and her father would end up on the losing side. Her life as she knew it was now over.
A tear trickled down her cheek. Ordinarily, she would have tried to hide any sign of weakness, especially in the presence of a social inferior, but she supposed there was no reason to keep up appearances right now. Thinking about what her future might hold made her want to curl up in a hole somewhere and die. Dante squeezed her hand a little tighter, but he didn’t have any more comforting words to offer.
“What happened when you were arrested, Nadia?” Dante asked. “There’s no way Chairman Hayes thought Agnes Belinski was a better match for Nate than you. The change in plans has spite written all over it. What I don’t get is, if he hates you so much, why did he let you out of Riker’s?”
Nadia shook her head at him even as tears continued to fall and she clung to his hand. “You never take off your spy hat, do you?”
It was hard to tell in the darkness, but she thought he might have blushed. “Sorry,” he mumbled, scuffing at the ground with one foot. “I can’t help noticing this stuff. And wondering about it.”
For a moment, Nadia was sorely tempted to tell Dante everything, to tell him about Thea, about her experiments, about Mosely’s mission to procure test subjects from among the lowest, most powerless citizens of Paxco. She wanted to thrust a dagger through the Chairman’s heart and laugh while he bled.
But it wouldn’t be the Chairman who bled if word of his crimes got out. Dante’s resistance movement claimed to want to change the government slowly and peaceably—or at least that was what Dante thought the eventual goal was—but despite the Chairman’s ruthless quelling of protests, there were plenty of malcontents out there who would gladly turn to violence if given sufficient cause. Triggering a rash of riots that could potentially escalate into full-out civil war was not the way to punish the Chairman for his sins. Which meant, she realized with a sinking feeling, that she wouldn’t be able to blackmail her way out of this even if she could reach the Chairman. Any threat she made to release the recordings would be a bluff, and he was too savvy not to know that.
“I can’t tell you what happened,” she said. “But you’re right that the Chairman hates me. He can’t kill me or put me in Riker’s.” As long as the recordings existed and were hidden. Nadia had arranged for them to be released to the public should something happen to her. “But he can—and obviously will—hurt me in other ways.”
Just as he would hurt Nate, in any way he could.
The thought of Nate made her chest ache, and the tears flowed more freely. Why hadn’t he come to tell her the dreadful news in person? How could he leave her here in ignorance?
How could he let the Chairman marry him off to someone else?
The tears burst from her in an uncontrolled gush, no longer demure and ladylike. Dante drew her into his arms, cradling her head against his shoulder, and she didn’t even think of resisting.
“I’ll spend the rest of my life locked up in a retreat somewhere up north,” she sobbed, not sure how she would bear it. Five nights at Tranquility had her wanting to scream. How could she live in a place more restrictive and more isolated than this for the rest of her life?
“Maybe not,” Dante whispered soothingly, holding her tightly to him. “Your father may win in the end. And even if they do send you away, it might not be forever.”
She appreciated his attempts to comfort her, but it could never work. She could see her fate stretching out before her all too clearly. She would be sent to a distant retreat, where everyone was way older than her and female. She would never be seen in public again, might never see her family or Nate again. They could keep her at the retreat against her will until she was eighteen, and then they could keep her there by refusing her access to the family’s funds so that she had nowhere else to go. She would never marry, never have children. Hell, she would never even know love, because there would be no boys or men in her life.
“You don’t understand,” she hiccuped against Dante’s jacket. An Employee like Dante would never have had to face the specter of a retreat, couldn’t possibly comprehend what such a gilded cage was like.
Dante sighed and stroked her hair. “I do understand,” he said softly. “And I’ll do whatever I can to help you. I’m sure Nate will, too.”
Nadia shook her head and tried to pull away from Dante’s arms, but he wouldn’t let her. She went limp against him. Propriety didn’t matter anymore, and if she wanted to let a male servant hold her and comfort her, then she would. His arms felt solid and strong around her, and she liked hearing the steady thump of his heart when she pressed her head to his chest.
“Nate can’t help me,” she said, feeling the truth of her words down to her bones. She didn’t know how the Chairman had convinced Nate to agree to the match with Agnes Belinski, but she knew he hadn’t done so willingly. Somehow, his father had gotten a hold on him, and if he was determined to make both Nate and Nadia suffer, then he would be sure to keep them apart.
“Probably not directly,” Dante agreed. “I don’t know what’s going on under all this, but I do know the Chairman will be watching Nate’s every step. But he won’t be watching me.”
He finally released her from his embrace. Nadia would have regretted the loss, if he hadn’t cupped her wet cheeks in his hands and stared intently into her eyes.
“We’ll find a way, Nadia,” he said, with such certainty that she could almost believe him. “Nate and I don’t like each other, but we both like you. A lot. We can work together to help you.”
“Help me how?” It wasn’t like she was in some kind of physical danger they could save her from.
“Help you escape, if it comes to that.”
“Escape.” Somehow, the thought had never occurred to her. Maybe because it was so wildly impractical. “Where would I go? How would I live?” She would have no money, and no way of getting access to money if her family didn’t want her to. It wasn’t like she could just get a job somewhere. Jobs went to Employees, not Executives, and it wasn’t as if she could hide her identity. Especially once the latest scandal broke. Her picture would be plastered over news feeds and gossip columns everywhere.
Dante made a face. “I don’t have the answers, at least not now. But we’ll figure something out. It might take time, but if you get sent upstate, we’ll find a way to get you out. I promise.”
Nadia fervently wished she could believe him. Maybe someday, when Nate became Chairman, he would have the power to free her, but not before. Not when the only place she could flee to was the Basement, where she could have food and shelter for free, if she didn’t mind living among drug dealers, prostitutes, and gangs who would see her as fresh meat.