“Daddy invited me,” she replied with a smirk. “I’m his firstborn, and we’ve been kept apart for too long.”
A chill traveled down Nate’s spine as he caught the subtle implications of her words and the emphasis with which she delivered them. Dorothy was fully aware of her potential place in the line of succession. And she had ambitions.
Nate had always been secure in the knowledge that his father needed him, but Dorothy’s arrival said the Chairman was doing everything he could to change that. To make Nate as expendable to him as Nadia.
“Is that what this is all about?” he asked his father. “You’re so sick of me you’re grooming a new heir?”
“Don’t be absurd. You’re my heir, and introducing Dorothy into society won’t change that.” Dorothy smiled a we’ll-see-about-that smile, then had the nerve to wink when Nate glared. The Chairman either didn’t notice the byplay or chose to ignore it. “For your information, the reason I’m introducing her here, even though I know it seems tactless, is that it’s the only time I will have so many of the top Paxco Executives gathered together without the press. I will, of course, have to notify the press about her, but I believe my Executives should learn about it in a more private manner.”
“You’re full of shit, Dad,” Nate said with disgust. There was no earthly reason why the Chairman would introduce a new potential heir if he weren’t planning to use her. It was clear he would never forgive Nate for his role in Thea’s destruction. If those blackmail recordings were ever found, the Chairman would kill him and think good riddance. And even if they weren’t found, Dorothy would eventually be named Chairman Heir, and Nate’s whole future would vanish. Good-bye to his plans to take the reins of Paxco and make it into a better place. He would become nothing but the powerless observer he had always been, while the Chairman pulled Dorothy’s strings and molded her into a new and “improved” version of himself.
Nadia had never been in the center of a scandal before, so being completely ignored by Executive society was an entirely new experience. She stood in the corner with Agnes, making halting conversation, and not a single person in the milling crowd came over to talk to her. It was as if she didn’t exist.
“You should mingle,” Agnes said with what Nadia assumed was meant to be an encouraging smile. “It’s nice of you to try to keep me company, but I think other people are staying away because I make them uncomfortable.”
Nadia imagined that there were more than one or two Executives who would be made uncomfortable by Agnes’s shyness. Nadia didn’t know a single Paxco Executive who hadn’t been trained from birth in social graces, and they’d be flummoxed by someone who apparently had none. But that wasn’t why no one was talking to them.
“Don’t worry,” she said, trying to keep her tone light. “It’s not you they’re avoiding, it’s me. I’m in disgrace, and no one wants to be seen talking to me. Like I have a contagious disease.” She was sure her bitterness showed through, despite her attempt to sound unconcerned.
To her shock, Agnes reached out and touched her arm lightly. “That’s ridiculous!” she said, sounding truly indignant. “I’ve read the news reports. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Nadia smiled at the impassioned defense from such an unlikely source. Perhaps the Executives of Synchrony were more forgiving than those of Paxco. Nadia had always assumed Executives were Executives everywhere, but perhaps that wasn’t the case. Either that, or Agnes was dangerously naive.
“What makes you think that has anything to do with it?”
Agnes grimaced, acknowledging the point.
“Cheer up,” Nadia continued, not sure whether she meant the words for Agnes or for herself. “It’s not all bad. The Terrible Trio spotted us a few moments ago, but they’re too afraid they might get my cooties to come over and grace us with their presence.”
The corners of Agnes’s lips twitched. “The Terrible Trio?”
If Agnes had had any success socializing with Executive teens, she’d have known the moniker already. Even the Trio’s closest friends and sycophants called them that, though not to their faces, obviously.
Nadia grinned. “You know who I’m talking about, even if you haven’t heard them called that before.”
Agnes wrinkled her nose, scanning the crowd until she caught sight of the Trio holding court. She raised an inquiring eyebrow, and Nadia nodded to confirm her choice. Obviously, Nadia’s retreat from the public eye hadn’t done much to rehabilitate her image yet if the Trio thought her so toxic they didn’t dare approach to shower her with backhanded compliments and sly innuendo. She wondered what they would do when they found out she was no longer Nate’s fiancée. Would that hold them permanently at bay? Or would they figure she’d sunk so low no one could possibly misinterpret their approach as friendly?
Or would she never see them again because she was locked up behind the walls of a retreat like this one?
“If you’re keeping them away,” Agnes said, “then I’m going to stick to your side like glue for the rest of the afternoon.”
She had visibly relaxed since Nadia had first spotted her, standing alone and forlorn in the corner. Her shoulders weren’t so tight, her facial expression was more open and unguarded, and she had actually made a joke, of sorts. Nadia began to suspect there was more personality behind the bland, shy mask she showed the world than most people would ever guess. She hoped it wouldn’t be crushed when the engagement was announced and so many eyes focused on her in search of flaws.
Chairman Hayes exited the building, stepping out onto the porch and greeting the Executives who were standing closest to the entrance. Nate wasn’t with him.
The Chairman started drifting toward the tent, and the crowd of chattering Executives followed him, still grouped in their little conversational clumps, moving forward almost unconsciously, like he was a magnet and they couldn’t resist his pull. People were beginning to take their seats, and there was an aura of expectation in the air. A minister hovered near the pulpit, ready to move into place at a moment’s notice.
Nadia frowned when she scanned the crowd for Nate yet again and didn’t see him. It looked like the service was going to start soon, so where was he? Agnes was looking around anxiously, too. No doubt she was expected to sit up front, with Nate, but Nadia knew instinctively that she was far too shy just to march up to the front by herself.
“Where are your parents?” Nadia asked, thinking to find Agnes another escort. Certainly she couldn’t walk up front with Agnes. She wasn’t even sure her family wanted her sitting with them—perhaps they expected her to sit discreetly in the back row, veil over her face, to make herself as invisible as possible.
“My father’s over there,” Agnes said with a jerk of her chin. “Talking with Chairman Hayes. My mom didn’t come. She’s been down with migraines for the last few days.”
Nadia followed Agnes’s gaze and found the two Chairmen, who were talking earnestly. Whatever they were talking about, they were deeply absorbed, and Chairman Belinski showed no inclination to come escort his daughter to her seat. Nadia scanned the crowd again, wondering if she could somehow have missed Nate. She didn’t see him, but she did catch sight of Gerri, who was turned around in her chair, staring back. Gerri gestured for Nadia to come over, patting the seat beside her. Gerri’s husband glanced over his shoulder to give Nadia a haughty, disapproving look, a look that clearly said she should decline Gerri’s invitation and sit elsewhere.
Ordinarily, Nadia would have immediately marched over in defiance of her brother-in-law’s wishes. He was almost a foot shorter than Gerri and liked to puff himself up with pompous attitude to make up for it. Nadia couldn’t imagine how her sister managed to live with him and, even more mysteriously, have children with him. But much as she’d like to inconvenience the man, she couldn’t just walk away and leave Agnes hanging, and Nate was nowhere to be seen. People were taking their seats with increasing speed, and soon Agnes and Nadia were going to be sticking out like sore thumbs.