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how stung she was.

He nodded approvingly. “Good, good,” he said, making eye contact only briefly. “Are you well enough to attend class this afternoon?”

Nadia blinked in surprise at the question. Of all the things he could be concerned about, that was what he felt was important?

Unlike Employees, Executive kids didn’t go to school but were instead privately tutored in the subjects deemed most relevant to their future lives. In order to provide a social outlet, some Executive families hosted small study groups at their homes, where a tutor was brought in to educate several students. The Lake family hosted an economics session on weekday afternoons, and Nadia was fastidious about attending, even though the group included Jewel and Blair, two-thirds of the Terrible Trio. The group also included her closest friend—other than Nate—Chloe Rathburn. Nadia wasn’t anxious to face any of them today, not even Chloe, who would undoubtedly want a full account of everything that had happened. Chloe was sweet, and Nadia genuinely liked her, but she had never been terribly sympathetic to Nadia’s struggles with Nate. If Chloe were in Nadia’s shoes, she’d do whatever Nate wanted whenever he wanted it, and she didn’t understand why Nadia didn’t feel the same way.

Of course, Nadia had already determined she didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts, and going to class would certainly provide the distraction she needed. She sighed.

“I suppose I am,” she said. “Why do you ask?”

“I’ve hired a new personal assistant,” her dad said in what seemed to Nadia like a complete non sequitur. He made brief eye contact with her, then looked away again, as if the admission made him uncomfortable. “His name is Robert Dante, and I’ve asked him to stand in for Sully in the afternoons.”

Sully was the servant who was usually on duty to fetch and carry for the students during the classes, because heaven forbid an Executive girl spend a couple of hours without having a servant at her beck and call. Nadia shook her head as she tried to puzzle out what was going on.

“You’re going to have your personal assistant stand around a classroom fetching for us instead of actually having him working for you?” That made no sense whatsoever. Nor did the fact that her father found it necessary to take her aside and announce his new hire.

“He’s an exceptionally bright young man. I think with some additional education, he could make something of himself. I can’t have him officially attend your classes, but I believe he can learn a great deal just by listening in.” Instead of looking at her, Nadia’s dad fidgeted with one of his cuff links.

Gerald Lake did not fidget. Nor did he usually avoid eye contact. Something about this conversation was making him uncomfortable, and Nadia was beginning to suspect she knew what it was.

What were the chances that her father would suddenly hire a new personal assistant and decide that assistant should hang around Nadia’s classes on the very day after Nadia was detained and questioned by Paxco’s chief of security in connection with the Chairman Heir’s murder? It made no sense, and while her father’s explanation sounded logical enough, his body language screamed that there was something amiss.

“I see,” Nadia said slowly. “I should go out of my way to make this bright young man feel welcome in our household. Is that what you’re saying?”

Her father finally met her eyes and held her gaze. There was a hint of relief in his expression, as if the obvious irony of her question had reassured him that she had heard the message he was trying to convey without words.

“Yes,” he said. “That’s an excellent way of putting it.”

So, Mosely had coerced Nadia into spying on Nate, and now he’d inserted someone in her own household to spy on her. Why her father wouldn’t come right out and say it, she didn’t know. Perhaps he’d been given direct orders from the Chairman and felt he was honor bound to obey them. And with only this oblique warning delivered, he could honestly say he hadn’t told her Robert Dante was here to spy on her if Mosely asked. So perhaps she understood his reluctance to speak plainly after all.

“I’ll do my best,” she promised, and her father gave her an affectionate squeeze on the shoulder.

“I know you will.”

* * *

Nadia’s home took up the top three floors of one of the Lake Towers. The lowest of those three floors was mostly made up of servants’ quarters, but one large and sunny corner room served as a schoolroom for Nadia’s classes.

An Executive schoolroom looked nothing like the classrooms in ordinary Employee schools. Instead of a bunch of straight-backed chairs lined up facing a teacher’s desk, there was merely a large round table with comfortable ergonomic chairs. You could tell which seat was the teacher’s because of the oversize monitor and whiteboard behind it, but Nadia had always thought the setup looked more like a conference room than a classroom. The table sat on an obviously expensive red and gold rug, and potted plants were artfully scattered throughout. A table in the far corner sported silver urns of coffee and hot water for tea, as well as elegant finger sandwiches and bite-size pastries.

Nadia wasn’t sure what to expect as she made her way from the elevator to the schoolroom. Jewel and Blair were both reluctant students at best, and they often skipped classes unless there was a test or some other pressing need for them to be there. Nadia hoped they would skip today so she didn’t have to spar with them, but she suspected they wouldn’t be able to resist showing up so they could pretend to be sympathetic and concerned while they pressed her for lurid details. Even if she told them nothing, they’d be sure to share a rumor or two they would claim they’d learned straight from her. At least Cherry was a year younger, so Nadia didn’t have to face the entire Trio together. But as concerned as she was with her mean-spirited classmates, she was more concerned about the ominous Robert Dante. She wondered if he was a nasty, weaselly type like Mosely, the kind of person who could give you an ingratiating smile while freezing your marrow with the coldness of his eyes.

Nadia felt uncommonly nervous when she stepped through the doorway into the schoolroom, her eyes darting around quickly to get the lay of the land.

As she’d suspected, Jewel and Blair were both present. They stood together in the far corner of the room, each holding a china cup and saucer while they bent their heads together and talked softly, giggling. Nadia’s immediate assumption was that they were talking about her, but perhaps she was being self-centered.

Chloe was sitting at the table, about as far away from the other girls as she could get in the confines of the schoolroom. Supposedly, racism had been all but abolished in these advanced and civilized times, but the Rathburns were the only black Executive family in Paxco, and Chloe always seemed to hover around the fringes of Executive society. Although she was invited to and attended all the Executive parties and events, she always gave the impression that she was on the outside looking in. Nadia had never been sure whether it was on account of Chloe holding herself aloof or whether it was because the other Executives subtly shut her out.

Nadia had willfully befriended Chloe when they were thirteen, more because she was stubbornly unwilling to accept Chloe’s fringe status than because they had so much in common. They weren’t the kind of “best friends” Nadia read about in books or saw on TV, not the kind who had long, deep conversations about boys and life and their hopes for the future. For instance, Nadia would never tell Chloe the truth about her relationship with Nate. But they were friends nonetheless, and they had fun together.

Chloe noticed Nadia’s arrival first, and when Nadia met her eyes, she knew at once that something was wrong. Chloe smiled at her and waved, but there was something slightly off about her expression, and she quickly looked away, cupping her hands around her coffee cup and staring moodily at the steam rising from its surface. Hardly the greeting Nadia was expecting. And that was when it occurred to Nadia that she hadn’t had any phone messages from Chloe this morning. Surely a true friend should have at least called to see if she was okay.

Out of the corner of her eye, Nadia saw Jewel and Blair watching her and smirking. Nadia could just imagine what had happened here before she’d arrived. Jewel and Blair had probably talked extensively—and loudly—about Nadia’s fifteen hours of questioning at the security station, speculating on the possibility of her being guilty of something. Maybe they’d even suggested that they were taking a social risk by attending classes at Nadia’s home, that the taint of Nadia’s potential involvement with the Chairman Heir’s murder might rub off on them.

Jewel and Blair were both so highly born that they could afford the social risk of being in Nadia’s presence. But Chloe, already on the fringes, could not. And the bitches had made sure she knew it.

Nadia swallowed hard and tried to act as though she were oblivious to the undercurrents. Fuming quietly, she headed toward the refreshments table. And that was when she got her first look at Robert Dante.