Resistance

by Jenna Black

  “It must be some meeting,” Nadia muttered under her breath. Nate and his father couldn’t spend five minutes together without sparks flying.

  Feeling like a superstitious child, Nadia crossed her fingers and prayed that there were no more shocks in store. But Nate having a long private meeting with his father before the funeral did not bode well.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Nate stared at his father, his mind unable—or, more likely, unwilling—to grasp what he had just heard. “Your daughter,” he repeated, trying the words on for size.

  His father nodded. “By a different mother.”

  If his father had a sense of humor, Nate would have accused him of playing a spectacularly unfunny practical joke. Surely he was misunderstanding what his father was saying to him. He looked at Dorothy again and noticed that her eyes were the same shade of cold gray as his father’s. The curve of her chin and her arrow-straight nose were like softened versions of the Chairman’s, as if a craftsman had filed away all the rough edges.

  Nate shook his head in an effort to deny what his eyes were telling him. “No.”

  “I’m sorry, son,” the Chairman said. “I couldn’t think of any good way to tell you about this.”

  “She’s an impostor!” Nate snapped, glaring at Dorothy, who was obviously enjoying what she was seeing and hearing.

  “I can show you the DNA test if you’d like. She’s not an impostor. I told you before that your mother and I had a falling out, and I admitted that it was my fault, that I was unfaithful. Dorothy was the product of that infidelity. For many years, I didn’t know about her—”

  “Oh, and now she just happens to appear in your life after Mom died? How convenient.”

  “No, son. She appeared in my life about ten years ago, when she was thirteen and her mother was beginning to consider her marriage prospects.”

  Nate swallowed hard, feeling like he was about to be sick. Ten years ago. Right about the time Ellie Hayes left her husband and her son and shut herself behind the walls of the retreat forever.

  “That’s when your mother found out about the affair,” the Chairman continued. “It was ugly, to say the least. She was so very angry…” His eyes lost focus for a moment, as if he were haunted by the memory. “I’m sure you remember what a battleground our home became in the weeks before your mother left. Once the DNA tests came back and confirmed that Dorothy truly was my daughter, I wanted to acknowledge her, and give her all the rights and privileges that the daughter of a Chairman ought to have. Obviously, acknowledging her would cause a scandal, but I would hardly be the first Chairman to have had a child out of wedlock.”

  “But you didn’t acknowledge her.”

  The Chairman shook his head. “Your mother wouldn’t stand for it. She threatened to make a public spectacle of our marital difficulties. She even insinuated that Dorothy or her mother might meet with an unfortunate accident if I were to publicly acknowledge paternity.”

  Once again, Nate shook his head, as if by denying what his father was telling him, he could make it not be true. His memories of his mother had dimmed over time, and he’d been angry with her for so long that he was sure it had colored what memories he had. But no matter what, he couldn’t imagine the mother he had known threatening to have an innocent child killed.

  “She would never have done that!” Nate said, willing it to be so.

  The Chairman pinched the bridge of his nose, a gesture that made him look almost vulnerable. “She was not herself at the time. I honestly don’t know what she would have done if we hadn’t reached a compromise.”

  “A compromise?”

  “I agreed that I would not acknowledge Dorothy as my daughter for as long as your mother lived. And she agreed that she wouldn’t attempt to humiliate our family or harm Dorothy. But our marriage was over, and she preferred to spend her time in a retreat than to live with me. Dorothy and her mother have been living abroad ever since, and I have been supporting them.”

  “And now that your mother has freed him from their agreement,” Dorothy said with a gleeful smile, “I can finally be my father’s daughter for real.”

  None of this is true, Nate told himself. He didn’t care what the DNA test said, or how much she resembled the Chairman—Dorothy was not his daughter.

  It wasn’t impossible to imagine that the Chairman could have kept a secret for all these years—keeping secrets was one of his most polished skills—but not one like this. Not when he was paying for Dorothy’s upkeep. Not when Nate’s mother must have had friends she would have poured her heart out to, friends who would have let the secret slip. There would have been at least a rumor of Dorothy’s existence if there were even a kernel of truth in this whole ridiculous story.

  Most damning of all was that Dorothy was older than Nate. Sure, she was illegitimate, and that made Nate legally his father’s heir by default. But thanks to the laws of primogeniture, his father could easily bypass the default succession and name Dorothy as his heir. And if his father could have done that, he would have been holding the threat of disinheritance over Nate’s head for his whole life.

  His father had never once suggested that someone other than Nate would be the next Chairman of Paxco; therefore, there was no other potential heir. And that meant Dorothy was an impostor—and his father knew it.

  Nate drew himself up into his tallest, most dignified stance and met his father’s eyes, dismissing Dorothy from his attention altogether.

  “I don’t know who that woman is,” Nate said, his voice calm and uninflected, “but she isn’t your daughter. If she were your daughter, you certainly wouldn’t be introducing her into society during my mother’s funeral. Even you aren’t that much of an asshole.”

  Dorothy gave a gasp of outrage, but there was too much satisfaction in her eyes for it to be convincing.

  “How dare you talk to our father that way?” she cried. “He deserves more respect than that, both as our father and as the Chairman of Paxco.”

  The Chairman laid a calming hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right, Dorothy,” he said. “He’s understandably upset.”

  Suddenly, the vibe in the room felt even weirder. Chairman Hayes was not the sort of man to be so understanding—either of Nate’s behavior or Dorothy’s outburst. But if he was in the mood to pardon bad behavior, then Nate was in the mood to take advantage of it.

  Nate sneered at Dorothy. “Why don’t you go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and stay there. Showing up at my mother’s funeral is so far beyond tacky there’s no good word for it.”

  “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.

  Beside her, Nadia saw that Agnes’s hands were clasped together tightly, and her face had lost a little color. If she had to walk up to the front row on her own, every eye would be on her, and she would be painfully aware of it. Worse, she obviously had never learned the cherished Executive skill of hiding her feelings, and she was already wearing her misery on her face.

  “Let’s go look for Nate, shall we?” Nadia asked, hooking her arm through Agnes’s and urging her away from the tent, into the building.

  “B-but the service is about to start.”

  Nadia noticed that the glossy silk of Agnes’s black dress did not hide sweat stains. It certainly wasn’t warm enough out for Agnes to be overheated, so the perspiration must have come from nerves. Nadia marched steadily forward, and because her arm was hooked with Agnes’s, Agnes had to follow.

  “The service won’t start until Nate is there. So let’s go dig him out of hiding instead of keeping all those people waiting.”

  Nadia unhooked her arm from Agnes’s only enough so she could open the door and give the girl a gentle nudge in the back to move her through. Just in time, too, because she saw that almost everyone was already seated, and a couple of people had turned to look in their direction. Nadia thought Agnes might have had a nervous breakdown if more people turned to look.

  By the time Nadia closed the door and they were safe within the gloomy interior of the retreat, Agnes
looked like she was near tears, and Nadia wanted to find Nate so she could take him by the scruff of the neck and shake him. He was a nice guy, the kind of guy who should feel naturally protective of a fragile soul like Agnes. For him to just leave her hanging like this was appalling.

  “It’ll be all right, Agnes,” Nadia said softly. She wanted to give the other girl a hug, but Agnes’s body language did not invite it. “We’ll find Nate, and then we can all go take our seats so the service can begin.”

  Agnes blinked away tears, her eyes wild and desperate-looking. “It’s going to get worse when we’re married, isn’t it? People will be watching my every move, and Nathaniel will hate me even more, and—”

  To hell with Agnes’s body language, Nadia thought as she put her arms around the girl and hugged her tightly. Agnes momentarily stiffened in shock, but it seemed she was so desperate for a show of kindness that she couldn’t help giving in to it.

  “Nate doesn’t hate you,” Nadia assured her, sidestepping the issue about which she could offer no words of comfort. “He’s furious with his father, and he’s been taking it out on you because he can’t take it out on him.”

  Agnes squirmed out of the hug, and Nadia reluctantly released her, wishing she could offer more than words.

  “I’ve known him since I was four,” Nadia continued. “He’s being a world-class jerk right now, but that’s not what he’s really like.”

  “And what am I really like?”

  Agnes squealed in alarm, and though Nadia managed to keep quiet, she jumped just as high.

  Standing in a doorway behind them, his tie loosened, his collar unbuttoned, and an open bottle of something amber-colored in his hand, was Nate. And the expression on his face was about as bleak and forbidding as anything Nadia had ever seen.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Nate lifted the bottle of booze to his lips and took a gulp. It was probably something obscenely expensive, meant to be sipped in minute quantities—he hadn’t even bothered to read the label when he’d grabbed it—but all he cared about was that there was alcohol in it. Nadia and Agnes were both looking at him like he’d grown a third arm, which meant he was well on his way to creating the drunken slob look he was aiming for. Though he’d have to work a little harder on the “drunken” part, because he’d only had a couple of swallows so far. He raised the bottle again, and Nadia skewered him with a glare.