I kind of did, but I didn’t think it was a good idea for me to touch any parts of Gable, even his bionic ones.

“Come on, Anya. Shake my hand. Friends can shake hands, can’t they?” We were not friends.

“Don’t be boring, Anya,” Gable said. “Do you know what school you’re going to yet?” “Wherever will have me, I suppose.”

“It’s stupid them not letting you come back,” Gable said. “You saved Win Delacroix’s life.”

It had not escaped my notice that Scarlet had stealthily avoided the subject of Win the entire afternoon. I did not want to hear news of Win from Gable Arsley of all people. Still, I would take what I could get. “Is Win”—I tried to make my voice casual—“back at Trinity this year?”

Gable rolled his eyes. “Oh, I can see exactly how much you don’t care about him. You’ve always been the world’s worst liar, Anya. Aren’t you talking to him anymore?”

“We aren’t allowed.”

“That wouldn’t stop me.” Gable ran his metal fingers through his hair. “He doesn’t eat lunch with

Scarlet and me this year, which is fine. I always found him annoyingly earnest. How you could go for him after me, I’ll never understand.”

I wanted to ask more, but I didn’t want to have to ask, if you know what I mean. Luckily, Gable was delighted to volunteer information. “Listen, Scarlet said we shouldn’t tell you this yet, but you’ll find out soon enough anyway. Win’s with Alison Wheeler.”

I inhaled and tried not to feel anything. “I know who she is.” Win had taken her to the Fall Formal last year. He’d said he was just friends with her, but that didn’t seem likely now. No wonder I hadn’t seen him in so long.

“What do you mean ‘I know who she is’?” Gable demanded. “Of course you know who she is. We’ve been going to school with her for years.”

I had been trying to avoid saying something more revealing about the matter. “How did it happen?” I asked.

"Boy meets girl. She was helping out on his dad’s campaign, I guess. Something like that. She’s not bad-looking though. I’d do her.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You mean if you weren’t with Scarlet.” “That is presumed, Anya.”

“You should go now,” I told him.

“Why? So you can cry into your pillow over Win? Come here. I’ll let you cry on my shoulder.” “Go,” I told him.

“Help me up, would you?”

I offered him my hand, and as he was getting to his feet, he whispered in my ear, “You’re prettier than Alison Wheeler, and Win Delacroix is an idiot.”

Gable was loathsome, but even a loathsome person can make a girl feel better sometimes. “Thank you,” I said.

I’d finally bounced him from my room when he turned. “Say, do you have any chocolate around?” “I can’t believe you’re even asking me that!”

“What? I haven’t had any in months,” Gable replied. “Besides, it wasn’t chocolate that made me sick. It was Fretoxin. You should know better than anyone that there’s nothing wrong with chocolate.” I told him it was too late for me to know anything for certain. “Do you want my help out to the living room or can you manage it yourself?” “It’s more fun if you come,” Gable said.

“Not for me.” I closed my bedroom door, turned off my light, and got into bed. Even though it was stuffy in my room, I pulled the covers over my head.

I could imagine a pretty little scenario in which Win was with Alison Wheeler just to distract his father from the fact that he was seeing me. The only problem with that theory was the fact that Win was not seeing me. As I have already mentioned, he hadn’t seen or contacted me in over a month. The logical thing to conclude was that Win really was seeing Alison Wheeler.

Maybe it was for the best, though? If I were still with Win, I would put Natty and Leo in danger. It was easier this way, right? Charles Delacroix’s and my plan had been a success. That moment in August had been an anomaly. Maybe it had really been goodbye.

So, good. Everyone had moved on. No one had gotten hurt. (Much.) I had served my time. I was a free woman. And Win, obviously, was a free man.

I wished Nana were here. She would have told me to embrace my freedom. Or maybe she would have told me to have a bar of chocolate.

In the morning, I was woken by the sound of laughter. I pulled on my bathrobe and went out to the living room. I expected that Scarlet had arrived early to escort her boyfriend home, and I was thankful to her. I was more than eager to be rid of my houseguest.

Gable was seated on the couch. He was gesturing with his silver-tipped hand as he said, “Wait, wait, you’re laughing before I’m even at the good part.”

I looked over at the burgundy chair. A woman sat there, but it wasn’t Scarlet.

“Annie!” Natty stood up and threw her arms around me. In shoes, she was slightly taller than me and this was disturbing. “I told myself I was going to give you the cold shoulder, Annie, but I can’t. Why did you lie to me about going to Liberty?”

“I just wanted you to have a good time at genius camp,” I told her.

“I’m not a little kid anymore. I can handle things, you know,” Natty informed me. “Yeah,” Gable added. “She’s definitely not a little kid.”

I told Gable to shut up. “She’s only thirteen. And you have a girlfriend.” And yet Gable was right. The change in my sister was undeniable. I held her at arm’s length so that I could look at her. Over the summer, Natty had grown, maybe four inches, and her skirt was too short. The legs that used to be spider legs had a definite curve to them. She had breasts and hips and a pimple on her chin. She was only thirteen but she looked about twice that. I didn’t like the way Gable was looking at her. I debated whether to hit him over the head with a lamp.

At that moment, Scarlet arrived. “Your hair looks much improved,” she said as she kissed me on the cheek. “Good morning, Natty darling! Doesn’t she look so grown-up, Anya?”

“Indeed,” I said.

“It’s a good thing, too, now that she’s skipped into tenth,” Scarlet continued. “Wait, what’s this?” I asked.

“I told Imogen I wanted to tell you myself,” Natty explained to me.

Scarlet nodded. “Come, Gable. The elevator is working again. We should go before you’re stuck here another night.” Scarlet turned to me. “I hope he behaved himself.”

“Don’t lie, Anya!” Gable said.

I told Scarlet that Gable had behaved exactly as I’d come to expect, a remark Scarlet chose to take at face value.

Scarlet helped her appalling boyfriend to his feet, and finally they were gone. I turned to my sister. “You skipped two grades?”

Natty worried the pimple on her chin with her pinkie. “Miss Bellevoir and the people at genius camp thought it was a good idea, and, well…” Her voice turned cool. “You weren’t around to discuss it.”

My baby sister, a sophomore at Holy Trinity?

I sat down on the couch, which still reeked of Gable’s cologne. After a bit, Natty sat down next to me. “I missed you,” she said.

“Did you have nightmares this summer?” I asked.

“Only one or two or three or four, but when they’d start, I’d pretend I was you. Brave like you. And I’d say, ‘Now, Natty, you are just having a dream. Go back to sleep.’ And it worked!” Natty put her arms around me. “I honestly hated you when I found out you’d gone to Liberty. I was so mad, Annie. Why did you do it?”

I explained to her in the simplest terms possible the deal I had made with Charles Delacroix to protect her and Leo. She wanted to know if ending my relationship with Win had been part of that deal. Yes, I told her, it had been.

“Poor Annie. That was the hard part, I bet,” Natty said.

I smiled. “Well, I’d wager that Liberty isn’t as fun as genius camp. It doesn’t help that everyone keeps telling me how horrible I look.”

Natty studied my face. She held my cheeks in her hands, hands with disarmingly long fingers. “You look strong, Annie. That’s all. But then you’ve always been strong.”