Pushing aside her lingering regrets, Daphne sank onto the bed and slumped forward, cradling her head in her hands. “I don’t know what to do,” she breathed.
“What happened?” Gabriella asked eagerly, then seemed to realize she needed to sound more sympathetic. “If you want to talk about it, I’m here. I won’t tell anyone,” she added, perching on the bed next to Daphne.
What a liar. The only secrets Gabriella Madison had ever kept were her own.
“I feel like Jefferson is hiding something from me.” Daphne had feared that this part might not sound convincing, but in the moment it came out very real.
“Hiding something?”
“Or hiding someone.”
Gabriella’s eyes shone with eagerness. “You think he’s cheating on you?”
Daphne stared down at her hands, twisting the signet ring back and forth. She could feel Gabriella’s gaze on it like palpable heat. “I don’t know. Of course, Jefferson would never fall for just anyone,” she added, trying to stoke Gabriella’s ego. “It would have to be someone he knows well. Someone he trusts.”
Gabriella frowned. “Not necessarily. He got involved with that tacky charity case of Samantha’s, after all. What was her name? Lena?” As if Gabriella didn’t know perfectly well what Nina’s name was—as if she hadn’t sabotaged Nina’s financial aid.
It took every ounce of Daphne’s considerable willpower to keep from slapping Gabriella across the face. You’re the tacky one, in spite of all your money and titles, she wanted to say. Nina is worth a hundred of you.
Instead she shook her head. “I just worry about what happens when I’m not around. There are always women throwing themselves at Jefferson. He’s only human, after all. Eventually he’ll stop saying no to them, don’t you think?”
Gabriella made a vaguely sympathetic noise, as if she weren’t one of the women Daphne meant.
“I guess I should get back out there and face the damage.” Daphne sniffed, then glanced hopefully at Gabriella. “I wish I had a little…help. Something to take the edge off things, you know?”
There was a momentary flicker of interest on Gabriella’s features, but then it was gone. “You’re right. We should get back to the party.”
Daphne silently cursed her misstep. She’d overplayed her hand; now there was nothing left to do but keep on overplaying it. She would have to grovel, prostrate herself before Gabriella, make herself pitiable and small.
“Wait!” She swallowed, lowered her eyes. “What do you think I should do?”
Gabriella paused. “Are you saying you might break up with Jefferson?”
“I’m asking your advice. You know him as well as anyone.” It wasn’t hard for Daphne to make herself cry; she’d been close to tears already. She felt the hot wetness in her lashes, trailing mascara down her cheeks. “You’ll watch him for me, won’t you? Keep an eye on him at school?”
Gabriella flashed a catlike, knowing smile. Daphne had just given her free license to flirt with Jefferson. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”
Daphne wiped furiously at her eyes. She felt queasy and unsettled, like when she’d skipped too many meals in a row. “Thank you,” she forced herself to say, and glanced back at the door. “Ugh, I’m such a mess. Sorry. I just—I feel so overwhelmed by it all.”
Finally, Daphne had sacrificed enough to win the dubious honor of Gabriella’s trust. She watched as Gabriella opened her clutch and withdrew a tiny baggie of white powder. “Want a pick-me-up?” she offered.
Daphne nodded as if indicating that Gabriella should go first. Gabriella leaned onto the bedside table, cutting a line with her platinum credit card, then sniffed it up one nostril. Her motions were quick, efficient, in a way that suggested she’d done this many times.
When she turned toward her, Daphne laughed nervously. “I’m fine, thanks.”
Gabriella didn’t bother hiding her condescension as she rose to her feet. “Whatever, your loss.”
She started toward the hallway—just as one of the shuttered doors to the closet unfolded.
Nina stepped out. “Before you go, I think we should have a little talk.”
“Nina?” Gabriella demanded, and Daphne couldn’t help feeling oddly satisfied that she so obviously knew Nina’s name. “You little creep. Why were you spying on us?”
“I was spying on you, Gabriella.” Nina smiled. “What do you think people will say when they find out about your recreational activity?”
Gabriella shrugged noncommittally. “They won’t believe it, coming from a nobody like you.”
“Except that I have proof. I got the whole thing on video.”
For a moment Gabriella just stared at Nina. And then, to Daphne’s utter shock, she lunged forward.
She and Nina crashed to the floor, grappling wildly as they wrestled for Nina’s phone. They were a tangle of elbows and hair and muttered curses, like something out of a bad reality show. Daphne flew forward, trying to pull them apart, a bit incredulous. Somehow she hadn’t expected things to get so physical.
When Gabriella rolled to one side, clutching Nina’s phone fiercely to her chest, Nina just laughed. “Go ahead, delete the video. I’ve already emailed it to multiple people, any of whom will blast it out to the world as soon as I say so.”
Gabriella scrambled backward like a crab. She looked nothing like a socialite right now; her hair was an auburn frizz around her face, and the hem of her dress had ripped in the tussle. She looked ruthless and ragged and wild, like an animal focused on self-preservation.
“You can’t post that.” For the first time all night, Gabriella seemed afraid.
Daphne hurried to jump in. “We won’t do anything with it as long as you back down. Get Nina’s financial aid reinstated, and protect my father from the Conferrals and Forfeiture Committee.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gabriella said unconvincingly.
“Don’t you?” Daphne reached out to snatch the phone from Gabriella’s hand. “Or would you rather I share this video with the Daily News?”
Gabriella’s eyes narrowed. She hesitated, seeming to consider her options. “You’re seriously blackmailing me?”
“We’re negotiating,” Nina corrected. It was such a Daphne-esque thing to say that Daphne smiled a little.
Gabriella stood, brushing off her wrinkled dress, adjusting her gold belt. “To think that I was actually going to invite you to Antibes this summer if you kept behaving,” she said to Daphne. “You’re clearly just as low-class as your low-class father. He deserves to lose his title. And as for you,” Gabriella went on, rounding on Nina, “you shouldn’t be at King’s College if you can’t even pay for it. Why don’t you go somewhere you can actually afford?”