Resistance (Replica) by Jenna Black Page B

officially came to the end, just to escape the humiliation of being so thoroughly abandoned, but a stubborn kernel of hope refused to die. She would stay and wait until the retreat staff kicked the visitors out, just in case someone was running terribly late and would show up at the last moment.
    No one did.
    Visiting hours were over, and everyone was saying their good-byes. Most of the guests were gone already, and those who remained were outnumbered by the staff. When Nadia noticed Mari of the manic smile heading her way, she quickly vacated her seat and practically ran for the exit. No doubt the woman was coming to offer consolation of some sort, but Nadia couldn’t have stomached it even if she’d believed it sincere. She fled back to her room and locked the door behind her, sitting on the edge of her bed and urging herself not to cry.
    She’d only been away five nights, though it felt like forever to her. She had certainly gone longer than that without seeing Gerri before, as her sister had her hands full with work and two young children. Her mother had never been warm and nurturing, and she might have taken the retreat’s suggestion that visitors stay away for the first two weeks to heart. Or maybe she was planning to bring Nadia home in the next couple of days, making a visit unnecessary.
    But Nate … How could Nate not have come? He had to know she was climbing the walls, had to know she was desperate for company. Obviously, he did know, or he wouldn’t have sent Dante to deliver the phone.
    Nadia swallowed the lump in her throat. There was a logical explanation for his failure to appear. He certainly hadn’t done it to hurt her, or even out of carelessness. Nate might not be the most considerate and responsible of people, but he had always been her best friend. If he hadn’t come tonight, it was because, for some reason, he couldn’t.
    Nadia reached into her tunic and withdrew the phone she had tucked in her bra. The temptation to dial Nate’s number, to find out if he was all right, to hear his explanation for why he hadn’t come, was almost overwhelming. But as hurt and as abandoned as she was feeling, the phone was only for use in emergencies, and this was not an emergency. Using the phone involved risk, and wouldn’t she feel like the world’s biggest idiot if she lost her lifeline just because she felt lonely?
    Reminding herself that Dante would come tonight, that she wasn’t completely isolated no matter how she felt, she tucked the phone back into its hiding place.

 
    CHAPTER SIX
     
    The media had been overly generous when they labeled Agnes Belinski “plain,” Nate decided the moment he set eyes on the girl his father meant to shackle him to for the rest of his life. Her body was pear-shaped, and the clingy blouse and flowing skirt she wore made that shape more obvious, rather than camouflaging it as she probably hoped. Puffy cheeks and a receding chin made her face look round as a soccer ball, and her thin, fine brown hair was cut in an unflattering bob. Even if he liked girls, he wouldn’t want her in his bed.
    Nate made little effort to hide his distaste when his father introduced him to Chairman Belinski and his homely daughter. He made his handshake as brief and limp as possible, and after looking Agnes up and down once, refused to meet her eyes. He wondered idly why Mrs. Belinski hadn’t come to dinner—he knew she had come to Paxco with her husband and daughter—but he wasn’t interested enough to bother asking.
    “Chairman Belinski and I have some important matters to discuss,” Nate’s father said. “We’ll leave you young people to get to know each other, then we’ll rejoin you when dinner is served.”
    Though he wasn’t looking straight at her, Nate could see the look of near-panic Agnes shot her father; he could also see the reassuring smile Chairman Belinski gave her.
    Nate grimaced. So not only was Agnes homely, but she didn’t have the grace and self-assurance