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She was quiet. “He told me he was going to a dinner meeting.”

“Maybe it was canceled. I’ll make sure he calls you.”

“Don’t do me any favors,” she shot back. “If he has to be reminded to call me, I don’t want him to bother. Besides, I’m going out with Richard in a little while, and I’m turning off my cell phone.”

“I’m sure he’ll call you tomorrow, then,” I said.

“Are you? You’re so sure of what my father will and won’t do these days?”

I was silent a moment. Her tone was annoying, but then I had to consider that Donald was not being very nice to her. Now he decides to try tough love? I thought. Where was he when it could have made a difference in her life?

“Actually, no,” I said. “He’s been somewhat unpredictable. There is one thing that I can tell you about him for sure, however.”

“Oh, and what’s that?”

“He’s not very fond of Ryder Garfield.”

“Really? Tell me about that.”

I described their first meeting and their verbal fencing. “Your father seemed quite irritated almost from the start. Your mother says he was like that with some of your boyfriends when you brought them home,” I added.

“Most of the time, he seemed not to have any interest in them at all. Anyway, he was never critical of anyone to the extent you’re describing. I wouldn’t have let him,” she said.

“There wasn’t much I could do about it.”

“I would have raised hell.”

“I’m not you.”

She was quiet a moment and then said something that really took me aback. “Maybe that’s something you should tell my father. I’ll talk to you later,” she said, and hung up before I could respond.

I changed my clothes, fixed my hair, put on a little lipstick, and went down to the dining room. I was surprised to see Jordan sitting there alone. She was staring out the window and looked lost in thought. She didn’t hear me enter until I pulled my chair back.

“Oh, how beautiful you look tonight, Sasha. What a good idea to dress for dinner.”

“It wasn’t my idea. Mr. March asked Mrs. Duval to tell me to,” I said.

“Oh? He didn’t say anything about that to me, but I’ve hardly spoken to him since he returned. He’s been shut up in his office because of some problem with an account.”

I saw from the way she was folding and unfolding her linen napkin that something else was bothering her. Donald’s obsessing about his work was nothing terribly new, even if he had promised to spend more time with us. She stopped playing with her napkin and looked up at me.

“I just found out that Kiera had an extended weekend holiday recently because of her school’s schedule, and she didn’t mention it or think of coming home. I didn’t want to say anything about it to Donald, but I suspect she went somewhere with this new boyfriend.” She waited for my reaction, hoping I would tell her something either to confirm or to deny it.

“I don’t know anything about that,” I said. I wasn’t going to get put in the middle here, I thought. It was like trying to put out a fire on both sides of you at once. “She hasn’t mentioned it in her e-mails and phone calls. I never knew she had time off, either.”

“Just like her, and Donald thinks she might have changed, become more responsible. He’s back to deluding himself when it comes to her, I’m afraid.”

“Who’s back to deluding himself?” Donald asked, entering the dining room. He was in one of his velvet sports jackets, a dark blue, with a slightly lighter tie. I saw he had a small gift-wrapped box in his hand.

For a moment, Jordan was speechless. Then she looked from him to me and back to him. “Why didn’t you tell me we were all getting dressed up for dinner tonight?”

“Well, you always do, Jordan. Sasha and I are the ones who usually look like poor relatives at dinner.”

“I hardly think so, Donald. What’s special about this evening, anyway?”

“Aha. That’s the real surprise. I happened to run into Dr. Steiner, the principal of Pacifica, after my lunch today,” he said as he sat. “She told me our Sasha has moved into a commanding lead for class valedictorian.”

Jordan turned to me. “Is that true? Why didn’t you say anything, Sasha?”