Chapter 4

The pressure from Eleanor was constant. The Vanderbilt alliance was all she talked about.

She made it clear my compliance was expected, my enthusiasm feigned if necessary.

I needed a way to reach my father, to warn him. Direct communication was impossible with his current deployment. Letters were vetted, calls monitored.

But I knew someone my father trusted implicitly: Dean Amelia Hayes.

Dean of the local university, a prestigious institution I' d always dreamed of attending. She was a long-time acquaintance of my father, a fellow intellectual, and a woman of immense integrity.

I couldn' t just write, "Help, my stepmother is selling me off!"

It had to be subtle. Plausible.

I drafted a letter, ostensibly an update on my college applications.

"Dear Dean Hayes," I began. "I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to update you on my university considerations, as per my father' s suggestion that I keep you informed of my academic progress while he is deployed..."

I wove in details about my continued studies, my volunteer work (the real kind, not Brie' s fabricated version).

Then, the coded part.

"...There has been a rather sudden and significant development in our family concerning a proposed 'alliance' with another prominent family. It is all happening very quickly, and while Eleanor is quite enthusiastic, the arrangements feel... rushed, and somewhat overwhelming for someone my age. Father always valued your counsel on important matters, and I find myself wishing he were here to offer his perspective on such a life-altering decision being made in his absence."

I didn't explicitly ask her to contact him. But I knew Dean Hayes. She was sharp. She understood my father' s character. The words "rushed," "life-altering decision," and "absence" would be flags.

I mentioned how much I was looking forward to potentially studying under her guidance, reinforcing my academic aspirations, a stark contrast to the social maneuvering Eleanor was engaged in.

Maya helped me get the letter out through a secure channel, bypassing Eleanor' s prying eyes.

"You think she' ll get it?" Maya asked, chewing on her lip.

"I think she' ll understand what' s not being said," I replied. "Dean Hayes knows my father wouldn' t want me railroaded into something like this without his knowledge or consent, especially if it felt off."

It was a long shot, a tiny glimmer of hope. But it was a move, a piece set on the board.

Now, all I could do was wait, and continue to play my part, while preparing for the inevitable confrontations ahead. Eleanor was planning a grand introduction for me – or rather, for Brie, then me – to Preston Vanderbilt at an upcoming charity gala.

That would be the next battleground.