Page 89 of Mr. Match

“I did not. I delivered your sister, safe and sound. Paxton took care of her and everything is fine now.”

“Fine?” Ariel says. “Are you kidding me? Nothing is fine. We’re locked up in here because we feel we’re under attack.”

Mariel looks around, making a face at all the dust and the thick plastic construction curtain as Ariel pushes it aside and walks through to the hallway.

“Well, you are under attack, Miss Shrike. But I’m not understanding why you’re surprised about that.”

Ariel whirls around and grabs Mariel by her arm. “Are you Silver Society?” Her eyes are blazing with anger. “Did you set us up?”

“What?” Mariel laughs.

“The Russian princess seems to think you’re the head of it.”

Mariel smiles at me. “Hello again, Katya.”

“Hi, Mariel.”

“How are you?” she asks, her voice sweet and soothing.

I shake my head and let out a long breath. “I need you to make good on that promise. I’ve done everything you said. You’re here. They’re here. Now you have to help me with my sister.”

“You set us up,” Ariel says again, only this time it’s not a question.

Mariel’s soft expression for me turns icy cold the instant she redirects her attention to Ariel. “Do you really think I’d set up my own son, Miss Shrike? Please. I’ve been fighting his initiation into the Silver Society his entire life. I’ve had this planned out before he was born. Before I was even pregnant with him. Do you really think I’d let a loser like Charlie Vance get me pregnant if I was the leader of the Silver Society?”

“Um,” Ariel says, confused at the turn of the conversation. “I guess not?”

“You guess not?” Mariel laughs. I enjoy Ariel being put in her place for once. She’s kinda overpowering. “I’m here to save you because I want to save my son. So lead me to the others and no more stupid questions until I’ve had my say.”

I give Ariel a shrug when she looks at me. But she says nothing else. Just continues down the hall and leads us to the other girls.

“Finally,” Mariel says, letting her long white coat drop down her shoulders. She hands it to Ivy, ever the polite hostess, and then sinks into a chair at the dingy round table covered in dust. “I hope you all have a few hours,” Mariel says, looking at each of us in turn. “Because this story is complicated and long.”

We look at each other nervously, but eventually every head is nodding the affirmative. We’re ready.

“The Silver Society,” Mariel starts, “was first conceptualized in 1909. It was a small group of high society people with ambitious aspirations for the world. A United States congressman, a high-profile lawyer, a distinguished scientist, an entrepreneurial millionaire, and the president of the New York Stock Exchange were among the group’s founding members.”

“I thought the Silver Society were all women? Women did all this back then?” Cindy asks.

“No,” Mariel says, looking at her with a small smile. “The Society was men at first. But there were…” she pauses for a moment. Like she’s trying to choose her words carefully. “Extenuating circumstances that first year. An accident that killed six people. These six people, to be exact. But the wives were invested in their husbands and they carried on.”

“Wow,” Ellie says.

“Then what?” Ariel asks, ever impatient to get to the point.

“That was the start. These women took on the newly formed Silver Society and made it their own. But it was a man’s world back then. So they could only invite other women in.”

“So how did they get anything done?” Ivy asks. “I mean, if they didn’t have any real power? How did they get so strong? And last so long?”

“They got new husbands,” I say in a low voice.

Mariel smiles at me. Another warm and comforting smile. Everything about that smile makes me feel better. I trust her. I do. The only reason I’m still here fighting is because of Mariel Hawthorne. “Yes. They remarried and restarted. All prominent men, just like their first husbands. You see, that is the whole point, ladies. The Silver Society is made up of women on the inside, but men on the outside.”

We all sit still thinking about this for a few seconds.

“The ladies are carefully chosen from Ivy League schools at the start of senior year. And those ladies are initiated based on their choice of future husband.”

“So the women have to bring a man in with them. Like partners,” Tori says.