Chapter 10: Monday Night, 7:17PM - Dominance

Alaina was lost. She looked around, searching for anyone, anything that she recognized, but it was futile.

Nothing was familiar here. There was nothing to reassure her, nobody to help her acclimate to the new environment.

The result was predictable.

He fucking left me? What the fuck? What the fuck am I supposed to do now?

Alaina was furious.

I’m so fucking done with this. After tonight, Will is dead to me. Ay can say what she wants, the school can collectively suck his dick about what a great guy he is, but he’s a fucking dead man the next time I see him.

She growled. Picking a direction at random, she set off. He said to find his friends? Oh, I’m going to find them, that’s for sure. And they’re really, really going to wish he’d never mentioned them to me.

She passed by a medium-sized group of people gathered around an old man in a suit. The sign out front said it was the fiftieth anniversary of the firm’s founding. So probably all the bigger groups are people are clustered around either bigwigs from the firm or bigshot clients. Odds are if Will isn’t close with his parents, his ‘friends’ aren’t going to be hangers-on. Which means I need to look at smaller groups of people and pick them out somehow. Greasy hair and long hair. Come out, come out, wherever you are!

Alaina wore a predator’s grin as she stalked through the crowds. Few gave her a second glance, so intent were most of the attendees on cozying up to one powerful person or another.

A handsome older woman, wearing a suit matching the other employees, accosted her. “Champagne, Miss?” She offered a tray filled with flutes of bubbling liquid.

“Thank you,” said Alaina, taking one and raising it to her mouth for a sip. “Mmm, how delightful.”

The woman smiled, then with a quick “Have a splendid evening,” she was off to dispatch the remaining champagne.

So not only can’t I get pregnant anymore, but I can’t even get drunk now that this Trait changed. And I also can’t get sick, so that’s pretty cool, I guess? She took another sip, enjoying the flavor and the sensation of the bubbles on her tongue.

Let’s see. Greasy hair. I think that describes half the guys in here. Long hair is a lot less common. Don, I think you’re going to be the one I’m looking for.

She ambled around further, taking in the view. A band was set up on a small stage at one end of the ballroom, playing a slow tempo jazz piece at a low volume. A door at the opposite end looked like it led somewhere outside.

If I were friends of Will White, where would I be? Her eyes moved to another part of the room where there was a bar set up. A young man with gelled hair, the front spiked up, stood next to a shorter young man with longer hair. They were speaking with an even shorter young woman who wore a strapless, sleeveless dress that exposed an outrageous amount of cleavage.

Yes, that seems about what I expected. She started towards them with a hunter’s gleam in her eye, but was stopped after only a few steps by a very attractive young man in a very expensive-looking suit.

His brown hair was styled into a side part, and he had a flawless five o’clock shadow on his tanned face which looked straight out of a modeling photoshoot. He smiled at her, and under other circumstances she would have been thinking of exactly how many times to bat her lashes or glance overtly at his lips in order to make her interest known.

But currently, she was pissed off. What does this jackass want? If he says anything other than “can I help you get to the other side of the room faster and then leave you the fuck alone” I swear—

“Good evening, Miss,” he said in what was probably a charming voice as he stared down into her eyes, then into her cleavage. “I couldn’t help but notice your beauty as—”

Alaina held up one hand, palm facing out. “Stop,” she said. “I’m not interested, don’t waste your time.”

She commenced her pursuit once more, charting a path to go around the side of him when a hand grabbed her right wrist.

“That’s not very lady-like,” said the man, twisting her arm so that she had to either turn to face him or be put into an arm lock. “You should spend some time with me. We could get to know each other a bit, and then—”

Oh, you’re going to get to know me real well. Her smile never faltered, instead intensifying. “Oh, perhaps you misheard me.” She drew her left hand across her mouth, pushing out a big gob of spit into her palm as it passed by. “I believe I said I wasn’t interested.” She clasped her spit-covered palm to the hand that was holding on to her wrist, rubbing it all over. “And now I think you’ve embarrassed yourself.”

He looked down at his hand in horror, then bolted away. After a single step, he began to vomit uncontrollably. The loud retching drew considerable attention as he splattered chunks and bile all over the shoes of an important-looking man who was passing by.

But Alaina had already turned back towards her quarry and was once again on the hunt.

“Your name wouldn’t happen to be Don, would it?” she said, smiling a bit too widely. I guess the woman they were talking to ran away while I was occupied. Somehow I’m not at all surprised.

“That’s me, who—Whoa!” said Don, turning around from his spot at the bar—looking off to the side at the nearby tables—to face her. He elbowed his friend standing next to him. “Daniel, dude, are you seeing this?” His eyes were wide, and his head was doing a double-take, sweeping up and down her body. “Have I died and gone to heaven or are you an angel that came to earth? What’s your name, babe? And how can I help you?”

Exactly what I expected. Will, you continue to disappoint. At least that’s one thing that doesn’t disappoint about you.

“Will said that I should find you boys,” she purred. “He said that if we got separated, you could help show me around a bit?” Her smile was definitely not friendly, but neither of them picked up on it, continuing to brazenly ogle her instead.

I wonder what would happen if they got my spit in their eyes?

“Oh, you’re with Will?” said Daniel. “Like with Will or just like, ‘with’ Will?”

“Oh, shit!” exclaimed Don suddenly, his eyes wide with recognition, an expression of terror on his face. He patted Daniel on the arm, his eyes not leaving Alaina’s face. “Oh, shit! Why are you here? What the fuck? Oh, fuck, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, Alaina—I mean, Ms. Bishop. Daniel, we do not want to mess with her, dude!” He started backing away, but was stopped as his back hit the bar, nearly causing him to fall over.

How nice, one of them isn’t a complete idiot. Her grin widened even further. “Oh, so you recognize me? I’m flattered.”

“Bruh, what’s gotten into you? You know this chick?”

“Daniel!” Don hissed. “This is Alaina Bishop. The Alaina Bishop. From my school.”

“She’s the prez? Wait, she’s the chick who runs your school? The same one who crushed that guy’s balls in the theater?” Daniel stopped trying to look down her dress for a moment to eye her warily, then resumed trying not-so-covertly to spy on her nipples.

“Yes, yes, that was some time ago,” she said in a bored voice, staring down Will’s more lecherous friend. “More recently, that man,” she pointed over her shoulder with her thumb, gesturing at a man who was being helped to his feet, his entire front covered and stained by a yellowish-green substance, “did something to upset me a moment ago. I went easy on him but, well, it seems like he’s not enjoying himself anymore. So, boys, maybe I should give you a moment to reconsider how you want to present yourselves to me before we continue?”

Daniel’s face went white.

Don’s face went whiter.

“Good,” she drawled, her smile not shrinking. “Will brought me here tonight as his date. Can you believe it?”

“Um,” said Don, raising his hand.

“Yes? Don?”

“Are ... are you and he—”

“No, we are most definitely not dating.” She raised her finger and wagged it back and forth. “And no, neither of you have even the most minuscule of chances.” She crossed her arms over her chest and took an aggressive step forward, invading their personal space. “Will owed me something, and so he brought me here because I told him to. But, as you can probably guess by my presence before you, gentlemen, when we arrived he left me all by my lonesome. Isn’t that terrible of him? I must say, it did make me very. Upset.” She wasn’t smiling anymore.

Don gulped.

Daniel raised his hand, his eyes darting back and forth, looking everywhere except below her neck.

“Yes, Daniel?”

“I can see Will over there.” he pointed.

“Yes, I do believe you’re right,” said Alaina, catching sight of Will smiling and shaking someone’s hand while saying something. “Perhaps I should go catch up with him.”

“Um, Alai—Ms. Bishop?” said Daniel.

Her gaze snapped back to him and he flinched. “Yes?”

“Do not go over there,” said Don, seeing that his friend was too afraid to speak. “I mean, um, I’m sorry. I definitely don’t want you to think that I’m telling you to do something, but, um, I think it would be a bad idea to go over there?”

“Much better,” she said in a sickly-sweet tone. “And why, Don, would that be a bad idea?”

The pair exchanged a look. “Has he told you?” asked Don.

Her eyes narrowed. “Told me what?”

Another look was shared.

“Um, can we have a sec to ... uh ... discuss something? Please?” asked Don.

She nodded and began to tap her index finger against her arm.

The boys turned back towards the bar. She could hear them whispering, but was unable to make out the words. After a short amount of time, they turned back towards her.

“Have you and Will, um, hooked up?” asked Don, apparently now the spokesman of the two.

She rolled her eyes. “What does it matter to you?” she said, her tone threatening. “Just tell me already.”

“This is some private shit,” said Daniel, giving her an unfriendly look. “I don’t know you. Don doesn’t know you. If we’re gonna tell you this, I’m gonna need a reason to believe it’s in Will’s best interests that you know. Otherwise, you can fuck right off. I don’t care if you use some vomit Skill on me, I’m not tellin’ you shit if you don’t gimme a reason to trust you.”

Alaina blinked at him. Wow. That’s ... actually way more loyalty than I expected. I’m ever-so-slightly impressed. “Alright, fine,” she said. “We did. Last Friday. Happy now?”

They goggled at her.

Daniel looked at Don, dumbfounded. “Bruh.”

“The Legend,” Don whispered, an expression of awe on his face.

I take it back. They’re just idiots.

“You’re lucky you found us before you tried to go see Will. That woulda been a debarnacle,” said Daniel.

Debarnacle? What the fuck? Wait. “Do you mean ... debacle?” she asked.

Daniel looked at Don, a big smile now on his face. He slapped his friend on the arm. “Look, she’s already got Vin’s part down, too! I gave her an easy one, but still.” He turned back to her, then intoned with solemnity, “I give you my consent. You may date Will.”

Alaina snarled.

“Tell me why we have to hold hands again?” Alaina asked. They’d gathered a trio of chairs and had formed a triangle to the side of the bar next to the wall, their hands linked. The noise from outside the triangle had diminished, seeming to be far away.

“I told you,” said Daniel, “my Skill only works if I’m touchin’ the people I wanna include. But now we got a few minutes to talk where nobody’s gonna be able to know what we’re sayin’, Skills or not. Can’t even read lips through this!”

“Which also means we have to talk kinda fast. We’ve only got like five minutes, right Daniel?” said Don.

“That was last week’s time. I’m up to ten now,” Daniel bragged.

“Then stop fucking wasting time and being so secretive,” said Alaina. Actual idiots.

“Whoa, chill out!” said Daniel. “It’s not like this is a one-time use Skill.”

She squeezed his hand, hoping to break some fingers, and he winced.

“Okay, so it’s like this,” Don began, ignoring his friend’s plight. “Four years ago, Will fucked up. It was pretty trivial. He was at an event like this—but way smaller—and his dad set Will up to give a speech about how great he was. One of those ‘look how amazing my kids think I am!’ kinds of things—Will had to do it a lot. Except Will was different back then. A lot different.”

“He was a brat,” said Daniel. “Funny as fuck, we all used to roast each other nonstop back then. But he was smarter, so he was way better at it. Always had us dyin’ laughin’. But he and his dad didn’t get along too good. His dad’s always draggin’ him around to these types of things and paradin’ him around like some show animal. Anyway, they had some fight just before the thing that night. So Will’s tryin’ to think of some way to get back at him, but he can’t think of anything. He gets to the thing—and it wasn’t even an important one like this, there was like nobody there—and decides that he’s gonna use his father’s full name in the speech.”

“Will’s dad hates his middle name,” Don added. “It’s Philip. With one ‘L’. Apparently not having a double ‘L’ makes it a weak name.”

“Yeah. So he does it and it’s hilarious. Don and I are sittin’ there almost pissin’ our pants laughin’ so hard because we know how mad it’s gotta be makin’ his dad. And Will’s dad is fuckin’ furious, holy shit. His face was like a tomato except purpler.”

“And then Will disappeared,” said Don. “For a little over a year.”

“Right,” said Alaina. “He went to study abroad in France for an exchange program.” Or at least, that’s what Ay said on Saturday.

“That’s what we were told, too,” said Don.

“But when he came back for sophomore year, he wasn’t the same. He wasn’t Will anymore,” said Daniel.

“He was all pale—”

“He was always runnin’ around playin’ soccer before, but now he looked like he hadn’t even gotten outta bed since we saw him. Could practically see his bones, too.”

“And he was sad,” said Don in a quiet voice. “If it wasn’t for Vin—”

“Vinnie’s our other friend. He’s Will’s best friend. Will ... might not be here anymore if it wasn’t for him.”

“What do you mean ‘might not be here anymore’?” Alaina asked cautiously. This is getting creepy.

“He means Will tried to kill himself,” said Don. He was scowling at the floor. “And he might have fucking tried again if Vin hadn’t been there looking out for him while we were sitting on our fucking asses, twiddling our thumbs.”

“His sister caught him,” said Daniel, his voice sober as he, too, stared at the floor. “Was tryin’ to hang himself from the ceiling fan in his room. Well, not that he’d ever call it his room anymore.”

“What the fuck?” said Alaina. Will? The same Will?

“That year he was gone,” said Daniel. His expression grew angry. “He wasn’t fuckin’ studyin’ abroad.” His head came up, and Alaina could see the rage and anguish in his eyes. “Will’s dad trapped him in his house. With his Skill. He couldn’t leave. He couldn’t call anyone. Couldn’t talk to anyone. For almost eighteen fuckin’ months. And we didn’t even know.”

What the fuck? “What—”

“His dad’s a senior partner at the firm,” continued Daniel. “He’s the head of settlement negotiations. His Class is [Arbitrator] now, but it’s changed at least a couple times already. His Skills are scary, even to us. The one he used on Will—one of ‘em, anyway—makes it so he can form a binding contract with someone as long as he’s touchin’ ‘em. As long as the other person agrees to the terms, they can’t do anything to violate the contract. Ever.”

Oh, fuck. “That’s ... But that’s bullshit! That’s a fucking bullshit Skill!” shouted Alaina. “It doesn’t even make any fucking sense!”

“Yeah,” said Don. “Believe me. We know.”

“Anything?” asked Alaina. “And it just lasts forever?” That’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever heard. What the fuck? They don’t teach anything like that in school!

“Not forever,” said Daniel. “His dad can remove the contract.”

“And my dad said there’s a maximum time limit,” said Don. “Dunno what it is, though,” he muttered.

“What ... what were the terms of the contract?” asked Alaina, her hands trembling. How does something like this exist? And now I came here, where I’m closer to something like that?

“Couldn’t leave the house,” said Daniel. “Couldn’t speak. At all. Couldn’t contact anyone outside the house. Couldn’t use any kinda device with a screen.”

That’s ... not human. Who the fuck would do that to their kid? “What if—What if there had been a fire or something?” Alaina felt her heartbeat speed up. “When his father wasn’t home to remove the contract? What—”

“He’d have burned to death,” said Don in a flat tone. “He thought about jumping out his window the first month. His body wouldn’t even move towards it. His sister tried folding him up in a carpet to roll him out into the backyard, but he started flailing around and almost broke her nose. It was after that when he...” he trailed off, his expression bleak.

“How did he survive?” whispered Alaina, her eyes watering. “How could anyone survive that?”

“His sister, mostly,” said Daniel. “Marissa’s a really cool girl. That’s why—Shit, hold on, I gotta redo this thing. Nobody talk until I say it’s okay.”

She felt a slight tingling.

“We’re good. Anyway, Marissa. Why do you think we’re sittin’ here?”

“Um ... Because of the bar?”

“This is a seltzer water,” said Don, pointing to his glass with his chin.

“Same,” said Daniel. “You know the drinkin’ age is twenty one, right? They’re not gonna give us booze even if it’s a private event.”

Alaina blinked, then eyed her flute of champagne. I guess it’s not like anyone would know I’ve been drinking.

“We’re keepin’ an eye on Marissa. She’s sittin’ over a coupla tables away there. Will’s ... He’s busy. So we gotta make sure no piece of shit tries anything.”

Alaina looked, spotting the younger girl happily chatting away with another girl at the table. Is that really true? She looked back and forth at the duo.

“Marissa spent a lot of time with him. She started a book club with him while he was locked up,” said Don. “She’d read a book every few days and then go talk to him about it to give him something to work for. He had a notebook he’d write in to communicate with her. His parents totally ignored him other than giving him food once a day. Marissa was the only one who he could talk to, and she had the same kind of contract to prevent her from telling anyone.”

Alaina thought back to the shy, enthusiastic girl she’d been chatting with earlier in the afternoon. I sort of wrote her off as someone I was obligated to talk to and didn’t really listen to her. I wish I’d paid more attention.

“Who would try something here?” she asked absently, still ruminating.

“Wow, you’re really sheltered,” said Daniel, giving her a pitying look.

“She’s just normal, dude. It’s not her fault,” said Don.

“What does that mean?” she asked, confused.

“Alaina, did you think Will’s dad was the only one with those kinds of Skills?” asked Don.

Her jaw dropped.

“Yeah, I mean, the whole firm recruits based on people with crazy mind Classes and Skills. Will’s dad is up there, but he’s not even top of the food chain,” said Daniel.

“That guy, Floyd Goddard, who, um, upset you earlier is the son of another senior partner,” said Don. “He’s a [Manipulator] Class. Sorta runs in his family. If he’s touching you, you’ll want to do anything he tells you. Which is why we were a bit, um, shocked when you said you did that to him.”

So when he grabbed me and was—He was trying to like ... hypnotize me? Ew! Gross, gross, gross! I guess it didn’t work because I was so mad? Or ... Oh, of course that would be it. What the fuck. Ay’s gonna laugh when I tell her about this. “He touched me. And I wasn’t interested.”

“I, um, guessed as much,” said Don, looking over at where a group of employees were gathered and industriously scrubbing away at a broad section of the floor.

“What’s to stop people from abusing those kinds of Classes?” Alaina asked. “And why don’t they teach about them in school?”

“C’mon, it’s against the law to fuck with people like that!” said Daniel. “Somebody like Floyd, his family’s rich and powerful, yeah? If some chick files a rape charge after then his family’ll probably make it go away. But on a bigger scale, they got cops and CEA agents who are immune to that kinda shit from their Classes. So you do anything big and they wipe you off the map.”

“Yeah, you remember that Madoff Ponzi scheme?” said Don. “You really think he did that without any kind of Skills? Obviously they’re not gonna teach about mind-altering Skills in school, people would be terrified!”

That’s for sure.

“Plus it’s not like those types of Classes are common, and people who have them don’t wanna be advertising what they can do,” Don continued. “The firm doesn’t have that many actual attorneys who deal with people. Most of the people here are clients and family. Or are trying to get into one of those groups.”

This is a lot to take in at once.

“We’re gettin’ sidetracked,” said Daniel. “We’re supposed to be talkin’ about Will.”

“Yeah, true,” said Don. “So Will came back and he was different like we said. We’ve known him forever because our dads all got together to drink and play golf and would leave us at the clubhouse. He didn’t wanna see us when he came back. We thought maybe he outgrew us while he was abroad. But Vin—he was just a guy Will used to play soccer with—he took him under his wing. Knew Will wasn’t right in the head right away, and did something. He dragged Will out to exercise and go to the gym, kept calling him to hang out, gave him someone to talk to. And then he came to us and told us.”

“Don’t ever fuckin’ tell anyone,” said Daniel, “But I cried. I thought it was a joke at first, but then Vin was so serious. Talkin’ about how fragile Will was, how he didn’t know why he was botherin’ to keep livin’. He spent all that time readin’ while he was cooped up, but then when he got out he still felt like a prisoner. Still had to go back there every day, still had to be afraid, every day, that his dad would decide to lock him up again.” Daniel pressed his lips together.

“So we talked to our dads,” said Don. “Mine’s a senior partner, Daniel’s is one of the biggest clients that they can’t afford to piss off. And we kept saying how it wasn’t fair Will had to be under lock and key and couldn’t hang out. They got tired of it eventually and went to Will’s dad and got him to lay off. ‘Boys will be boys’ and all that. So he stopped with the curfew and all the supervision, and Will was free. Sort of.”

“He still had to get dragged around at the formal shit like this,” said Daniel, “but he had pretty much total freedom besides that. So Vin, he’s a great guy. While we’re still tryin’ to figure out what else we can do to help, Vin talks to his parents and they basically adopt Will. Give him a spare room to crash in, let him know he’s always welcome. And then Will didn’t have to go back to that house anymore. The old Will started comin’ back a bit.”

Alaina’s hands were shaking. I made him go back. Not just once, but twice. Oh, Will, if only I’d known! My house ... My house would have been fine. I’m so sorry.

“He still had to go back sometimes,” said Daniel. “I mean, he’s gotta get his fancy clothes and stuff sometimes, right? But he’d always coordinate with Marissa to make sure his parents weren’t home. They gave him a credit card to take care of himself, but they were pretty hands-off as long as he showed up when they needed to show him off.”

“But he still wasn’t the same dude. We could see it when we hung out with him. He and Vin were tight, like brothers. But we were ... We were still friends. But distant. Because we didn’t do anything when it was happening,” said Don, his voice angry. “And we should have done something. I’d have done something. If I’d known.”

“We both been feelin’ like shit since we found out. Will never says nothin’. He wouldn’t, not anymore. He’s ... He doesn’t get into arguments now. He’s always passive. His dad fuckin’ took that from him that year.”

“We had to do something to make it seem like Will was okay to his parents,” said Don. “So I decided to start up The Legend of Will White. It was sort of a fun thing, yeah? I’d just come up with some ridiculous story and make sure my dad overheard it while I was talkin’ to Daniel or Vin. And it’d get back to Will’s dad, who’d think he was just like him when he was younger. It kinda evolved over the years and got into school, but that’s how it started off.”

“Wait,” said Alaina, her forehead creasing. “You’re telling me all those stories about Will at school started off because his dad was a playboy when he was younger? And you wanted to keep him off Will’s back by letting him think his son was taking after him?”

“Yeah, more or less,” said Don. “His dad went to public school, so Will had to go, too, just like me. Otherwise we’d be off with Daniel in rich kid land.”

“So ... That story about the porn actress wanting him to costar in her next movie?”

Daniel laughed. “That was one-a my favorites.”

“Fake as hell,” said Don. “Obviously, yeah? I think that was one of the earlier ones, too.”

“The one where he joined the mile high club with the flight attendant? And the co-pilot?”

Don gave her a look. “You even gotta ask about that one? Will hasn’t been on a plane in years.”

“Yeah, c’mon,” said Daniel. “At least use some common sense. How you gonna fit three people into one-a them tiny fuckin’ airplane toilets?”

“What about that time he supposedly went to a strip club and hooked up with the hottest dancer before she went on stage?”

“Um,” said Don, hesitating. “It wasn’t a strip club? But she was hot, and she did go dance on a stage after?”

Alaina blinked.

“Oh, you talkin’ about that Tina chick from the circus? Fuuck, bruh, she was so hot. Those legs...” Daniel trailed off.

“And what did Will think about all this?” asked Alaina, feeling that she had to move on or risk getting caught up asking endless questions. Did he really encourage these idiots? Is that why the rumors have been going on for so long and why there’s so many of them?

“Well, at first he was pretty embarrassed,” said Don with a grin. “He’d go full-on tomato whenever anyone asked him about it.”

“He kept tellin’ Don to stop, but we were havin’ too much fun with it. And eventually Will started laughin’ along.”

“We kept workin’ on him along with Vin, and parts of the old Will started comin’ back,” said Daniel. “He was still different, but he wasn’t so gloomy anymore. And at some point, he started gettin’ his confidence back. When he first ... returned, he thought nobody noticed he was gone, that nobody missed him, and he was all closed off. But then he started openin’ up. Talkin’ to people. Listenin’. And somewhere in that, the stories started becomin’ less and less made-up.”

“We’d go out to have fun at mini-golf or something one night, and he’d get dragged off halfway through the course by some girl he’d said a couple words to in passing. We went to see a movie one time and he came in late to the show because the girl working concessions had decided she needed to cry on his shoulder about her boyfriend. They’d talk, and he’d listen. And not just listen because he wanted some action, either. He didn’t even care. Will genuinely loves talking to people. Because for that year, he couldn’t.”

“We got like thirty seconds left, and we gotta get to our seats for dinner after,” Daniel announced. “You got time for like one more question.”

Just one? I have so many! “Then the reason why Will gets so weird around his parents—”

“‘Cuz he’s afraid they’ll lock him up again if he steps outta line.”

‘Honored Guest’. I guess that’s the placeholder nameplate when they don’t know who’s going to show up.

Alaina pulled out the chair, settling sideways onto it before swinging her legs under the table. Then she looked around. The place setting to her right had a placard which read ‘William White’, but Will was nowhere to be seen. The seat to her left was empty. The rest of the seats were populated by—

Of course he’d sit at an all-girl table. Where else would Will White sit? She sighed inwardly.

“Hello,” said the teenager sitting on the other side of Will’s seat, a tall blonde girl whose angular face and slim body wouldn’t have been out of place on a magazine cover. She wore a delicate-looking, black, sequined gown with a bold, swooping neckline which ran to a spot midway inside her almost nonexistent bust. “My name is Barbara. Barbara Goddard.” She inclined her head slightly.