Not much. That was where we’d been—where I had been—for months. There were questions I wanted answers to—more than I should have, probably—but there was no straight line to answers. This wasn’t the kind of problem that could be solved with determination, elbow grease, and sheer force of will.

We couldn’t make Ana tell us the truth.

“What about,” Boone interjected, “and I’m just throwing this out there: a party.”

“How is a party going to help us find Ana’s baby?” Campbell asked him.

“I don’t know,” Boone replied. “That’s just how things work around here. Fancy shindig, scandalous happenings, murmur murmur, and voilà.”

Walker turned to Victoria. “You did say your mother wanted to host something. Do you think you could talk her into inviting Ana?”

“If my mother gets irritated enough with my father and brothers,” Victoria said, “anything is possible. I can work on a party—that’ll be White Glove convenient anyway—but Ana’s attendance is about as far from guaranteed as something can get.”

The mention of the White Gloves had me flashing back to that night on King’s Island. You’re here because we believe that there’s more to you than meets the eye, we’d been told. You’re here because you have secrets.

I turned that over in my head. “How do the White Gloves identify Candidates?” I asked Victoria.

She clearly wasn’t expecting the question.

“I imagine it involves a lot of research.” Campbell caught my drift with impressive speed. “How exactly does one go about putting together in-depth dossiers on Debutante types in three states?”

I remembered Hope rattling off my bio. Do I want to know how you know that I used to be a mechanic? I’d asked her.

“Do you do your own research?” I asked Victoria. “Or do you hire it out?”

“Does it matter?” Victoria asked pointedly.

“Ana’s baby would be our age. My age, within a couple of months. And if Ana thought that the people who adopted her baby could give her child every advantage . . .”

“Then the baby probably went to a certain kind of family,” Campbell finished.

The kind of family that the White Gloves tended to recruit from.

“I can’t show you those files,” Victoria said, “even if I could get ahold of them without the others noticing. That information is private.”

Walker leaned toward her. “Vee.”

Vee? I was glad Lily wasn’t here. No matter how okay she claimed to be, no matter whose idea breaking up had been—hearing that nickname on Walker’s lips wouldn’t have felt good.

And I wasn’t sure how much more bad Lily could take.

“I’ll look through the dossiers we had our investigator put together when we were looking for Candidates,” Victoria told Walker, “if you and Campbell will double back and ask your grandfather what else he knows.”