“Well, obviously you wouldn’t have come if you knew that I wanted to see you.” My words hang heavy in the air between us, and I’m both surprised and kind of thrilled by how threatening I sound. I’m not even acting, really; the anger comes easily. All I need is to think about Andrew’s kidnapping request and the fact that he’s been hanging out at school as if everything’s normal, as if he’s innocent, while I’ve been sobbing alone in my room. “Did you get an email from the school, too?”

Andrew’s eyes go very round—then they narrow. “Yeah. I did. The school told me all about your accusations.” He shakes his head. “I—I can’t believe you lied about the app.”

“It wasn’t exactly a lie,” I reason, leaning forward and propping both elbows on the table. I may or may not have Googled best power stances on the car ride here with Henry, and he may or may not have laughed at me. But it seems to be working. “You literally hired me to kidnap Peter.”

“You—you were the one who kidnapped him.”

“Only under your orders,” I shoot back. “I may be complicit, but you’re the one who’s guilty.”

“As if. My family lawyer will be the judge of that.”

“No. They won’t be.”

Andrew blinks at me, his face going slack for a second. Clearly, he was expecting the fancy lawyer card alone to shut me up. Rich people can be so predictable sometimes.

“I have the right to sue you for false accusations,” he insists, though he already sounds more uncertain than he was earlier. “We could launch an in-depth investigation.”

“You could,” I agree, shifting into another one of the Top Ten Most Effective Power Stances of All Time, “but I personally wouldn’t.”

“What...”

With two fingers, I pull out the BMW keys I’ve been keeping in my pocket and hold them up in plain view, letting the shiny metal catch the artificial lights. Andrew’s face pales. The heater above us roars louder.

“Your men dropped these the other night,” I say pleasantly.

His mouth opens and closes like a goldfish. “Where did you—” He cuts himself off. Taps his nails on the polished table surface, eyes flicking away. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. You can’t really prove the car—”

“Can’t I? What if I matched up the keys to the license plate N150Q4?” I speak over him, savouring the look on Andrew’s face when he recognizes the number. Wow, this feels even better than answering a Kahoot question correctly in front of the class. “Between that, the message you sent me on Beijing Ghost, and the lawyer Henry’s going to lend me, the evidence is kind of stacked against you.”

“Whoa, wait—he’s going to lend you a lawyer? Henry Li? You?” Andrew looks like he’s only just now realizing the nature of my relationship with Henry, and hates himself for the oversight.

I shrug. “Well, Henry’s company has twelve lawyers. All graduates from Harvard, Tsinghua, or Peking University. He can definitely spare one if things get messy for me.”