“How is she?” Hunter asks as I close the door quietly behind me.

“She’s fine, the doctor gave her a sedative to help her sleep.”

My friends all fall in step with me as I stride away from Starling’s room and head downstairs to my father’s office. The door’s closed when I reach it and I lift my fist and knock, waiting for my father’s voice to invite me in.

“Come,” he booms.

Pushing open the door, I step into the room, Clay, Evan and Hunter trailing behind me.

“Sebastian, how did it go? Can we meet her? Your mother is very excited,” he says, standing from his seat behind his desk and moving toward me.

“She’s okay, she fainted in the car on the way over here, so Dr. Harris is just checking her over. He suggested it might be a good time to fit her nano.”

Dad’s smile broadens. “Good thinking, saves him having to visit again. I have hers in the safe, let me just get it for you,” he says, pushing a large picture on the wall to one side and revealing a modern-looking safe.

Typing in the code, the safe beeps a moment before the door springs open. I don’t know exactly all that’s inside, but I can guess. Probably some deeds, confidential documents pertaining to some of his more lucrative business deals and a pile of cash, just in case we need it. There’s also a stack of nano tracking devices. We all have one, me and my friends, our parents too, this is just a part of being one of us, and now Starling will too.

Dad offers the small black case out to me and I smile, taking it from him and gripping it tightly. “Thanks, I’ll take this up to the doc. Starling’s mother Cassidy will be here shortly, perhaps you should gather all the parents so she can meet everyone in one go,” I suggest.

Dad’s eyes light up and he smiles widely. “I’ll go and tell your mother, she’ll be so excited.” My dad’s a great guy, he’s not what I’d consider your classic, powerful, rich dude. In fact, in person he appears to be the opposite of the stereotype he’s usually cast in. He’s warm, friendly, inclusive and a great dad. He’s also ruthless, incredibly intelligent and morally ambiguous when he needs to be.

The apple didn’t fall that far from the tree, I’m just like him. That’s why I don’t have even a moment of doubt as I head back up the stairs and into Starling’s room.

My eyes search her out the moment I enter the space. She’s on the bed, her eyes closed, her chest moving up and down in a rhythmic pattern. In sleep she’s almost as stunning as she is in motion, and I sit beside her on the bed and brush the hair that’s fallen over her face back behind her ear.

“Our parents think this might be a good time to get her nano in place,” I tell the doctor, holding out the black case in my hands in his direction.