**Chapter Four: Rumors**

Secrets in a ballet company had a half-life of about ten days. Nadia and Damian made it thirteen.

It started small — a missed beat in Marisol's story about her weekend, a glance held a fraction too long during partnering notes, the fact that Damian had started arriving at seven instead of the eight he used to keep. Nobody said anything directly. Instead, the company did what companies do: it talked around the thing, in the wings, in the dressing rooms, in the particular silence that fell over the room when Nadia walked in still faintly pink from an early rehearsal she supposedly hadn't attended with anyone....