Chapter Twenty-Six #3
‘It belonged to Callum’s great-great-grandmother,’ Lizzie explained as I stared at the necklace, the rest of the room watching in silence. ‘Derek’s mother gave it to me for Christmas after we got engaged.’
‘But we’re not engaged,’ I said, still staring at the beautiful piece of jewellery.
She removed the locket from the box, a long slender chain cascading out behind it. Unfastening the clasp, she looped it around my neck where it hung low on my chest, dragging me down, down, down.
‘But you are part of the family,’ Lizzie said, looking back to Callum. ‘I know how much you care about our Cal.’
‘Elizabeth, you’ve gone doolally,’ Derek declared. ‘Completely out your tree.’
He leaned over, picked up his new bottle of whisky, opened it, poured a huge glug into his empty teacup and chugged.
Callum hadn’t moved from his spot on the sofa but all the colour was gone from his face.
I clutched the locket in my hand. It was heavy, substantial, in a way modern jewellery never was, at least not the jewellery I could afford.
An honest-to-God family heirloom. I’d never had one before.
My mum didn’t wear jewellery, only her wedding ring, and my dad had kept that.
When they’d got engaged, there was no money for a ring and they’d sold the few pieces she inherited from her own mum to help pay the deposit on the house I grew up in.
This locket came with generations of love and, no matter what had happened between me and Callum the night before, I couldn’t accept it.
After all, the name on the gift tag was Caroline, not Laura.
‘It’s too much,’ I said, raising my arms to unfasten the necklace. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t keep this.’
‘It is not and you will,’ Lizzie insisted, pulling my hands away from the clasp. ‘What good is it sat in a drawer upstairs? Better you have it now than leave it up there for another year or two.’
Desi and Joel both stared down at their feet while Callum’s eyes flicked down to the necklace then up to my face, back and forth.
‘Did I hear the door?’ Derek’s ears pricked, head shooting up like a meercat. ‘I’ll get it.’
As though someone had pressed play on a paused scene, everyone rolled into action at once.
Derek racing for the door, Lizzie clearing up the discarded wrapping paper (and socks), and Rory diving across the room for the forbidden TV remote.
Desi and Joel stood, cradling their unexpected gifts from Lizzie. Only Callum and I sat still.
‘We are going to take these wonderful gifts upstairs,’ Desi said in a flat voice. ‘Excuse us.’
‘Yes, upstairs,’ added Joel as though reading lines from a script. ‘We’ll be back in a minute.’
‘They look heavy, I’d better help you carry them,’ Rory said, snatching a tiny box of chocolates off the top of Desi’s pile when Joel winked in his direction, held up a miniature bottle of scotch and made a drinking motion.
Lizzie manhandled her giant ball of wrapping paper out the room behind them, muttering to herself as she went.
‘I can’t keep this,’ I said to Callum, palming the weight of the locket. ‘It isn’t right.’
‘Don’t worry about it now,’ he replied, squeezing my shoulder. ‘We’ve only today to get through. Tomorrow it’s all over.’
‘Well, yes but …’
The words died in my throat. It’s all over? What did that mean?
‘When do you leave for Paris again?’ I asked.
‘Sunday,’ he replied, absently scratching his chin. ‘First train out of St Pancras.’
As well as being Christmas Day, today was Friday. We would leave Balmaclay on Saturday. My face fell slack as I worked through all the variables, the potential complications. No matter which way I looked at it, nothing changed. In two days’ time, he’d be gone.
‘I can’t believe we pulled it off.’
Callum stared at the locket, eyes gleaming with wonder.
There it was, proof of our successful subterfuge.
‘I won’t lie, I had my doubts, but for Mum to give you her locket?
They really believe we’re together and they’ve accepted it?
’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘Feels as though we could keep it going forever, doesn’t it? ’
‘But if they think you’re with Caroline, how will we explain …’ I waved a hand between us. ‘This?’
He blinked at me, seemingly confused.
‘How will we explain us?’ I clarified.
‘Us?’
One word. Two letters. An upward inflection.
I was torn to shreds.
‘Elsie, can you at least take your bloody boots off?’ I heard Lizzie say, the sound of marching feet stomping towards us as I stared at Callum.
‘Fantastic, you’ve tracked sheep shit all through the house,’ Lizzie said as Elsie strode into the living room, Derek, and for some reason, Shiv, right behind her.
‘Where are the other two?’ she demanded without so much as looking at me and Callum. ‘Where’s Svet-bloody-lana?’
‘Upstairs,’ I said, vacant and still cross-legged on the floor as Callum stood to meet them. ‘Why?’
She grabbed Shiv by the wrist and pulled her to the fore.
‘Go on,’ she prompted. ‘Tell them what you told me.’
Shiv pulled her rose-printed fleece around her body, shrinking inside until all I could see were her eyes, nose and hands.
‘If someone would like to tell me what’s going on, that’d be magic,’ Derek said. ‘There’s a batch of mince pies coming out the oven with my name on and I’d like to enjoy them without wondering whether or not my kids are tearing each other limb from limb.’
‘I knew something was up.’ Elsie said when Shiv declined to offer her explanation. ‘As soon as she rolled in, I knew something was off.’
Rory, Desi and Joel reappeared and the lofty living room felt very, very crowded.
‘What is going on?’ Desi asked. ‘Did I hear my name?’
‘No,’ Elsie countered, inexplicably giddy. ‘I asked where Svetlana was and that’s not your name, is it?’
Even though I was sitting on the floor, I was sure I was about to fall over.
‘What are you talking about?’ Lizzie asked, stooping down to pick up a large chunk of what I hoped was mud.
‘Go on,’ Elsie prodded Shiv again. ‘Show them.’
When the blonde didn’t move quickly enough for her liking, Elsie snatched her phone out of her hand and displayed it for everyone to see, like she was showing off a prize on a game show.
On the screen was a very familiar image.
A screenshot from Desi’s Instagram. The three of us at her birthday party last year.
The same photo on my phone’s lockscreen.
‘Me and Callum went to a wedding in London, a couple of years ago,’ Shiv said slowly, sounding like a toy with the batteries running out. ‘For his friend, Dave.’
Joel reached for the doorframe to steady himself. To her credit, Desi didn’t flinch.
‘I didn’t remember you,’ she said to me, her voice almost apologetic. ‘But I did meet her.’ She paused to nod at Desi then sniffed. ‘She was mean about my shoes.’
If I wasn’t sure before, I was sure now.
‘I don’t know what she’s talking about,’ Desi fronted, not prepared to give in so easily. ‘But so what if we met at a wedding? London isn’t that big a place, people do bump into each other sometimes.’
‘Yes, and some of those people happen to have public social media accounts with their sister-in-law tagged.’ Elsie handed her phone to her father as Shiv disappeared further inside her coat. ‘We found the groom’s Instagram and there you are. Desi Kaplan.’
‘Proves nothing,’ Desi said, despite the fact it more or less proved everything.
Elsie swiped through to a picture of Joel with his tie fastened around his forehead, vanilla frosting smeared all over his face, the camera flash bouncing off the backs of his eyes, giving him the demented look of a man possessed.
‘And, oh look, Joel Soto.’
‘Why is she saying it like that?’ he asked Desi, speaking out the side of his mouth. ‘I’m not the one who gave a stupid fake name.’
Finally, Elsie turned back to me, like the cat who ate the canary, yellow feathers practically hanging out her mouth. ‘Which means you must be Laura Pearce.’
I couldn’t move, my limbs were lead, and mortification dragged me down into myself. I wanted to run for the hills but I couldn’t. Possibly I would be able to make a small pillow fort with the sofa cushions and hide under a blanket but that was the absolute best-case scenario.
‘So we lied about our names, so what?’ Desi said, bravely soldiering on. ‘We’re weirdos, we make our own fun.’
‘Is that what you’re calling it?’ Elsie replied. ‘Because I saw your husband making his own fun with my brother last night.’
Desi’s cool exterior flickered.
‘Joel was playing Cluedo with Callum?’
‘Not quite. I came downstairs for a glass of water after everybody went to bed and they were all over each other in the kitchen. If I were you, I’d bleach the table, Mother.’
‘A scurrilous lie!’ Joel exclaimed.
‘That’s right,’ Rory agreed. ‘We were nowhere near the table.’
‘Oh, Joel, no!’ Desi exclaimed before pitching her last, futile attempt at maintaining the subterfuge. ‘My sweet, monogamous husband. How could you?’
Her eyes darted around the room to see if anyone was buying what she was selling. They weren’t.
‘Couldn’t even keep it in the bedroom, could you?’ she said with a resigned sigh. ‘Honestly, you’re a disgrace.’
‘Can someone please explain what’s happening?’ Lizzie said, raising her voice above the venomous chatter.
I met Callum’s gaze and my jaw clenched itself shut so tightly, I thought I heard my teeth crack. He looked gutted. Exactly how I’d felt when he asked what I was talking about two minutes earlier.
With a triumphant grin, Elsie stepped forward pointing at each of us in turn.
‘Her name isn’t Caroline, hers isn’t Svetlana, they’re not even sisters, and those two aren’t married.’
Neat, tidy, straight to the point. Worst of all, entirely accurate.
‘Callum?’ Derek spoke for the first time, one arm reaching around his stricken wife. ‘What is this all about, son?’
‘It’s about him taking the piss out of us, as usual,’ Elsie snapped. ‘The four of them have been laughing at us ever since they got here.’