Chapter 59 Freya
FREYA
“So you’re not ‘Maria’?” I ask, putting the name in inverted commas with my fingers.
Tess shakes her head. “Who’s Maria?”
“Do you remember me telling you about a little boy called Harry?”
Tess shrugs her shoulders, as if it means nothing to her.
“About how they think they’ve found a cure in America for his rare genetic disease? And we were going to pay for him to go over there and fund his treatment?”
“Oh, yeah,” she says hesitantly. “I remember.”
“Well, Maria’s his mother and someone’s been impersonating her.”
“Oh,” she says, looking taken aback. “How did you find that out?”
“Because she impersonated the real Maria, reeled me in, and had me send the money to an account with no connection to Harry.”
“I don’t understand. How could anyone do that?”
I watch her carefully, imagining her being an arsonist who’s returned to the scene of the fire she’s set, but if she’s deriving any pleasure from the cause and effect she’s created, she’s hiding it well.
“I was hoping you were going to tell me,” I say.
“But why would you think I’ve got anything to do with her?” asks Tess.
I balk at the question. I don’t imagine I need to set her straight because the more I listen to her, the more I can hear the voice of “Maria” hiding beneath the layers of denial and forced sincerity. The chilling deceit rips through my entire being, slicing through the very core of me.
My eyes narrow as I look at her. “You’d better start convincing me that you don’t.”