Six #2
He twisted to face her fully. “To confirm, are you asking me to promise you won’t get killed?”
“More specifically, that whoever is behind this won’t get spooked, or want me removed for monetary reasons, and use me for target practice on the archery range.”
“They closed the range five years ago and turned it into a practice putting green.”
“There’s a lake and I bet it’s deep.”
Nico tilted his head to the side. “Can you swim?”
“Yes, but swimming won’t help if they tie me in a sack.
” She warmed to her topic as Nico made a note on his tablet, no doubt about her aquatic ability and disinclination to be killed in cold blood.
“They could lure me out to that boathouse, then knock me on the head and push me out a window. Bodies sink before they float and I have dense bones. I wouldn’t be found for a while. ”
“I thought you had glass wrists.”
“I contain multitudes.”
“There are less risky ways to deal with a corpse at a cottage.” Nico put down the tablet as if to give this predicament serious consideration.
“All that forest, for instance, and the closest neighbor is over a kilometer away. They could leave our bodies in the woods and wait for animals to dispose of the evidence.”
“Our bodies? Plural?”
“I’d be dead too.”
“Why would you be dead?”
“Roger told me to help you.”
“So?”
“So, they’d need to kill me to get to you,” he said, like it was obvious.
“Oh.” She couldn’t help the grin that this, frankly, superhot statement caused. Kill me to get to you. Obviously, that was a worst-case scenario and a terrible outcome, but wowzers. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. To go back to your original question, the Badgertons are more the killing-with-words-rather-than-knives type.”
“Would you have said they were the keeping-big-family-secrets type?”
“All families keep secrets.”
“Mine doesn’t.”
“No?”
“That would mean a level of effort neither of my parents bothered with after their remarriages.” She rushed on before he could reply, unsure of what had led to that particular overshare. “Anyway, tell me about my new life as Valerie Badgerton.”
“You don’t want to talk about the other two murder categories?”
Love and lust. She kept her gaze away from his forearms. “I’m good.”
“Then back to your story.” Nico referred to his notes, which she assumed were color-coded and organized into relevant subheadings. “We’ll keep your name, age, and occupation all the same.” He looked up with those eyes and she found it hard to pay attention.
“Makes sense,” she agreed, casting around for her tea to give herself a moment to recover. “Sticking to the truth will avoid confusion.”
“We can say Roger hadn’t met you until the celebration of life. He was struck by your similarity to Yvette and wondered if it was possible you could be his daughter.”
That had been true enough. Valerie was back to thinking about the messiness of what would happen if Roger was proven right and one of his siblings had hidden knowledge of his daughter. She shivered at the hurt and fury that would cause, and wondered if any of it would be deflected onto her.
Well, those were worries for later. She’d committed to this, and if she thought through the impact of everything she did, she’d never leave her bed.
A lot could happen in two months. Perhaps there wouldn’t be any fallout.
Perhaps when the true lost Badgerton daughter was found, they’d be so happy they’d forgive Valerie’s role as pretender.
She liked this version of a potential future.
Nico reached over the table and Valerie admired the way his green shirt clung to his shoulders before taking the folder he handed her. “We’ll say you also did a DNA test to confirm your relationship.”
She opened the folder to find a sheet printed with rows of numbers and letters, and at the bottom was “Probability of Paternity: 99.9998%.” “Where did you get this?”
“I faked it based on online tests and the results from the one Roger found,” he said casually. Maybe Nico wasn’t as uptight as she thought. “The part about your family history is trickier.”
“With the lying and all.”
“Correct. I see two options. One, you were put up for adoption. That’s easiest. Second, we pretend your actual real-life mother is Yvette and she and Roger are slowly reconnecting.”
“Platonically, as my mother is married.” Valerie wasn’t fond of her stepfather, but had to admit he existed.
There was something distasteful about faking an adoption, but then again, this whole plan had put her in a morally gray zone.
“What if we pretend I was kidnapped by aliens and recently returned to earth?”
“Needlessly complicated,” dismissed Nico. “Wouldn’t the government be involved? The Canadian version of SETI?”
“I could have been lost in the Bermuda Triangle.”
“Research shows there are no more disappearances in that area than any other part of the ocean.”
“I was captured by pirates. Lost in the forest and raised by bears.” She snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it. I’m a ghost.”
“No, no, and no. The paternity test took me long enough to fake. I don’t want to have to do a death certificate.”
She made a face at him. The whole plan was unhinged, but the outcome for Roger was worth it. Her mother always pointed out that it wasn’t easy to be a helper, and that’s what made it worthwhile. “Then I suppose we use the adoption story and hope no one will ask my parents about it directly.”
“We can say they’re private people who don’t want to talk.”
Valerie stress-tested the story. “Roger said his family paid more money nineteen years ago. If I was adopted as a baby, which I would need to be in this scenario to avoid complicating memories, then why am I still with Yvette when I’m eleven?”
Nico sat back. “Good point.”
They thought for a moment. “Roger’s family already thinks poorly of Yvette’s,” said Valerie. “Or some do, if they were involved in this. What if we lean into that? We could say Yvette lied when she asked for the money as if the kid still lived with her. Like fraud.”
“The P who made the payment might know the truth. We don’t know if they asked for a proof-of-life photo or something.”
“Then they might get spooked and make a mistake for Roger to catch. Boom! We have our person.” Valerie laughed. “Easy peasy.”
Nico gave her a look and swiped on his tablet. “If only. Let’s move on to your appearance.”
“What about it?” She wasn’t sure she liked where this was going. Away from her desk she rejected the neutral gravitas of her work wardrobe. Today she was in a turquoise Hawaiian print dress with ruffle cap sleeves. It was hardly an outrageous choice, especially on a summer day.
Or perhaps it was, if Nico’s critical glance was anything to judge by. “The Badgertons are a little more…” He didn’t finish the sentence but showed her a photo of Penny Badgerton-Willis in a plain cream A-line sheath with a single strand of tasteful pearls.
“What, boring?”
“Roger Badgerton’s daughter would not wear earrings shaped like hibiscus.”
Did he think a love of classic neutrals was located on the same chromosome as eye color? It might be time to lay down some rules about what she would and wouldn’t do. Her heart thumped. She hated saying no and used the softest possible language she could so Nico wouldn’t get upset with her.
“I understand you’re trying to make sure this all works out, but I don’t want to change how I dress.
” She tried to make a joke. “I’m a Peng, not a Badgerton.
I was raised in a Brampton bungalow. No one’s expecting me to wear Louis Vuitton and act like a noble scion of the Badgerton clan.
” Although she would wear designer if she could afford to.
One of her favorite things to do was haunt consignment stores on the weekends.
“Bar.”
“What?”
“Penny is wearing Bar.”
She hadn’t heard of that particular brand but could tell from Penny’s exquisitely light makeup, the way Nico stressed the capital B, and the focus on structure over color that it was out of her price range. Also, Roger’s money was earmarked for her Ad Astra bank loan, not clothes.
“I’m going to wear what I have,” she said as firmly as possible, but couldn’t help adding, “if that’s not a problem.”
“Okay.” He made a note.
Her shoulders dropped as the tension released.
She’d stood up for herself and nothing had combusted.
He wasn’t angry, which was a huge relief.
The oddest part was that she didn’t feel as guilty as she usually did.
Nico acted as though refusing was entirely reasonable and the end of the discussion, rather than an opportunity to keep asking until she gave in.
He went through a few more points, then put away his tablet. “Can you be ready to go in three days? That’s July first and the family goes for the Canada Day weekend.”
It would be tight but she hastened to agree. “Sure. What should I pack?”
“I’ll send you a list.”
Of course he would. That made her laugh and Nico cracked a smile. It was small, but it was there.
It was shaping up to be an interesting summer. As long as both of them didn’t end up dead in the forest.