Nine #3
“Shut up, Bray, you have less than I do. I’m in a building phase, anyway. Quality is more important than quantity.”
During this squabble, Alice had come forward with a big smile. “Valerie, it’s lovely to meet you. How extraordinary that you and Roger found each other!”
“It certainly is something.” Penny crossed her arms. “Valerie, what did your parents say when you told them about Roger? Do they know where Yvette is?”
Addressed directly for the first time, Valerie desperately wished for a glass of wine but took the sparkling water Nico handed her. It was a good call on his part, as if he suspected alcohol might drive her usual chatty tendencies into turbo mode. It did.
“They were surprised,” she said. “They didn’t know about Roger.” She felt a little dirty saying that but remembered it was for a higher cause.
Roger came to her rescue. “We don’t know where Yvette is currently. Valerie’s parents have no information.”
David downed half his tumbler without a single cough. “You can’t seriously expect us to believe this bull. She could be anyone. No one, more likely.”
Alice put her wrapped apple core on a plate. “David, that’s low. This is a wonderful moment for Roger and Valerie. We should be celebrating.”
From his seat in the center of the room, Brayden stretched and yawned, clearly bored with the scene unfolding before him. “Do we have more of those energy bars? Mom, I told you to stock them in every room. I need my protein exactly twenty minutes post-workout because of the lactic acid rush.”
“David, quit being a dick,” Roger said. “Valerie is here for the summer and I want everyone to welcome her.”
David’s face rotated through a boggling array of colors, from old butter to brick to puce. It settled in at a blotchy fawn slicked with a shiny layer of sweat.
Roger regarded him with concern. “You okay, buddy?”
David ignored him and leaned into Valerie’s face. “Okay, my ass. Look at her. This isn’t a Badgerton.”
Valerie could have happily lived the rest of her life without knowing that sputtering with rage was not simply a turn of phrase. She wiped her face as Nico and Roger came up to flank her. Alice gave an indignant, “David!”
“Hey, I tell it like it is, and what I see here is a scheming little nobody who saw her chance to get in with Roger for his money now that Dad’s gone.
God knows how she managed it, and after humiliating us at Dad’s memorial, let me remind you.
I’d respect the nerve of her faking this daughter thing if it wasn’t so fucked up.
How do we even know that you two haven’t cooked this up to get a bigger cut of Dad’s assets? ”
Roger shook his head. “Are you for real, David? What’s the matter with you?”
“I don’t want the money,” blurted Valerie, desperate to smooth some of this over.
David snorted. “That’s exactly what someone who wants the money would say.”
“That’s enough.” Roger’s voice was quiet, although his fist was clenched.
“What are you going to do, kick me out? You can’t. Dad left the cottage to all of us. At least he split one thing equally.”
“Dad did what he thought best,” interjected Penny.
“Yeah, you would think that.”
“How will you afford your part of the upkeep after I fire your ass?” asked Roger. “Because I’m the one he made CEO.”
David almost vibrated with the need to test his younger brother. His wife hurried up and put a hand on his arm. Penny stood as well, the women taking on the role of peacekeepers so the men had an excuse to back down from a fight neither wanted.
David was the first to allow his woman to calm him, although he sent Valerie an almost comically sneering look. Valerie decided two things. First, she didn’t like David. Second, David had something to do with the Yvette cover-up. She felt it in her bones.
Roger put his hand on her shoulder. “I was the one to approach Valerie. She didn’t believe me either.”
“You fell for that?” asked David. “She set it up.”
“How would I do that?” Valerie whispered to Nico, who had come in close enough for them to touch. It gave her courage to have him at her side but she wished she could take his hand to steady herself further.
“That’s why she insisted on the DNA test,” Roger said.
“You had a paternity test?” Penny asked into the silence.
“We did. It was also a match to the one I found in Dad’s files.” Roger’s unspoken gotcha lingered in the warm air before it was disturbed by the volley of fireworks echoing across the lake. They all looked out the window.
“How nice,” said Penny. “Someone else has decided to set off fireworks early as well. Excuse me. I need to see about dinner.”
“I’ll help,” said Jenn, not looking at Valerie. “Fernie, come along.”
Her words acted as a signal. People slowly left the Mariposa room, ignoring Valerie or nodding awkwardly until only she, Roger, and Nico were left. Roger stared at the door. “Not too bad.”
Valerie disagreed but it seemed counterproductive to say so. She watched through the window of the Mariposa room as Penny did nothing about dinner but poured herself a goblet of wine.
At least the nadir of meeting the family meant it could only go up from here.
Right?