“Did you get apple cookies?” asked David, grabbing the tote. “You know those are my favorite.”
“Oh, apple cookies.” Fernie joined him in looking through the bag.
Penny ignored them. “I ran into Jim Walker.”
There was a slim possibility this conversation might not be as bad as Nico and Murphy’s Law assumed it would. He tried not to make eye contact with Valerie, for fear it would be noted as suspicious.
“Walker.” David frowned. “The investments guy from the next lake over?”
“Yes, but that’s not important,” Penny said impatiently.
“Then maybe you should get to the point,” suggested Alice.
Penny waved her down. “Valerie, he told me he knows your father. Your real father.”
Valerie didn’t move. “Oh?”
Nico applauded her attempt to bluff this out as much as possible but the fatalistic look she cast him said what they both knew. This was it. Roger had cut off his conversation with Brayden and was now paying attention to what was going on.
“Jim said you weren’t adopted at all. He was shocked you were passing yourself off as Roger’s daughter.” Penny tilted her head. “I suggested Jim call your father right away and informed him we would call the police.”
“Penny, can we talk in private?” asked Roger urgently.
Penny approached Valerie with a deliberate walk that was almost a prowl. “I knew you were lying. Something was off about you fromthe beginning. I don’t know how you fixed that DNA test but I’ve been watching you. You’re no Badgerton. But I knew not even Jim’s story would be enough given the claws you had in Roger. Luckily, on the way home I got a call from my investigator.”
“The one I told you to stop using?” asked Roger, incensed.
“It’s a good thing I didn’t. Jared managed to get a very interesting document.” She pulled out her phone. “The birth certificate of Valerie Xingyi Peng.” She gave Valerie a triumphant look. “Iknewyou were lying about your birthday.”
David grabbed it from her. “Parents. Anna Liaoming Peng and Scott Innis?” He frowned. “You’ve got your mother’s last name? Weird.”
Valerie didn’t answer and the room was quiet as David passed the phone to Roger.
“Did you lie about who you were for the money?” Penny said. “It must be. That’s why you wouldn’t sign my papers.” She paused as if a thought occurred to her. “Or some sick revenge? Did you blame us for your business’s collapse? It was going to fail soon enough anyway. Ridiculous idea, to plan funerals like that.”
“For the last time, I don’t plan funerals,” Valerie said loudly, then looked shocked at herself.
“Penny!” Roger made a slashing motion with his arm. “That’s enough.”
“Enough?” Penny was dumbfounded. “Did you hear a word I said? She’s playing you, Roger. I have her birth certificate, actual proof she’s not your daughter. She knew you were desperate to find your child and used that. Thank God she didn’t sleep in the house. I knew she wasn’t one of us. Iknewit. I bet that woman Yvette was involved as well. We can’t trust anyone.”
Nico wished he’d managed to get to Roger two minutes earlier. He wished Roger had checked his phone, for God’s sake, because how could he tell Roger about Yvette and Rory in the middle of this? Hecouldn’t. Roger deserved to learn that news in a moment of peace and not this commotion.
“Valerie is here because I asked her,” shouted Roger. “I asked her to pretend to be my kid, and the reason I had to do it is because one of you is lying about Yvette and my daughter. I know you are, so don’t deny it.”
“You asked her?” Penny asked in disbelief. “This wasyouridea?”
“All mine.”
“You did what?” bellowed David, a moment behind in the conversation. “How dare you!”
“Christ, do you think I wanted to?” Roger glared at him. “I had no choice. The investigator wasn’t getting anywhere and my kid is out there thinking I don’t want her. Do you know how that feels?Do you?” His voice was thick with pain. “You got to see Fernie’s first steps. You got to watch her grow and be there when she needed her dad. You taught her to ride a bike and make pancakes, and to swim in that lakeright fucking there, the way Mom taught us. I got none of that and I didn’t even know it was something I should be missing. I failed her and I didn’t evenknow.”
David looked away as Penny put her hands on her hips. “You have some nerve, hiring someone to spy on us when you were all high and mighty about telling me what I should do. We’re Badgertons, Roger. We don’t act like this.”
“What is wrong with you?” demanded Roger. “Don’t you want me to find her?”
“There were other ways to go about it that didn’t involve lying to our faces.”
