“Come on. You got a new bike when you were ten and lorded it over Roger for a month. There’s no way you could have been involved without letting Roger know you knew something.”
“Yeah? Dad would have trusted me before you. You know what he thought of your gallery?”
“He was proud of me!”
“He said a monkey would have better taste and you were lucky you dealt with people as deluded as you. That’s why he refused to give you any money for it.”
“You’re lying.” Penny collected herself. “Anyway, it’s clear enough who knew. It was obviously Peter.”
At this accusation, Alice roused herself. “I told you Peter would never hurt Roger like that!” She was furious. “He never would put the Badgerton family name over a person’s feelings like Malcolm would.”
Penny shrugged. “It makes the most sense. You’re not part of this family, Alice. You don’t know what it means to be a Badgerton. You didn’t even take Peter’s name. No wonder he didn’t trust you enough to tell you what he’d done. He knew you wouldn’t understand.”
“I know you would do whatever your father said and David would take any chance to screw Roger over.” Alice stood up, her voice shaking.
Penny ignored her to turn on Valerie. “I hope you’re proud of yourself,” she said. “We’ve heard enough. I want you to pack your things and get the hell off my property.”
“Not yet,” said David loudly. “I want to know why she thinks it could be you, Pen. We all had a turn and you’re not getting off this easy.”
“Be my guest,” said Penny. “Come on, Valerie. What do you have? Well? Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?”
Valerie stood, almost in tears in the center of the room. She sent a pleading look to Nico.
Nico took a breath. They didn’t have incontrovertible proof but they had enough. He just had to make Penny admit it. “You claimed not to know Yvette, but she had a bracelet made by you. We saw it in the photo.”
“Tracey Jefferies made them.”
“She said you did. You also lied about thinking Roger was datingTracey and not Yvette. You knew it wasn’t Tracey because she was already dating her future husband.”
“I wouldn’t have put it past her to date both.”
“She said you were upset Roger was keeping a secret and spending less time with you.”
“Please, we were both adults. I’m not dependent on my brother.” She turned to Roger. “I don’t particularly enjoy being interrogated by your assistant.”
“I don’t care,” said Roger. “Nico? Anything else?”
“We know what happened that summer.” He’d leave out that it was conjecture to try to spook her. “You hated that Roger had a girlfriend who took him away from the family and you decided to find out who. When you discovered it was Yvette—a double whammy of Chinese and the local summer help—you were furious. Those weren’t Malcolm’s perspectives about Yvette that you kindly shared. They were yours as well. Then there’s the bracelet.”
Color was flooding back into Valerie’s face and she cleared her throat. “Why would she lie about the bracelet?” Her voice trembled but she was trying to give him support and he was grateful, and proud of her.
“Because she was becoming friends with Yvette behind Roger’s back. Penny hates being left out.”
Valerie glanced over. “That’s not nice to say, although I can see it. Tracey mentioned her insecurity.”
Penny’s face was growing red. “Shut up.” Valerie’s decision to join the conversation seemed to have increased her anger.
Nico kept his expression as cool as possible while his brain spun through what they knew. What else had she said that he could bring up? Or at least reasonably extrapolate from? “When Yvette found out she was pregnant, she went to Penny first, to get her advice and because she thought they were friends, although Penny must have told her to not mention their chats to Roger.”
“Those are lies,” said Penny through gritted teeth. “This isn’t a game, Nico.”
Lies. Games. Nico remembered something Roger had said during Monopoly about what happened after Peter’s accident.No one could find Penny. Malcolm was late to see his son.He had an idea. Abrain wave. A potentially unethical, yet entirely excusable assertion. Well, allegation but whatever. “No, we found out at Helena’s memorial that you and your father met with Yvette while Peter was being admitted to the hospital.”
Every single eye in the room moved in unison from him to Penny. All except for Valerie’s. She was gazing at him, and he prayed she wasn’t disappointed with his decision to lie. Then she gave him a tiny nod.
“It was Tracey Jefferies, wasn’t it? That bitch.” Penny exploded. “I knew she’d been following me around that summer, like a dog. Do you know how mortified Dad was? His first grandchild a teen pregnancy with someone like that?”
“You told Dad?” whispered Roger. “Before me? You knew?”
