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Except that Nicola was lying.
Josie glanced at Brian briefly, but his expression gave away nothing. She stepped closer to Nicola, encroaching on her personal space. “How long?”
Nicola looked to Brian again, but all he offered was a half-hearted, one-shoulder shrug. Without meeting Josie’s eyes, she answered, “I don’t know. A few minutes after they found her. They came and got me and took me to her.”
Sandrine stood and walked over, inserting herself between them. “That’s enough. Please, let’s everyone just sit down and take a breath.”
“Nicola,” Josie said, keeping her tone matter-of-fact. “No law enforcement officer would ever do that.”
Taryn said, “What are you talking about, Josie?”
Josie kept her eyes on Nicola. She could see her resolve wavering slightly in the way her eyes widened, fear filling them. Josie said, “No police officer would ever bring a parent to a crime scene like that. Not only is it cruel but it would taint the scene, making it very difficult to bring a case against the murderer. They would have sealed that scene off, Nicola. No one in or out except for evidence techs and investigators. You or your husband would have been asked to make an ID at the morgue, after your daughter had been cleaned up. So tell me, what really happened?”
Sandrine stepped aside. From where Josie stood, she saw hatred flare in Nicola’s eyes.
No one spoke, the tension in the room growing thicker each second. The silence went on so long that Josie began counting in her head. When she reached nineteen, Brian jumped out of his chair. “We made it up,” he said. “It’s not true.”
Josie was aware of a few gasps. Taryn said, “What do you mean, you ‘made it up’?”
Nicola turned to her husband and pushed him, her palms meeting his shoulders. He fell back into his chair. “Why?” she growled at him. “Why would you say that?”
Sandrine’s voice had a slight tremor. “Is that true, Nicola?”
Alice said, “That’s despicable. How could you? Both of you!”
Brian climbed out of his chair again. “Wait, wait,” he said. “Let me explain.”
“Don’t,” Nicola said, tone low and menacing.
Ignoring her, Brian said, “It didn’t happen to us as parents, okay? We don’t have any kids. When Nicola was a little girl, her sister was abducted and murdered.”
Alice said, “Why would you pretend it was your child? Do you know how sick that is?”
“We have experienced bad things,” Brian said quickly. “Okay? Just not as a couple.”
“Yes,” Nicola said. “Brian lost people in that fire when he was a kid, and I lost my sister.”
“Why would you lie about all of this?” Alice said. “There is absolutely no reason for it.”
“I’m sorry,” Brian said. “I can explain—”
“And how dare you accuse Sandrine of being a fraud when the two of you have lied to all of us the entire week?” added Alice.
“She is a fraud!” Nicola shouted, advancing on Alice. “We actually did experience trauma, Brian and I! So we fudged the details a little. It’s still real!”
Still seated, Alice recoiled. Josie walked over and stood between the two of them, getting so close to Nicola that she was forced to back away. “Calm down,” Josie told her.
Nicola turned away but Sandrine was right there, blocking her way. “I think we should talk about why the two of you felt the need to ‘fudge details.’”
“We don’t owe you an explanation,” Nicola said. “Any of you. I’m done with this.”
With a huff, she pushed her way past Sandrine and stalked off. She snatched her coat from a hook along the far wall and punched her arms into it. Then she threw open the front door, seemingly intent on stomping out of the building, but a blast of snow and cold air rushed at her, knocking her back into the room. She gave a frustrated grumble and pushed the door closed, using all of her weight to do so. With a glance back at them, she instead tromped off to one of the breakout rooms, slamming that door behind her.
“I, uh, I’m really sorry,” Brian said. “I’ll go talk to her.”
Sandrine watched him go, nonplussed.
Taryn stood up and walked over to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe we should all just get some sleep. Everyone is exhausted. This would have been the last day of the retreat. We were scheduled to go in the morning.”
