AllFreeNovel
Share Us
* * *
The following day, Will and I ditched school before last period, but things didn’t go according to plan. There was major construction on the way home, delaying us by forty-five minutes, so we had little time to install the spy cam, which was waiting for us in our driveway. Will hopped out of the car to retrieve the package before I pulled my Jeep into the garage. Neither my mother nor father was home.
I had been hoping to snoop around Tanya’s room, which was surprisingly very tidy, but there wasn’t enough time. Will worked quickly to install the minuscule camera, placing it on the ceiling in a corner. It had a tiny roving lens that could capture various angles of the room—from her desk to her bed and beyond. Because it was white, it inconspicuously blended in and looked more like a smoke detector. Chances were the wrapped-up-in-herself Insta-Queen would never notice it.
As Will worked away, I heard a set of footsteps and giggly chatter nearing us in the hallway. Them. Just in the nick of time, the installation was complete. We narrowly escaped being discovered via the bathroom connecting to my room, with Will scurrying to his own room when the coast was clear.
Showtime. The first episode of The Lance and Tanya Show. Sitting cross-legged on my bed with my laptop, I was bubbling with nerves. A big part of me wanted to slam the computer shut. More wise words from my grandma floated into my head—Ignorance is bliss—but I ignored them.
With my heart in my throat, my eyes fixed on the screen as Tanya’s door opened. She hobbled inside the cotton candy-pink room with Lance behind her. He kicked the door shut with his heel while Tanya clicked a remote and turned on some music. A slow dance remix of Britney Spears’s “I’ve Just Begun Having My Fun” began to play.
My eyes almost popped out of their sockets when Tanya tossed her crutches onto the bed and began to dance in the arms of my boyfriend. There was nothing wrong with her ankle! Unable to blink, my eyes stayed pinned to the screen as they swayed to the song in perfect sync. Tanya’s head resting on his chest, her eyes blissfully closed, Lance smiling dreamily, his arms looped around her tiny waist.
A fireball of rage shot through my veins, making me think I was going to combust. I vaulted out of my bed and, in my haste, stupidly tripped over my charger cord, falling hard to the floor. A sharp pain shot up my right ankle. Maybe I was the one who was now going to need the crutches if they didn’t become part of a crime scene investigation.
Adrenaline flowing, I stood up and stormed out of my room as fast as I could, ignoring the searing pain in my foot. Half sprinting, half limping, I charged to Tanya’s room and wrenched her door open. My face was so heated I could feel my cheeks flaming. About to implode, I stood at the doorway.
“Studying much?”
Both Tanya and Lance stopped dead in their tracks. Tanya smirked at me while Lance turned fire engine red.
“Paige, it’s not what you think!” he stammered, throwing his hands up in surrender.
“I have eyes.” I limped over to the crutches and shoved them under my armpits. Scrunching my face, I glowered at Tanya.
“Still need these?”
“Oh, my foot’s much better now.” With a vapid smile, she glanced down at her still bandaged ankle and wiggled it. “And just for your information, I was teaching your boyfriend how to slow-dance in time for your mum’s upcoming gala which she wants us to go to. Something Miss Clodhopper couldn’t possibly do.” A beat. “You’re welcome.”
Lance gazed at me, his face more relaxed. “That’s the honest truth, Paige. Tanya’s been teaching me to dance in exchange for helping her with her calculus.”
“Since you won’t,” added Tanya.
I took several breaths in and out of my nose. “I think you should go home, Lance.”
Without another word, he grabbed his backpack and scurried out of the room.
Taking the crutches with me, I hobbled back to my bedroom. I didn’t really need them, but they’d make a good weapon if I ever needed to defend myself against her.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I decided to believe Lance. But there was no way in hell I could trust Tanya.
The spy cam was going to stay put. And every day after school I was going to tune into The Tanya Show and watch her every move.
In time, something would give.
And I’d have something on her.
FOURTEEN
NATALIE
On Friday, I had an unexpected guest.
My mother-in-law, Marjorie Merritt. One half of the couple Matt and I jokingly referred to as the M&M’s. Martin, her husband, was in La Jolla, getting ready for a weekend golf tournament, and Marjorie had spontaneously decided to stop off in Los Angeles to see Paige and Will, her only grandchildren, if you didn’t count Anabel. The sad truth was maybe Anabel didn’t count. Marjorie had never cared for her, and had made no secret about it when she had been alive.
My relationship with my mother-in-law had improved over the years. At first, she was icy cold toward me. Borderline vindictive. She was convinced it was my idea to elope with Matt, though it was his, and faulted me for not giving her the opportunity to plan an elaborate wedding. She initially didn’t trust me—or respect me—and thought I was a gold digger who had trapped her son by getting pregnant. But, over time, I’d proved to her I wasn’t. She was impressed by my many philanthropic endeavors as well as by my good taste and family values. She was a woman from the “old school,” who believed a woman’s place was at home. To make a nice house and attend to the needs of her husband and children, and to use any spare time to make the world a better place. She was also of the belief that if your husband’s eyes wandered, look the other way. Maybe I should have.
Though I still wouldn’t describe my relationship with my mother-in-law as close, it was at least cordial. Maintaining her distance, she was staying at the nearby Four Seasons and would be heading down the coast in the morning to meet her husband.
