Chapter #20A Tale of Two Liars by: Nostrum   Despite your best attempts, your family’s still in danger. You don’t know how your father will be “roughed up” (most likely a beating), but Mrs. Wright dropped the fact that Ashley was acting strange. Someone spied on her without her knowledge – or anyone’s. Just how resourceful can this woman be?"
You need to act fast to keep up the charade – for your mother’s sake. “What odd behavior? When I saw her, she was fine to me.”
“For one, breaking up with her long-time partner. You say Trevor didn’t make a move because he was afraid of him.”
“I’m telling you like I see it,” you bluff. “I go meet Ash, and I see this big and intimidating guy.”
“At her house?”
She’s calling it. “Naw. Ashie had lost her phone for a few days, but she recovered it just as I was arriving. She tells me to meet her in a cafe, I go with her, she shows me the guy she’s living with – the hunk – and I figure, ‘that must be the guy Trev’s scared of’. Then I slide away, call Trev and tell him I’m gonna help, and that’s when he says Ash moved away, that the guy she was living with moved into her house, and that’s when I figure he’s into some deep shit and then--”
“That’s enough.” Mrs. Wright stern rebuke gains weight as the goons react, alerted. It’ll be impossible to maneuver things from here. “Cassandra, you could have told me that before – now a poor man will be beaten for no reason.”
“Mom, that’s what I got from her. Maybe he saw the big guy and figured ‘nope, not gonna act now’. I mean, if I was confused--”
“That’s not the only oddity in her behavior, my dear. I had reports that she behaved erratically at work.”
That’s where she knows! you realize. “You could’ve told me you were spying on her, Mom. Coordination, y’know. Not going there blind.”
“Last I recall, you were very impatient to leave.” She's right – Quentin asked Mrs. Wright for the pens, claiming he had to help ‘Trev’. (And the excuse you gave was “Trev’s been radio silent for a week” - big mistake on your part!) “Fearing something must have happened to him.”
“I was, Mom. He wasn’t calling, so I had to go there. But then he saw me and called me from somewhere else – that's when I learned everything.”
“Where did he saw you?”
“I... made a brief stop to Ash’s house, but that’s when she called me. Trev told me he saw me there.”
“Then I take that you arrived to Ashley’s house, then received a call from her telling you to meet you at a cafe--”
“I was calling her, Mom. I got her just as--”
“But you said she lost her phone.”
“And then I told you she recovered it.”
“Did you try to call her before?”
“Only when I arrived!”
“Fair enough. Let me see if I follow up. You leave here, yet you make no contact with either Ashley or Trevor until you arrive. But when you do, you magically find her, and Trevor magically finds you. Am I right?”
“Pretty much,” you admit begrudgingly. “Though it wasn’t ‘magically’.”
Mrs. Wright nods, sending her goons away. “Stay close. Remember – you're paid to watch, not to listen.”
“Yes, ma’am...” You and your mother cross looks as her guards leave, noticing the confidence in the aged woman’s smirk.
Once out of earshot, the woman took a small gun from a holster hidden in her blazer, keeping it close. She gives you both a knowing look, then draws a box holding five pens. “Cassie, dear? Let’s cut to the chase. I was going to send you to check on Lachlan whether you asked or not.”
“Really?”
“Of course," she said as she took a glass tumbler and filled it with a dark amber liquid. “I must protect my investments, after all.” She took a sip, relaxing on her seat. “Lachlan’s story intrigued me. My daughter wronged him unjustly, and I was moved to allow him a chance to remake his life.”
“That’s something that intrigues me,” Barbara says, putting you on edge. “I know you want the best for us – and by that, I mean for us and for your daughters. I recall you saying that Ashley was better off on her own. What led you to give her to Lachlan?”
“His punishment was too unjust,” Mrs. Wright replies.
“But I remember you backed her up on it.” Your blood freezes as your mother rebuts the woman holding a gun nearby. “What made you change your mind?”
“Like I said, Ashley unfairly ruined his life. I wanted to repay him, but also wanted to test his motivation. Not a hard task by any means – use the pens, become her, live her life.” She takes another sip, never losing that sly, dark smirk. “I still test him.” Then she points at you, leaning closer. “I was going to send you before, to harangue him, but then I heard Ashley entered into an engagement.”
“Was it when I told you, or before?” (You tap into Quentin’s mind, since you’re aware Trevor told him about it.)
“Your sister refused to admit it at first, other than being with a ‘wonderful man’. Only as you told me did she admit it was with someone older – and then, you told me about that man’s marriage.” She finishes the tumbler, setting it aside. “All the signs of a homewrecker. That alone told me my decision was just.”
“I still find it cold, Mis...” Your mother’s eyes bug out. “Mom. I mean – I appreciate the opportunity and everything, but why would you find fair and just to give your daughters to us?”
Mrs. Wright’s gaze narrows, and it feels like you angered a dark and ancient evil. “Barbara, I think we discussed this. You needed a place to hide, to put your degree to good use--”
Ross has a degree? you ask. (Even Quentin’s surprised by it.)
“--and she needed ambition. You’re a perfect match. Ashley’s case is different, though. Ambition and independence in spades, but a mean streak. No empathy for a suffering man!”
Says you, you think about her hypocrisy.
“Thus, I felt only fair Trevor taught her that lesson. So as long as my daughters prosper, I don’t care if they do as like elaborate catsuits for men.”
“How did you meet him anyways?” your mother asks.
“Like I told you before, my dear – Fate made us meet. Remember when you were brought to my court, for possession of Schedule IV substances?”
Court!? You try to delve into Quentin’s and Cassie’s minds, but you don’t remember Mrs. Wright to be a judge. (Not even a lawyer!)
“Remember the passionate speech you gave me, swearing you wouldn’t do it again? How I took you into my office, telling you the promise I saw on you – the flame within? That you could be more than a simple ‘hustler’ in the streets, peddling substances? How I negotiated with the di Santinos so they could sell the meth you produced?”
That’s something Quentin recalls. Yeah... Ross said something about having a benefactor in the courts after he went hiding. Some really corrupt judge, hoping to become a state Supreme Court Justice, that set him up with the local Mafia. As you look at Mrs. Wright, you feel a shiver running through your body. That’s him!?
“How they betrayed us by outing me to the office of Ethics, making me lose my job?” Your mother nods as Mrs. Wright tells her tale. “And how you told me you found the pens inside an abandoned building, telling me they were too ‘high-tech’ to be simple writing tools?”
Again, Quentin gives you more information. That’s when Ross contacted me. I was always good with tech stuff, but that was something I never seen in my life. And then I mistakenly use it on him and he--
“Yeah. Until ‘Cassie’ here figured out their usefulness.”
“And then I asked for them. I even paid you good money.” She grabs the box containing the pen set, shaking it. “This changed everything.”
“Why are you telling us this?” you ask, feeling the tale came out of the blue. “I only asked how you--?”
“Because I was the one who ultimately ruined Trevor’s life,” Tessa confesses. “I misjudged him – Ashley's fellow students falsely accused him, and I admitted that evidence. Only as I delved into his mind I learned the truth. I needed to fix my mistake. But Trevor still wronged my dear Ashley – if he wanted a second chance, he’d have to earn it. Not have it on a silver platter.”
You realize why your mother acted that way. Even if she’s not really their mother, whoever plays Mrs. Wright is too cold with her daughters. Even now, she’s wounded.
And the aged woman’s attitude isn’t helping. “But it seems he’s a coward. Witless. If it were me, I would’ve turned into Ashley’s new flame to torment her. That was my message for you to deliver--” she says to you, “-- but then, you suggested you’d aid him. And so, I agreed.”
She finally grabs the gun, pointing it at you. “Your incompetence frustrates me, Mr. Vossler. You lack ambition, vision. You’re too content with playing with my daughter, instead of using your intellect for something better.”
“Mom...” you tell Tessa, but unconsciously call to your own mother as well.
“Barbara, let this be my message to Trevor for his incompetence. The next time I see him--"
“NOO!” In an instant, Barbara leaps over you, trembling. “Don’t do it. Please. I beg of you.”
You notice the aged woman lowers her gun, tilting her head. “Strange. What moves you to protect him, Mr. Marquand?”
“Can we talk in private?” your mother says, and you realize too late what she’s implying. “There’s something I must tell you.”
Tessa Wright sees the image before her, and something in her cold heart shatters. She sighs, standing from her regal seat. “Fair enough. I wonder what it may be, though. Follow me to my office.”
As the two leave, you notice your mother has left Barbara’s purse on the couch. The pens are there, meaning she’s going alone – arguably, to tell her she’s not really Ross Marquand, but Marie Anderson. To appeal for your own life.
You can’t let her sacrifice for your sake. The guards are making their rounds, which should make it easy for you to disable them. What if you use your wits to outmatch whoever stole Tessa Wright’s life?   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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