Secrets and Seductions (4 page)

Jessica kept trying Lila's number, but it always went straight to voice mail. Lila had hidden in her house for more than a week since the news had broken about her fake pregnancy. Jessica felt bad for her friend, but she'd seen this coming from miles away. She was beginning to think this scheming stuff never got you anything but heartbreak.

Ironic sentiment, she realized, coming from Jessica Wakefield. But nonetheless true. She put down her phone and leaned back in her office chair, glancing at her desk. It felt strange being back at VertPlus.net, especially since it hadn't exactly been the homecoming she'd hoped for.

It wasn't the same job—or the same office—that she'd left. Since her departure, Tracy Courtright had swooped in and taken her place, moving right into the director of marketing role and her coveted corner office. Tracy had fifteen years of experience. She also hated Jessica with a passion.

“We had to do it,” Michael Wilson, the VP of the Sweet Valley office, had told her almost apologetically. “But I promise you that if you work the magic you did before, you'll be in that office again in no time.”

Until then, Jessica had the humiliation of sitting in a cubicle in the middle of the office space with the interns and the low-level sales staff, and basically, the nobodies. She sat right outside Tracy's office, so that Tracy could shout her name without even getting out of her chair, which she did often and for no good reason. Tracy seemed to be under the mistaken impression Jessica was her own personal indentured servant.

The old Jessica would have schemed and manipulated and beaten Tracy at her own game. It would've taken her less than a week to wiggle back into her old office. The old Jessica didn't bring anybody coffee.

But these days, Jessica couldn't quite muster enough energy to care. Ever since she'd come face-to-face with Sarah wearing next to nothing at Todd's door, she'd known it was truly, finally, over between them.

She shut her eyes, remembering the humiliation of standing there on Todd's doorstep, ready to beg him to come back to her. Sarah had opened the door barefoot, clad only in a clingy, nearly transparent teddy. She'd lounged against the door like she was holding the house up and given Jessica a lazy, triumphant smile.

“Can I help you?” she'd said, a tiny smile tickling the corner of her mouth.

The sight of Sarah was so knockout unexpected that Jessica was struck dumb. Had she not been speechless, her first question would have been “What are you doing here?” But that would have been dumb because the answer was obvious and wouldn't have left any room for second questions.

If she'd had any confidence about herself before, it was gone. Big news. Jessica Wakefield, at thirty, was no longer invincible. She wasn't even Jessica Wakefield, the girl who with one word could change the entire class elections. The girl who could get any guy she wanted and anything else she wanted. But this wasn't high school anymore. This was the real world, and here it didn't matter if she'd been the captain of the cheerleading squad. How had she not noticed?

“Never mind,” Jessica had said to Sarah, her voice barely a whisper.
You win.

Jessica was turning to walk back to her car when she heard Todd's voice calling. “Sarah? Who is it?”

“Nobody,” Sarah had said, and the word had echoed inside Jessica's head ever since.

Nobody
. That's what she'd felt like every day since Todd had left. Nobody. And the most shocking part was realizing how easily the fight had gone out of her even though her competition was an ordinary-looking, no-talent plagiarist. She, the once invincible Jessica Wakefield, was scared to put herself next to Sarah and demand Todd choose.

Because, deep down, she feared he would not pick her. That she wasn't worth wanting.

Finally, after all these years, all those buried insecurities she'd tried so hard to hide had bubbled to the surface and now everyone could see them.

That same day, she'd taken Michael up on his offer to come back to VertPlus.net. Part of her was desperate to regain a feeling that she could do something right. And part of her just had to face the truth: If she was going to be a single mom long-term, she had bills to pay.

She carried the knowledge that Todd could never be hers again like an albatross around her neck. No matter what she did, she simply couldn't shake her feelings of doom and gloom.

“Jessica!” Tracy shouted from the office that had once been hers. “In here, now!”

Reluctantly, Jessica pulled herself up and trudged over. “Yes?” She popped her head in the door.

“You call
this
your idea list for Smashbox? You should just scratch them all off and just put down ‘gala' because it seems like that's the extent of your creativity.”

The criticism stung and, Jessica thought, wasn't exactly unwarranted. There really were two gala ideas on a list and the rest of it wasn't her best. She couldn't quite seem to conjure the magic genius she'd had before. That, like Todd, had deserted her.

“But…”

Tracy waved her hand and softened her tone. “Look, I know you're going through some personal problems, but I have to give this list to Michael, and it's in no shape to present. I like the first two the best, but I really need at least five more.”

Jessica bit back the caustic comment she was about to make about how since
Tracy
was the director,
she
could come up with a few of her own original ideas. The sad fact was that Tracy was one of her bosses, and she needed this job.

She sighed. “Sure, Tracy,” she said, and trudged back to her desk, feeling defeated already.

“Hey, Jessica!” piped up Emily, her part-time assistant. It had been a concession from Michael: Jessica might be lower on the totem pole, but she could keep a piece of an assistant.

Emily sported a red-tinged strawberry blond bob and freckles across her slightly turned-up nose. She was hopelessly plain, Jessica thought. She had youth and overly dramatic makeup on her side, but Jessica could tell that Emily was one of those people who would age badly. She glanced up at Emily and instantly wished Katy were here. Katy had been her no-fail assistant, her savior, but Katy had gotten an offer at another company she couldn't pass up. With Jessica gone, there had been no reason for her to stay.

Now Jessica was adrift and alone, except for too-bubbly Emily. Emily, who was straight out of college, wasn't as much interested in work as she was in telling Jessica about her sexcapades from the weekend before. The girl shared
too
much for Jessica's taste, and she wasn't in the mood to hear about her
Jersey Shore
–like adventures. Honestly, Jessica was surprised Emily had any, given her lackluster looks.

“You won't believe what happened Saturday night,” Emily gushed, launching into one of her stories. Jessica tried very hard not to listen. She hated to hear about all the great sex Emily was having and how fun it was being single when Jessica felt there was literally nothing at all good about her own single life, not even the movie star she was dating.

She glanced over her tiny, crammed desk and saw the small color picture of Jake, her beautiful baby boy, and smiled. These days, he was about the only one who ever made her smile, and even then, not always.

“…can you believe that?” Emily finished her latest tale.

“Wow, no. I can't,” Jessica said, even though she had no idea what Emily had just said.

“Actually, Emily, if you could do a little bit more research on Maybelline for me that would be great. I'd like to know more about their fall line.”

“Oh, uh…sure.” Emily nodded. “Big meeting with Tracy and Michael tomorrow where Tracy will probably take all the credit for the work we do.”

“Right.” Jessica said, barely listening.

Jessica's phone dinged with a text from Liam.

HI, BABY
.

Nonchalantly, Jessica flipped her phone facedown.

“Are you going to answer him?” Emily asked, surprised. “If I was dating one of Hollywood's sexiest men alive, I would certainly answer his texts.”

“That's a little personal, Emily.” Jessica was surprised that the girl had read her phone
and
copped to it.

“I'm just stating the obvious.” Emily rolled her eyes.

“Excuse me?” God, Emily was mouthy, Jessica thought.

“Whatever.” Emily shrugged and walked away before Jessica could put her in her place. The old Jessica would've stridden over to her desk and dressed down Emily right there, but the new Jessica…she just couldn't quite muster the energy.
Emily is just jealous,
Jessica thought. Nobody who looked like her could date someone like Liam.

Jessica's phone dinged again, and she flipped it faceup.
BABY
?
YOU THERE
? Liam again. Jessica's phone dinged two more times with more incoming texts. She sighed and put the phone on mute.

Jessica really thought sometimes that Liam used texting as a kind of GPS tracking system, trying to get her current position at all times. But that probably wasn't fair. Liam loved her. And he was so kind to her.

Just the other day, Jessica had been the one defending him to Elizabeth.

“Why does he want to know what you are doing
every minute
of the day?”

“I know it sounds annoying…”

“More like stalkerish.”

“To you, maybe, but for me it's just what I need right now, okay, Liz? Unconditional love. Some guy who will just be there for me. I mean, at least he
cares
where I am. Who else does?”

“I do. Your friends do. Jake does.” Elizabeth was relentless in pointing out the good things in Jessica's life. And it was true that her family was her lifeline, but right now Jessica just didn't want to see it. She couldn't seem to leave the pity party she'd been throwing for herself.

“Mom and Dad are worried,” Elizabeth had said.

Jessica shrugged. “I didn't even know they were home from their latest trip.”

“They just got in last night.”

“Jake is going to be thrilled. I'll take him over when Liza and Jake get back from the park.”

“Look, I don't want you to be angry at me, but I had to tell them a little about what's going on with you.”

“Lizzie.” Jessica rolled her eyes. The last thing she needed was pity from Ned and Alice.

“So what did they say about you and Bruce?”

“I didn't exactly spell it out.”

“But you had no trouble telling them about me and Todd, right?”

“I didn't tell them everything.”

“Gee, thanks. Hey, look at us, Lizzie. The Loser Twins.”

“I love it. It would make a great article, ‘Advice for Failure.'”

“Very original. Everyone is always giving advice for success. This will be a nice change, and we're so good at it.”

And probably for the first time in a lot of days, even weeks, the twins were smiling and enjoying themselves. No one could make them laugh more than each other. They had been doing it for thirty years now.

Jessica turned her attention back to her computer, smiling as she remembered her conversations with her sister.

A new message from Annie Whitman popped up, and she clicked on it eagerly.

With Elizabeth's help, Annie had found Bruce's hideaway in the south of France. Annie had told Jessica she planned to go there but had to do so carefully, given Bruce's fugitive charges. Jessica thought this was above and beyond what an average defense attorney would do, and she was grateful.

Jessica might not have been able to go to bat for herself right now, but she would swing for the bleachers for Bruce.

This e-mail was Annie's reply to Jessica's message that Robin Platt might not have been who she said she was.

Annie sounded cautiously optimistic, and said Jessica should keep digging. Jessica found herself feeling slightly guilty for taking credit for the news, but she had promised to keep Elizabeth's name out of it.

She understood why Elizabeth had to be behind the scenes now. Bruce had been devastated when he'd found out Elizabeth had been renting an apartment for Robin, and the betrayal was at the heart of their recent breakup.

The most heart-wrenching part was that Jessica absolutely knew that they were both still deeply in love. But as she had learned so painfully, sometimes love wasn't enough. It should have been, but sometimes it just wasn't.

Jessica glanced back down at the e-mail from Annie.

WE STILL NEED PROOF
, she'd written.
CAN YOU GET MORE
?

Jessica forwarded Annie's message to Elizabeth and Aaron. They had to find more evidence because Bruce was innocent. She just knew it. He had to be innocent, for Elizabeth's sake. There was no other way Jessica could see the two of them getting back together. That's why Jessica would work so hard to exonerate Bruce. She had to because she knew how much her sister loved Bruce. She'd clear his name. For Lizzie.

Aaron got the message from Jessica just as he was walking into Warner Gas that morning around ten. He put his phone in his pocket. He hadn't been back to Warner Gas in weeks. He'd been too busy with his real job, but it just so happened he had a client meeting in San Diego that afternoon, so he'd driven down early, having decided to spend the morning at Warner Gas getting to the bottom of the Rose Pally/Robin Platt mystery.

He clutched a little bag with a chocolate-stuffed croissant that he hoped would work its magic on Nola, even though he hadn't seen her in weeks.

“Hey, Aaron,” Nola said, beaming at him as he walked in. “Long time no see!”

“I was in the neighborhood and decided to drop in,” Aaron said. “I brought your favorite.” He set the white bakery bag on her desk.

“You're a godsend. I'm starved!”

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

Aaron glanced at Nola's computer screen. It looked like she was sorting through a company photo album. He saw a girl in one photo who looked a tad bit like Robin Platt but clearly wasn't, and that gave him an idea.

“Hey, that's not Rose Pally, is it?” Aaron asked, pointing to the picture on her screen.

“What?” Nola looked at her computer. “Oh, no. That's not Rose. That's Beth Kinsella. Wait—do you know Rose?”

“I used to know her, years ago,” Aaron said. “She lived in my neighborhood. Haven't seen or spoken to her in a long while, but I really liked her. But wait a minute. You know Rose Pally?”

“You're not going to believe this: She works here.”

“Come on. Can't be the same one.”

“I'll bet it is.”

“No way. You got a picture of her?”

“I don't think so, but I can do you one better. You could go see her. She works on the second floor.”

“Wait, she's here
now
?” Aaron could've sworn according to the records she was out on leave. She had to be out on leave. That was the only way she could be Robin Platt.

“She was gone for a while, on maternity leave or something, but she's back now. Just take the elevator to two. She works in Accounting.”