She still didn’t crack. “An autopsy already showed that my son died of natural causes.”
“Sure, because they didn’t suspect murder. A regular post-mortem process isn’t gonna check for some random rare metabolites in the kidneys when there’s no reason to think it was anything other than natural causes. And the coroner had no reason to think Callum’s death was suspicious at all, because there were no visible needle marks on his skin. Right?”
Ellen sneered. “Sure. Whatever you say, Dec.”
I held up one finger. “But, the lack of needle marks doesn’t matter. Now that I’ve told them what I suspect you injected Callum with, they’ll look inside him again. At whatever is left in his kidneys, specifically. And they should still be pretty well-preserved even after two years in the ground, given how they deal with embalming of corpses these days. If they find succinic acid and choline in them, which I think they will, you’re screwed.”
That did it. Her mask finally slipped, and her demeanor changed in an instant. “No! No! Call them back right now and tell them it was all a joke!” She grabbed her cell phone from her desk and held it up.
I smiled scornfully. “Why? Because you did it?”
“Just…just do it!” she screeched. “I’ll give you anything. I’ll let you win the show, whatever you want!”
“Holy shit,” Liv whispered. She took a step back. “Wow. You did kill Callum, and you were really gonna kill me too. Just for all that money, right, Mom?”
Ellen realized her mistake. She’d gone too far, said too much. Even though she hadn’t directly admitted it, she’d said enough so that anyone listening to our conversation would be suspicious. An innocent person wouldn’t beg for us to tell the cops it was all a joke and offer us ‘anything we wanted’ in return for our silence. She knew it, too.
“Please, Liv,” she begged, tears forming in her eyes. Crocodile tears, no doubt. “I…I didn’t mean to…”
She didn’t finish that sentence. I suspected she realized there was simply no excuse for her awful actions. She crumpled to the floor, and Liv took a step toward her.
“You were wrong. We weren’t recording you. But there is someone right outside listening. Someone who is probably very interested in what you just said. Two someones, actually.”
Ellen looked up. “What?”
“Dec and I discovered all this stuff yesterday, Mom. We knew we had to sit on it because there’s no police on the Starling Islands. So we did some Googling and made some calls when you weren’t in your office. Managed to convince a lawyer and his police officer friend from Johannesburg to fly out here as soon as possible. That’s the closest major city with English-speaking law officials and jurisdiction over the islands. Anyway, they’ve just heard everything you said, and they’re obligated to follow up on it. So as we speak, they’re probably contacting officials back in the States. The whole process will probably take some time, but you’re caught and you’re going down. They’ll have to hold you in custody in Johannesburg until it’s all sorted out. Don’t worry, I hear it’s just lovely there.”
Ellen’s eyes flickered wildly from me to Liv. “Wait…you never called the police back home, did you? There’s no exhumation being ordered, is there?”
I grinned. “No. Cops don’t work that fast. I made that part up to make you crack. But there will be an exhumation now. Now that you’ve as good as admitted it all.”
Ellen let out a wailing scream and tossed the cell phone in her hand across the room, aiming for Liv. “I wish I killed you first, you little bitch!” she screeched before breaking down into wracking sobs.
The phone she’d thrown happened to hit William’s cage lock instead of Liv, and the door flew open. William flew out and settled next to Ellen, and he pecked at her left arm, squawking gleefully.
“Wow. Even the bird hates her,” Liv remarked through gritted teeth as the door opened and the police officer standing outside finally burst in.
“I wonder if he was actually flying around the house early that morning and saw her inject Callum,” I mused. “Maybe that’s why he kept screeching the word ‘freckle’ whenever anyone was around. He wanted his owner to pay for what she did to her son. African Grey parrots are very intelligent, after all.”
“Maybe,” she said softly. “I guess we can never really know.”
“There is one thing I do know, though,” I said, turning to her. In the background, Ellen was screeching at the police officer, who was trying to subdue her into going with him, and also at William, who was still circling her and trying to peck her.
“What’s that?” Liv asked, looking up at me with her big, beautiful eyes.
I grinned. “I fucking love you.”
Her face flushed and she smiled back at me, despite everything she’d just been through with her duplicitous, maniacal mother. “Dec,” she said. “I fucking love you too.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Olivia
The next half-hour or so was filled with too much pandemonium for me to really even register that my Mom was gone, let alone register the full horror of what she’d done. I couldn’t even cry. I was too numb.
I guess I needed time to process. A lot of time.
For the last day or so, a tiny part of me had hoped Dec and I were wrong, and that there was an innocent explanation for everything we’d found. That spark of hope was deadened the minute I saw how Mom reacted to everything we accused her of, though. All she cared about was herself and money. She fucking killed my little brother, and she was going after me next. It was beyond horrifying.
Callum deserved more than that; he deserved a chance at life. Instead he only made it to fifteen before having his existence ripped away by a coldblooded, money-hungry bitch. His own mother. It wasn’t fair. Things like this just shouldn’t happen, and as long as I was around, I was going to try and make sure they never did again.
I vowed to make every moment of my own life count on Callum’s behalf from now on. It was all I really could do. It was a truly bittersweet feeling, knowing he could rest easy now that Mom was caught, but also knowing it still wouldn’t bring him back. Nothing would. So all I could do was live well from now on, try to make him proud wherever he was now.
“I knew her son died a few years back. Had no idea he was murdered,” a senior producer remarked from somewhere near Dec and me. We were still in Mom’s office, and several show employees had joined us to find out what was going on after seeing Mom being dragged kicking and screaming out of the resort. None of us were quite sure what was going to happen next.
“No one did,” Dec replied, hands balling into fists by his side.
The senior producer looked down at his cell phone, which had just chirped. “Shit…” he said softly.
“What is it?” another asked.
The first one looked over at us again before returning his attention to the other one. “I hate to bring this up after what just happened, but we have another problem. Juan and Emily.”
“What about them?” Dec asked. Juan and Emily were one of the other couples remaining on the show (Isobel and Mark were the third).
The producer sighed. “As if we didn’t already have enough shit going on, Juan’s online fans have just gone apeshit. Turns out Juan already has a girlfriend back home, who just discovered the show and saw him on it. She just had a baby, too. His baby. So the fans—well, ex-fans—are going crazy and demanding we have him thrown off the show.”
“But we can’t just throw anyone off. And it’s still five days until we have another elimination episode. Five more days of challenges and activities,” said another crew member. “And then another week until the grand finale.”
The first one spoke up again, scratching his head. “I don’t even know if we have five more days on this damn island, let alone two more weeks. When the network heads get word that Ellen was arrested and detained for fucking murder, we’re gonna get the ax right away.”
“If we get canceled, we don’t get the fucking bo
nus pay! I need that for my—”
Dec held his hands up. “Hey!” he said to get their attention. The employees looked at him, surprised into silence. “Look, you’re right. The show is probably gonna get canceled after Ellen’s arrest. But you’ve all worked so damn hard this season. You don’t deserve to have your bonuses cut due to a cancellation, just because Ellen turned out to be an evil fucking bitch.”
“What are you saying?” the senior producer asked, brows furrowing.
I looked at him curiously myself, wondering what he was up to.
Dec smiled grimly. “I’m saying the show must go on.”
***
“I can’t believe you had them organize all of this,” I whispered, gesturing around us as the camera operators adjusted lights and boom mics. We were all standing on the sandy island beach, close to the water, and the sunlight was beginning to fade over the ocean behind us as evening began to set in. Lit bamboo torches lined the demarcated area around the six remaining contestants, lending a romantic touch to the scene, and just beyond us was a large arch, strewn with pretty flowers and creeping greenery.
Dec squeezed my hand. “Well, Emily and Juan aren’t gonna win the vote after that baby mama scandal, so really, it’s just between us and Isobel and Mark. If the show gets canceled, no one wins anything. And Isobel and Mark deserve a chance at that prize.”
“That’s true,” I said softly, my cheeks glowing with warmth and admiration as I looked up at him. We didn’t need to win ourselves anymore. Now that Mom had been arrested and would inevitably be charged, all control of her assets would pass to me via the family lawyer. That meant I could ensure that Dec’s family still received enough money for Amelia’s medical bills, and we no longer had to worry about trying to win the million dollar show prize.
But like Dec said…Isobel and Mark still deserved a shot at that grand prize. Right now, they needed it way more than we did. And so Dec had floated the idea of pushing up the schedule and creating one final live episode to air online before the network canceled everything and sent us all home. If a grand finale was filmed and streamed online for all the fans to see, the network couldn’t refuse to pay out the prize, because the fans would revolt against the network if they tried that.
Word about the surprise finale had been sent out to fans via a heavy Twitter, Facebook and Instagram campaign over the last few hours, and from what the techs had just told us, over two million people were currently on the Wed At First Sight website, waiting to see what would happen.
“Welcome to our live surprise finale!” Chase Adler said into the main camera as everything began to kick off. “Due to some unforeseen weather conditions here on the islands, we were forced to move the show schedule up, but we’re going to have plenty of extra bonus content and amazing competitions for you online to make up for the missing episodes. Anyway, without further ado….let’s see who we have left!”
The cameras panned to the three remaining couples.
“We have Liv and Dec, who have proved to us that age is no barrier when it comes to love. Isobel and Mark, who’ve proved that opposites really do attract. And Emily and Juan, who’ve proved that—”
“Proved that most men are dirty fucking liars!” Emily shrieked, cutting in. “You fucking asshole!”
She slapped Juan in the face, then dashed off camera, sobbing. I suppressed a smile. It wouldn’t be reality TV without a good slap in at least one of the episodes.
Chase didn’t miss a beat. “Well, it looks like Emily and Juan won’t be continuing in their journey any longer. Is that right, Juan?”
Juan mumbled shamefacedly. “We’ve decided not to continue our relationship.”
“What a shame,” Chase said, still smiling that toothy white grin of his. Someone really needed to give him a damn Crest Strips sponsorship deal. “Well, we still have two couples remaining. Voting has just opened in the online polls, and you’ve got forty minutes to pick a winner! Juan and Emily are still an option on the poll, but…well…” He swept his fake-tanned hand around him. “We’ve already seen how that marriage has worked out. So start voting while we show you these flashbacks of Isobel and Mark’s journey together over these last few months, along with Liv and Dec’s!”
The cameras moved off us, and I breathed a sigh of relief, glad my face wasn’t plastered live all over the internet at this exact moment. Right now, some previously-unaired footage from the last couple of months that the producers had quickly spliced together earlier was being shown, and we were no longer live.
The show makeup artists and hairdressers touched all of us up while we waited for filming to begin again, and when the cameras finally started rolling, Chase stood directly in between us and Mark and Isobel.
“Our results are starting to come in, and it looks like Dec and Liv are pulling ahead in the polls!” he said. Isobel’s face fell. “With only five minutes left to vote, it looks like we may have already found this season’s winning couple. I dare say we—”
“Hold on!” Dec stepped forward, cutting Chase off.
“Do you have something to say, Dec?” Chase asked smoothly, ever the professional host.
“Yes. I do. Liv and I….we have something to admit about our time here on the show. Something which might make you all change your minds about us.”
He stopped to clear his throat, and the producers went wild behind the cameras, waving their hands at him with bulging eyes to shut him up. I knew what they were thinking. If he admitted we weren’t ‘real’ contestants at the start, then the show’s reputation would immediately take a massive nosedive, and people would likely protest and boycott the entire network for weeks, possibly leaving all the Wed At First Sight workers unable to find more work on other shows.
Dec continued. “Let’s just say we didn’t come on this show for the right reasons. We deceived a lot of you for the cameras. Faked a lot of it. We only pretended to like each other for quite some time.”
I gave him a wry smile as he talked. That was all true.
He went on. “We ended up growing close, for sure, and now we’re very much in love. But Isobel and Mark…they were a team from the very start. They deserve this far more than us. Vote for them.”
I grabbed Dec’s hand and squeezed hard. He hadn’t thrown everyone under the bus by admitting that we never really belonged on the show in the first place, but he’d still managed to convey the point that we’d ‘deceived’ the viewers in a sense. And we had. From the very beginning, I was at Dec’s throat, until several weeks in when I finally realized what a good man he truly was. But as for Isobel and Mark—like Dec said, they’d been a team from the very start, and nothing they ever presented to the cameras was fake.
It was a good compromise, one that worked out for the best for everyone involved.
“Well, you heard the man,” Chase said, picking up where Dec left off. “There’s still five minutes left to click on the polls, so hurry up and get those votes in! Make your opinion count on which of our married couples deserves the grand prize to begin their life together!”
Isobel flashed Dec and me a grateful smile, and I nodded back at her. We didn’t even need to stand here for another five minutes to know who would win after Dec’s little speech, and hell, even if we somehow still won by the skin of our teeth, Dec had made it pretty damn clear that we wouldn’t be keeping the prize as we knew we didn’t really deserve it. That money was for Isobel and Mark, and by proxy, Isobel’s ailing mother.
“I have one more question for you two before the results come in,” Chase said, turning to me and Dec again. “You say you faked liking each other at the start, but you’ve truly grown close now. After all is said and done and the two of you go home…will you be continuing in your relationship? Maybe renewing those vows you took here all those weeks ago?”
Dec looked down at me and winked theatrically. “Hell, yeah.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Olivia
One year later
“Come on,
we’ll be late!”
Amelia grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the tall wrought iron gates of the cemetery. Dec and I looked at each other and smiled. “It’s fine, Amelia,” Dec said, ruffling her blonde hair. “We’re almost there.”
We walked through aisles and aisles of graves until we reached Callum’s marble headstone. Amelia looked down at her watch. “Just in time. It’s ten-thirty, and he was born on this day at ten-thirty, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Happy birthday, little brother,” I said softly.
Upon Dec’s suggestion, we’d started a new tradition this year. Instead of mourning for days every time the anniversary of Callum’s death came up, I’d decided to celebrate his life instead. So from now on, every July 16th was going to be spent remembering Callum and everything that was great about him. Of course I was still going to be sad on the anniversary of his death every year, but I hoped a new tradition like this would help me heal more.
We’d decided that we would fly to California and visit his grave at the exact time of his birth, say a few words, and put a little slice of birthday cake down. Then we’d have a big family dinner later on, where all his favorite foods and drinks would be served.
Oh, yeah—I had a proper family again. When Dec and I returned from the Starling Islands last year, his family had welcomed me with open arms, especially Amelia. She was still sick when I first met her, but after a year of her treatment program (still paid for out of my mother’s bank account, thanks to me and her lawyer) she was much better. The experimental treatment had worked wonders, and we could barely keep up with her nowadays. She was so full of life and energy. It made me sad that she’d never get to meet my brother, but seeing her bright smile and eyes reminded me of him. It made it all a little easier.
My mom rotting away in prison also made things a little easier. Her trial had been extensive (and thankfully kept out of the media), but two months ago she’d finally been sentenced, and she was currently serving her time in a Californian prison. Given the nature of her crime and the length of her sentence, she was probably never getting out. Not that she deserved to.
Husband For Hire (A Billionaire Fake Marriage Romance) Page 46
