Love in Reality: A Contemporary Romance (The Blackjack Quartet) (29 page)

There was the usual buildup, and then one by one Chris, Susie, and Dylan left to write someone’s name on the fish-shaped ballot, dangling by a plastic fishhook. They filed back into the living room and after the commercial break, Jeremy reappeared on their TV screen.

“And now for the result. With a vote of two to one, Kai—you have been fished out.”

Libby struggled to smile, even though she was supposed to be relieved to be staying. She’d been so prepared to leave that the shock was hard to shake off.

She milled around while the others said their goodbyes to Kai, who stood there, composed and gracious. When it was Libby’s turn, she hugged Kai hard and whispered, “It was supposed to have been me. You have to know that.”

“Just win it for both of us. Smart women belong on top, okay?” Kai murmured before letting Libby go. Libby tried to smile at her but ended up just shaking her head ruefully. It was generous of Kai to wish that for her, but it could never happen.

Libby started crying as they watched Kai leave by the special stairs. She needed to stand around for a while, chatting with Chris, Dylan and Susie, before she could find a place to be by herself. The tears wouldn’t stop.

“You okay?” Chris asked.

“I was so sure I’d be the one out that door,” Libby said. “I was ready.”

Chris shrugged. “Susie and I thought Kai was the stronger player,” he admitted. “And, well, you know what Dylan thinks.” Libby nodded. She’d been so distracted by Rand, she probably acted like a lightweight they could afford to leave in for another week.

She sleepwalked through the final Shark Fight, which Susie won. It barely mattered. Libby kept thinking about how she should have gone home. What had she done? Kai should be here, not her. Kai might actually have won. It would have been a long shot, but it could have happened. At least Kai actually played to win.

By perpetuating her fraud—by pretending to be Lissa—Libby had stolen Kai’s chance at a million dollars.

There were no Journal Room interviews after the live show, so Libby knew not to hope for time with Rand. She wandered out to the garden, which was still warm as twilight fell. With luck, she’d have some time to herself out here.

Susie would probably put her and Dylan up on the block, but there was still a risk that she wouldn’t get fished out next week. She couldn’t afford to take that chance—the game concluded with the final three Fish fighting in a series of challenges to see which two would get voted on for the million dollar prize. If she made it that far, there was a chance she might win the consolation prize that went to the runner-up. What was that, a few hundred thousand? Winning any amount of money was disastrous.

Libby started thinking the problem through. She couldn’t trust the system to boot her out. She had to do something.

Then it came to her. It wasn’t too late to make her move and try to get the right result. She lay in the hammock for a few more minutes, twisting her plan around in her head, considering all the permutations and complications. When she was satisfied it would work, she stood up and went back into the house and along the corridor to the Journal Room.

“I need to talk to someone on the production staff,” she announced to the empty hallway and locked door. She knocked loudly for effect. She wasn’t sure if there was anyone monitoring the camera feed from back here, but surely someone would catch the audio feed. “Hello? I need someone in the Journal Room now!”

Libby kept that up for five minutes but when nothing happened, she had another idea. She took off her mike and transmitter, placed them on the floor and walked away.

As she’d suspected, there was some sort of alarm attached to the mike because within a minute, the PA system told her to return to the Journal Room. She walked back to where her mike was, picked it up and went in.

“Lissa, please sit down.” Rand’s voice. She’d hoped it would be Debbie but maybe it was better this way.

She sat down.

“Okay, what’s the problem?” he asked. She could tell the cameras were on from his interview voice.

“I need to confess something,” she said calmly. Her heart was beating so hard, her mike had to be picking up the noise.

Rand’s voice took on an urgent tone. “Confess what?”

Libby took a deep breath. Showtime.

“My name is Elizabeth Pembroke. I go by the name Libby. I’m a law student.”

She paused. “I got on the show pretending to be my twin, Lissa. She lives in Anchorage with her boyfriend.”

“What?” It sounded like he could barely get the word out.

Libby was ready for this stage. She had to sound like she had no relationship with Rand at all—she owed him that much.

“I was working my sister’s job at the bar when the producer met me—was that you? I’m talking to Randy, right?” Oh, good touch getting his name wrong, Libby congratulated herself. “I personally never applied to be on
The Fishbowl
. It was Lissa who applied. I only agreed to make the audition tape because I figured there was no way I’d be picked. And I wouldn’t have come on except my summer associate job fell through when the firm disbanded and I couldn’t get another one. Lissa didn’t want to be on the show, so I said yes.”

She took a sip of water. She couldn’t believe how dry her mouth felt. “All I wanted was to make it to the Holding Tank and get a nice summer vacation out of it. But I just watched Kai, who’s a really wonderful and honest woman, get fished out, and that’s not right. You have to kick me off and bring her back. That’s why I’m confessing.” At the thought of Kai, Libby felt fresh tears on her cheeks, but she managed to keep it together. For this to work, she had to look calm.

Dead silence. Libby reviewed everything she’d said to make sure all the relevant facts had been included. Yup, that should do the trick. She waited.

The soundproofed door opened and Rand walked in the room. He held a finger to his lips and pointed at her chest—her mike was still on. He had some paper and a pen. On the pad, he’d written,
Had to call Marcy. Waiting for her to arrive. R U sure U want to do this?
He passed the pad and pen over to her. He must have turned the camera off.

Yes,
she wrote and handed it back.

Is this true?
he scribbled.

Yes
.

Y didn’t U tell me?

Long story. Didn’t want you to get in trouble.
She paused in the act of handing it back, then added,
Never thought I’d get picked for the show. Wanted to see you again, tho.
She watched as he read that. His facial expression never changed.

It was the great unknown in her plan. Rand’s reaction. She cared too much to risk his job so she had to do this without his input. Crappy way for him to find out, but what else could she do? At least this way he could legitimately say he’d had no idea.

She took back the pad and pen. She wrote,
Not how I wanted U to find out. Thought I’d get fished out tonight. Was going to tell U after show. Didn’t want U to lose yr job by knowing any sooner
. She handed it back and watched him read it. He looked at her then, but she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Probably he was in shock, the way she’d been when Kai was fished out.

He had his pen out, poised to write another note, but in the end he just tore off the paper, crumpled it into a tight ball and stuck it in his pocket. They stared at each other. Libby’s dread that he would never forgive her grew as the seconds ticked by.
Think about it, Rand
, she wanted to say.
Think how risky it could have been for you if you’d known. No one would ever have believed that you didn’t have something to do with this, that you didn’t make it possible for me to get on the show.

She risked a lot if he couldn’t understand why she hadn’t told him, or if he understood but couldn’t forgive her. She wasn’t Lissa and she didn’t have Lissa’s option to move thousands of miles to be with a guy she’d just met. Libby had to get back to being a law student. She still had to patch up the damage of losing the Myer & Hogg associate position. That had to be her first priority.

They were both hurt and shocked and worried. At least, that’s how he looked and how she felt. She wanted him to hug her and tell her everything would be okay.

Libby felt the tears starting again. She looked away. After a few minutes, he walked out and closed the door. Libby closed her eyes and willed herself not to cry.

Ten minutes later, Marcy stormed into the room, bristling with vicious contempt. Rand was behind her, and one of Marcy’s gofers hovered in the doorway to the Control Room.

“What the hell is going on here?” Marcy demanded. Libby couldn’t tell if this was addressed to her, so she said nothing. Rand finally spoke up.

“She says she’s not Lissa Pembroke but actually Lissa’s twin sister,” he started.

“Libby, short for Elizabeth,” Libby said firmly. She rose, resisting the urge to stick her hand out as though she’d just introduced herself.

“And you lied to get on the show, I assume,” Marcy said. “Because you knew there was no fucking way I’d let a law student be on
The Fishbowl
.”

Libby ignored this. “When my sister moved to Alaska, she asked me to fill in for her at the bar. Not just work her hours, but do it as her. We’re identical twins, so it’s possible to pull that off. She had a good reason for that request, so I honored it. I was working there as Lissa when your producer,” she nodded in Rand’s direction, “showed up. I didn’t even know that Lissa’d applied to be on the show until he told me.”

“Why didn’t you just tell him you weren’t the right twin?”

“I suppose I could have, but at the time I thought Lissa might want to be on the show. I didn’t think there was any way you’d pick her—and certainly not me—but at least if she came back and was interested in the show, I’d kept her options open.” Libby stopped, then thought of something. “At that point, I had no reason to think about being on
The Fishbowl
myself. I already had a legal job for the summer. I was going to be a summer associate at a prestigious firm in Philadelphia. But in April the firm folded, and my job was gone. When you guys picked Lissa, and she didn’t want to go, I said yes.”

“Oh, for the love of—” Marcy started to pace around the small room, then stopped. “Why now? Why did you admit to this now?”

“I really thought Kai would be here now, and I’d be gone. She shouldn’t have been fished out. That should have been me. I realized I had to make that right. You can kick me out and bring her back.”

“Have you got Legal on the phone yet?” Marcy barked at an assistant still shrouded by the shadows. Libby couldn’t hear the response, but then a phone was handed over.

“Yeah, you heard her right. I have a contestant who entered as her sister.” Marcy listened, her jaw rigid. Then, “Because they are identical twins, idiot,” she yelled. She rolled her eyes at no one in particular. Her face expressed her contempt for lawyers. Libby looked down to hide a smile.

After a few minutes of listening and grunting, Marcy handed the phone back to her assistant. “Okay, missy,” she started.

“Libby,” Libby said, just in case Marcy was very confused.

“Yeah, I got that. What you don’t seem to understand is that you are in deep shit here. You’ve committed fraud against this network and my production company, costing us valuable money. Your ass is toast.”

Libby was ready for this. “Actually, you’re wrong. There’s been no fraud. You believed I was a bartender and in fact I was a bartender. No one asked me if I was a law student as well, so I never lied.”

“But you signed up as Lissa,” Marcy insisted.

“You’re going to want to check the paperwork. Your assistant, Kesha, called me two weeks before the show started to get the information needed for the employment forms and background checks. I gave her my real name, Elizabeth, and my own social security number. I signed those forms as me.”

After a moment, Libby pointed out gently, “I suspect there’s a report in your files that says my background check came back clean—no arrests or convictions—and also has enough information that you could have known I was a law student if you’d looked. I don’t think that will support a claim that I defrauded your production company.”

She could tell from Marcy’s expression that no one read the details of those reports, just checked for obvious red flags and ignored the rest. Marcy’s jaw muscles clenched even harder, if that was possible.

Libby could see this was making Marcy livid, so she smiled. “Look, you can claim I misrepresented myself, and that’s probably a true statement. But are you really going to say you don’t know Dylan isn’t just a cab driver from Chicago, or that Arielle isn’t also an aspiring actress? C’mon—you know that if you try to take me to court, I’m going to show that your production company has knowingly misrepresented the backgrounds of a lot of contestants when it’s suited you. And you found out a few days ago that Susie isn’t just a receptionist in a dentist’s office, but is going to dental school in a month.”

“I really hate lawyers,” Marcy muttered.

Time to throw her a bone. “This could be a ratings gold mine for you. Call Lissa in Anchorage and fly her here so you can make a big show of revealing my lies on national TV. As long as you don’t defame me or my sister, you can play all the angles. You can have Jeremy ask me why I was so bland a contestant. And when America hears the reason why I was pretending to be my sister, they’ll eat it up with a spoon.”

Marcy’s eyes narrowed, but Libby could tell she was intrigued. “Okay, I’m listening.”

“I was in law school last fall when Lissa fell in love with a guy who works in a US Senator’s office. She was a full-time bartender at The County Cork. That’s the bar run by a family friend named Barney. Barney’s wife, Sheila, has cancer, so even though Lissa wanted to move to Alaska with the boyfriend, she didn’t want to leave Barney in the lurch. She asked me to fill in as her.”

Marcy was still scowling, but her posture had shifted slightly—she was more receptive to this.

Libby continued, “Send a remote crew to Philadelphia to interview Barney. I obviously don’t know for sure, but I assume Sheila’s health is still good. As long as that’s the case, he’ll be tickled to be on TV. He’ll be surprised we pulled the twin switch on him, but he’ll be okay with it. You can interview my parents, you can have both Lissa and me sit down with Jeremy. And you get Kai back, which will go over well with her fans.”