If my family loses our home as a result of my actions, I’ll work that much harder to make it up to them, but in the end, love is more important than money.
I text Lizzy again, warning her that I’m about to spill the beans and ruin any chance of her becoming a Von Bergen, but she still doesn’t reply.
Finally, I start to get worried.
On impulse, I hit Zan’s number. I don’t expect her to pick up—she’s always working or busy with some exercise class or scary hobby or another—but she answers on the second ring with a terse, “I was wondering how long it would take you to call. You realize our sister is missing, I assume? You’re the identical twin. Aren’t you supposed to have a sixth sense about this kind of thing?”
Confused, I shake my head. “What? What do you mean missing? She’s not missing; she’s just—”
“Hiding out while she pretends to be you and you pretend to be her,” Zan cuts me off with her signature impatience. “Yeah, she told me all about your not at all brilliant plan. She also said she was pretty sure that she was about to be found out. Prince Andrew’s brother was in Islip Downs. Lizzy ran into him at a coffee shop.”
“What?” My eyes go wide, and my hand clutches the top of my suddenly too-tight collar. “Did they talk? Did he realize she wasn’t me? Did she forget to pretend? You know she always forgets the rules when we’re playing games.”
“Only this isn’t a game,” Zan says, her judgy tone making me feel even worse. “And you two could get in serious legal trouble for what you’ve done. Marriage fraud is a crime in Gallantia and Rinderland.”
“I’m not going to marry him. I’m not even going through with the engagement ceremony tonight. I can’t. That’s why I was trying to get in touch with Lizzy, but she isn’t answering her phone. Is that why you think she’s missing? You know sometimes she just doesn’t pick up.”
“I know. But she called two days ago to tell me about meeting Jeffrey, the big, scary, second-in-line to the throne. He recognized her while she was grabbing a hot chocolate. She introduced herself to him as you, but she had a bad feeling about the meeting. Apparently, they had a few conversations when she was in Gallantia for that engagement party years ago. She was worried that he’d guessed the truth and might have followed her back to her cottage rental.”
Zan’s voice is muffled for a moment, and then she’s back on the line. “I tried to call her yesterday to check in, but she didn’t answer. My secretary’s been calling from my cell every hour on the hour since then, but she hasn’t picked up, and I got word twenty-minutes ago that her rental cabin is empty, and her suitcase gone. I was about to call you when you called me.”
I sit down heavily on the edge of the bed. “Maybe she decided to leave town so she wouldn’t run into Jeffrey again, and then got so swept up in work she forgot to let us know?”
Zan harrumphs. “I can’t believe she talked you into switching places with her so she could hide out and make lingerie. I know Lizzy gets swept up in the creative process, but I thought you had more common sense, Bree.”
“I do,” I say, anger bubbling up inside me. “And I wouldn’t have agreed to it if we’d had any other choice. But we had to do something. Dad hasn’t been paying your school loans, Zan. If we don’t pay the debt back soon, the academy is going to sue, and we’ll lose everything—the house, the land, the graveyard where our ancestors are buried… Everything.”
“What are you talking about?” Zan scoffs. “I paid those off myself. Three years ago. Almost four.”
“What?” I ask, my stomach dropping. “No, you couldn’t have.”
“Yes, I did. I paid them off and Dad’s credit card, too. And then I canceled it because a nearly seventy-year-old man doesn’t need new suits. He really doesn’t, and if he pouts about it the next time I’m at home, I’m going to strangle him with a paintbrush.”
“The strings on his apron would work better for strangling,” I mutter as my mind races to connect the dots. “Lizzy must have found an old bill or something and not realized the debt had already been paid.” I curse. “Which means we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess for nothing!”
“No, Bree, Lizzy knew about the loan,” Zan insists. “We talked about it last summer. She knew I’d paid off the debt. I remember because it was the same day I offered her half a million dollars to call off her engagement.”
My jaw drops. “Half a million… Where on earth did you get that kind of money?”