Page 28 of Broken Princess
“No.”
She waved a hand. “Well, hurry up. We don’t have all night.”
“I want to know why I was tapped to join the Order. Did you know what I’d say in my confession during the pledge period? Did you want to record it and leak it to make my mom look even more guilty over the Rutherford scandal?”
Liz shook her head. “No. We wanted you as a member because of your last name and the connections that come with it,” she said. “Even with your mother’s scandal, that name will always open doors. After all, Quinn isn’t a real Rhoades. She just married into the family. She’ll always be Quinn Mitchell from South Dakota at heart.”
“So you had no idea what my confession would be?”
“No. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it, though. It was perfect. It helped us implicate your mother even further.”
“I know. I wish I never said it.”
“Oh, well. Water under the bridge now,” Liz replied, scratching her chin. “You know… you really should’ve listened to Logan.”
“About what?”
“I overheard your conversation with him a few weeks ago, when Chuck and I decided to bring you coffee. You were asking him to help you look into the Order. He said no, of course, and he was so concerned about you afterward that he requested a meeting with me—as Q—to demand that I let it go and leave you alone. It was very noble.” She paused and arched one eyebrow. “I thought that would be enough to stop you from looking into us and betraying us, but you just couldn’t help yourself, could you? You kept digging, and you told Jamie right to his face that you were doing it. Very fortunate for us. Otherwise we might not have realized how much you knew until it was too late.”
I sighed. “I thought I could trust Jamie. I was wrong.”
“Yes, you were. Really, though, if you’d left it all alone, we wouldn’t have to deal with you like this,” Liz said, gesturing around the little room. “You would’ve lived a long and happy life with Logan. Also, you would’ve become First Lady one day, when we finally installed him as the president. But you chose to throw it all away and cause trouble with the Order, all because you couldn’t keep your nose in your own business.”
“Right,” I muttered.
She tilted her head to one side. “Out of interest, how did you find out that the Order leader was a woman? No one else has ever figured that out on their own.”
I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to tell her that I knew because Logan took her straw from that meeting in the tunnels and had it tested in a lab. If I did, she’d finally realize he was asking just as many questions about the Order as me.
“Honestly, it was just a lucky guess,” I finally said, lifting my shoulders in a half-hearted shrug. “I thought my mother was Q, and she’s a woman, so… yeah. That’s basically it.”
Liz snorted with amusement. “Quinn Rhoades as Q. What a ridiculous theory.”
“I realize that now.” I sighed and looked away. “What are you going to tell her and Logan about my sudden disappearance, anyway? I assume you’ve got a plan for that.”
“Yes. That’s actually part of the reason I’m here tonight,” Liz said, abruptly standing up. She crossed the room and knelt down by the big black case. “The story is that you and some friends decided to take an impromptu yachting vacation in the Caribbean. You were so overwhelmed with everything that’s happened lately that you decided to leave without giving any notice. Understandable, of course. You’ve been through so much.”
“Let me guess. This imaginary yacht is going to capsize during a mysterious storm?”
She smiled. “Close. You’re going to be swept off the deck by a freak wave while sunbathing. A terrible but unavoidable tragedy. Your Secret Service detail and your friends Kate and Marissa will be there to confirm the heartbreaking turn of events with the Coast Guard when they arrive. A search will ensue, but your body won’t be found. It’s an unfortunate but common occurrence with people lost at sea.”
I curled my hands into fists. “You got Kate and Marissa to go along with this?”
“Yes, of course. I had to make the story seem legitimate, didn’t I?” Liz said. “My associates paid the two of them a visit today. Made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. Now they’re on their way down to Miami with the Secret Service guys to make it all look real.”
I gritted my teeth. I knew Kate and Marissa could be rude, shallow, and even downright nasty on occasion, but I never thought they’d go this far. I never thought they’d accept money or some other form of reward in return for lying about my death.
“Anyway,” Liz went on, retrieving a cell phone from the side of the case. “I need you to make a couple of audio recordings for me.”
“For what?”
“They’re for Logan and your mother, to confirm your impulsive decision to take a vacation,” she replied with a sweet smile. “I’ll leave them on their phones as voicemails.”
My shoulders sagged. “Please don’t make me do this,” I said in a low voice. “I don’t want my last words to Logan to be a lie.”
She stood up straight and held the phone out, one finger hovering over a red ‘record’ button on the screen. “You have to do this, Willow,” she said calmly. “You can be a good girl and do it right now, or I can ask Jamie to take you downstairs again. I’m sure that will convince you.”
I averted my gaze and took a deep breath as something occurred to me. Not everything in my final message to Logan had to be a lie.
