Page 100 of Cooking Up a Christmas Storm
‘My ex. That’s who you interviewed. She deserved all this.’
Veronica tilted her head a little sadly. ‘We don’t always get what we deserve. I’m sure you had your reasons and I don’t discredit your commitment since you arrived, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that you have lied to my grandson and to Bella, both of whom I care for very deeply, since the moment you got here. You understand that that cannot continue?’
Of course it couldn’t. ‘I’m really sorry.’
‘So am I.’ The older woman nodded. ‘You have done good work here. I don’t know why you did this but everything you’ve done here, even today, was down to you. Not this Gemma woman. You.’
‘What are you going to do now?’
‘I’m going to come with you.’ Veronica rubbed her hands together. ‘People are starting to head off. I imagine Bella’s back in the kitchen already. Shall we?’
‘Right now?’
‘I think so, don’t you?’
As Veronica had anticipated, Bella and Adam were both in the kitchen, heads bent over her laptop. Bella grinned as they came in. ‘What do you think about cranachan for dessert on Hogmanay? When does tradition tip into cliché?’
‘I think it sounds great.’ Jodie nodded. ‘What’s cranachan?’
Bella shook her head. ‘I don’t know why I even ask you food questions.’
Jodie tried to smile. ‘Everything you make tastes amazing.’
‘And that’s why we like you.’
Adam looked up for the first time. ‘Grandmother?’ He looked from Veronica to Jodie. ‘What’s wrong? Has something else happened with McKenzie?’
‘No.’ Veronica took a seat at the island. ‘This is something else. Go on.’
Jodie took a deep breath in. There was nothing she could say that would make this all right. There was no reasonable explanation. ‘I’m Jodie Simpson.’
Bella laughed. ‘You’re not undercover now, Gem.’
‘Good commitment to the part though,’ Adam added.
She looked to Veronica for help. None was forthcoming. ‘No. I really am Jodie Simpson. When you rang to offer Gemma the job – well, she was my ex, and she’d already moved out and I answered the phone and…’ There was more she could say but she suspected they could fill in the details from here.
‘What?’ Bella shook her head. ‘But I rang and you said… and you’re Gemma.’
Jodie shook her head.
‘So who are you?’ Adam asked.
‘I am Jodie. Gemma was my girlfriend and we split up, and I lost my job and I couldn’t make my rent and I was wishing for a miracle and then, I know it’s not an excuse, but then the phone rang and it was you and I realised you’d never actually seen Gemma and… I’m really sorry.’ Jodie could have hit herself around the head. She should have said that first. ‘So sorry. And you’ve been so good to me and I hated lying but I didn’t know what to do and I really have tried to do a good job but I’m not Gemma. All that experience isn’t me.’
Bella shook her head. ‘But you wrote the plan. The whole Hogmanay thing was your idea?’
‘Gemma’s idea.’
Adam stared at her. ‘I don’t know what to say.’ He turned to his grandmother. ‘You knew this?’
Jodie jumped in. ‘She found out tonight. She said I had to tell you straight away.’
He nodded. ‘And if she hadn’t found out? Would you have told us at all?’
Bella looked up too, waiting for the answer. They wanted her to say yes. Of course she’d have told them. She couldn’t feed them another lie. ‘I don’t know. I think I wanted all of this to be true so much. Like if I tried hard enough I could be Gemma. It wouldn’t be a lie any more.’
She saw the look Adam and Bella exchanged. Adam turned back to her. ‘Does Pavel know?’
