Page 55 of Faking It with my Bestie's Billionaire Brother

I knew that voice. I knew that voice all too well. It was the voice that had been blowing up my voicemail for the last couple of days, the voice that had been torturing me for the last couple of decades.

"Fuck," I hissed under my breath, but Ava heard me. She looked at me, worried.

My sister laughed amiably from the stage. "Sounds like we got a heckler out there."

"More like a truth teller," the voice responded as it got closer to the stage. People parted, and I could see her clearly then.

I heard Ava gasp beside me because the resemblance was unmistakable. "Spencer? Is that—"

"It is," I confirmed miserably.

Ava looked up at me with alarm, but I didn't know how we were going to be able to stop this moving train.

The woman stood in front of the stage, facing her daughter. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner, sweetheart," she told Penny, who looked back at her stoically. "It was the horrible idea of Spencer and your father. I wanted to be here, but—"

Penny spoke into the microphone calmly as she said, "But you were too busy taking their payments to be my mother. I get it, don't worry. You're off the hook," she said, and everybody in that room watched with their mouths hanging open as the drama unfolded.

"That's not it at all. They stole you from me," Connie insisted.

"Mother," Penny said impatiently, and I felt the shiver down my spine to hear her call her that, "I know exactly what happened." Then, Penny turned to the crowd. "Since we're going to be doing this on stage in front of everybody, it would be rude of me not to fill you in. Everybody, this is my mother, a person long thought to be dead." A collective gasp went through the crowd. "I discovered her a few years ago, right about the time I found out she sold me and used my existence to blackmail my brother."

Another round of gasps, then people started to murmur to one another. "That's right, mother of the year over there. You see, my mother couldn't get her way with my philandering father, but don't even get me started on that piece of work. So, since she decided that she couldn't be bothered with motherhood, she was just going to ship me off to a school known for abusing its students, just like my father had done with my brother. But when Spencer found out their intentions, my brother, only twenty years old at the time, mind you, gave up everything to ensure that I would be safe. Make all the claims you want, Mother, but I know the truth about my one true parent, Spencer Ashbury.

“Parents sacrifice for their children just like he did. Parents give up things and people they love for their child, just like he did. You couldn't be bothered with that, but you could be bothered to harass him every few years for hush money, and he went along with it to keep me from finding out the horrible truth about my parents. I don't know if I agree with him, but I do understand that when you love somebody, you'll do anything to keep them from harm. Can you really say you've done that, Mother?" she asked.

The audience looked between Penny and Connie, as if this were a tennis match.

"Penny, baby," Connie said in a whiny voice.

"Don't call me that. You don't have that right. You sold it, remember? In fact, the only reason you're here now is because you got together with a disgruntled ex-employee, and you all decided to up the ante, right? What, did you run out of money?"

Connie looked furious that Penny wasn’t believing her lies. "Now, you listen here, you little brat—"

"I would also like to point out that you were not invited here, so if security would be so kind as to remove this person, that would be very much appreciated."

Security was already marching their way through the event center straight to Connie, who started putting up a fuss immediately. She squawked and squealed nonsensical protests as she was dragged away to the rabid fascination of everybody in that crowd, along with the clicks of several cameras.

If we didn't make it on the front-page news tomorrow, I would be shocked.

But Penny wasn't done. Once Connie had been removed, the crowd broke out into loud conversations, but Penny cleared her throat and drew the attention back to her. "I realize that was quite a spectacle, probably more than you were expecting at one of these things, but consider it a two-for-one deal."

She laughed when people tittered nervously. "I'd like to draw the attention back to why we're here in the first place, to put a spotlight on what the Ashbury Corporation is trying to do to help the community. My brother has been steadily working over the years to change the narrative of this company away from the one my father began. I don't think it's any secret that my father wasn't the most giving of people, but that's not the story of my brother. As I said before, he knows a lot about sacrifice, and he's truly one of the good ones, which is why people like my mother have a hard time smearing his name. That's also why it's such a joy to see him with someone like Ava, who is also one of the good ones. I know that together they will be unstoppable. And that's why I think right now is the appropriate time to make the big announcement." She waited for a dramatic pause.

Everybody waited with bated breath. "I'm proud to announce that my brother has finally found love, a love genuine enough, special enough, that they're going to make it last forever." The crowd broke out in applause, and she waited for them to quiet down enough before saying, "I would like to present to you the newly engaged couple, Mr. Spencer Ashbury, and my best friend, Ava Moretti." Penny put the mic aside and joined the applause as everybody looked to me and Ava. We stood there in shock, and a few people clapped me on the back in congratulations.

"Please, join me in congratulating the happy couple by donating generously to our charitable causes," Penny said, starting a round of applause again.

Ava and I smiled and posed for picture after picture. I was ecstatic to see how quickly the donation list filled up.

But mostly, I was in shock at everything that had just happened: Connie showing up, Penny acknowledging that she had known for a while, and then cutting her mother down in front of everyone, no less. The secret was out, and I didn't quite know what to do with that.

For her part, Ava was beginning to get overwhelmed, too, when she tugged on my arm and whispered in my ear, "Can we sneak away for just a moment? This is getting to be a little…much."

I nodded, and we made our excuses and snuck away to the back, where it was much quieter, just to catch our breath and regain our bearings.

"What the hell just happened?" Ava asked.

"What just happened," came Penny's voice from behind us, "is that I got my head out of my butt."

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