Chapter Five
Lugging Harry in his car seat, Viv walked into Merry’s room at Waikato Hospital Orthopedic Unit at six-thirty the following morning, her eyes gritty from a three-thirty start. And her brain reeling from Ross’s disclosure. Not to mention his threat.
The room could hold two patients but the other bed was empty. One leg in a split cast that ran from midthigh to ankle, Merry was half sitting, staring out the fifth floor window at the pink dawn. With her face as pale as the white hospital gown, her dark hair pulled into a ponytail and her hands clasped, she could be a nun at morning prayers.
She didn’t look like a woman who’d cheated on her husband.
“Hey,” Viv called softly. “How are you feeling?”
Merry’s head swung around. Her first glance went to Harry, fast asleep, then she sank against the pillows. “Why do I have a text from Charlie thanking me for trying to save Linda’s life?”
Thank heavens. Breaking the news had been the part Viv dreaded the most. Everything else was reversible. “She didn’t suffer.”
Brown eyes widening, Merry covered her mouth. “So it’s true…she’s dead?”
“I’m afraid so.” Shrugging off the overnight bag she carried over her left shoulder along with the baby bag, Viv planted the car seat on the floor and stretched out her spine.
“And I always told Charlie his mother exaggerated her heart condition,” her twin whispered through her fingers.
“It wasn’t her heart.” Viv pulled up a chair and filled her in on the accident. Merry cried.
“She was a bitch but…”
Viv reached for her hand. “It’s a terrible way to go.”
“Poor, poor Linda.” Merry’s grip tightened. “And poor you, having to deal with her accident. But why would Charlie think I was there, too?”
Viv hesitated. “First, let me say that everything I did was to protect you.”
Merry dropped her hand. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Secondly, there’s no time for panic or recriminations. I have to be in Auckland by ten when Ross and Charlie are due to drop Tilly home.”
“Tell me!”
Viv took a deep breath. Maybe if she said it fast. “I met Ross arriving at Linda’s and he thought I was you and he was so hostile that I went along with it to show him you couldn’t be bullied. And then the accident happened and I fainted and when I came to, Ross had already told the cops I was Meredith Coltrane.”
Her twin gasped.
“And all I could think was how panicked you were about Charlie finding out you’d interviewed for a job out of town so I—” Viv sucked in air.
“Lied to the police!”
“Didn’t correct the misunderstanding.” She pinned her twin’s gaze. “And it worked. I bought us time to get you transferred to Auckland Hospital and come up with a cover story.”
Merry bit her lip. “Go on.”
“Unfortunately there isn’t an ambulance available for elective private transfer and the hospital won’t consider the backseat of your car as an alternative. But—”
A bitter laugh interrupted her. “I thought telling Charlie I was considering relocating was going to be difficult, but telling him my twin was pretending to be me, a nurse, when his mother needed saving—”
“No one could have saved her, Merry, not even you,” Viv said sharply. “You think I planned any of this? That I’m having fun here? Let me tell you how my hell day ended, Miss Ungrateful. I looked after your toddler and ate organic baby food for dinner because I used all the steaks to placate your mad dog. When Harry finally settled I packed you a bag—” she kicked it “—and tried to organize an ambulance, then had a rental delivered so I could drive here in the middle of the night.”
The baby stirred in his car seat. Leaning forward she added in an accusing hiss, “Perhaps I wouldn’t have felt such an overwhelming need to protect you if you’d just mentioned that you were the adulterer, not Charlie.” Merry pulled the sheet over her head.
“Damn right. Hide your face, lady!” For long seconds there was only the sound of her own breathing as Viv struggled to control her temper, and Harry’s soft snores. Then she heard faint sobbing from under the covers.
Viv sighed. “Mere, come out.”
Nothing moved.
Viv tugged back the thin bedspread and sheet and her sister covered her eyes with a slender arm. “I’m so ashamed,” she wept.
“Oh, honey.” Pity dissolved her anger. “Does anyone in the family know?”
“Only our brother.” Merry struggled to compose herself. “Ross told Dan.” Which figured, the two men were former troop mates and it was through their friendship that Merry first met Charlie.
But Viv was in no mood to be fair. “Bloody Ross Coltrane.” She handed her sister a box of tissues. “Why can’t he mind his own business?” Aware her sister was barely coping, she kept his ultimatum to herself. “But don’t worry, I have another plan.”
Her twin gave a strangled laugh. “Of course you do.” She blotted her wet cheeks. “God, I am so sick of being a crybaby. I was coping until Charlie started dating Harry’s day-care teacher. I guess I still believed he’d forgive me.” Her composure crumbled.
“Here.” Unzipping the baby bag, Viv handed her sister a take-out coffee and pulled out her own, along with a couple of chocolate-filled brioches. “Real food, real coffee. Not that chicory crap you have in the pantry. So. Were you in love with this other guy?” Charlie had been Merry’s one and only; she wouldn’t have betrayed him lightly.
“Luke? No!” Merry swallowed. “But…he thinks he’s in love with me.”
“Naturally,” said Viv. “We’re irresistible. It’s our curse.” She was still trying not to be hurt by her twin’s secrecy. They’d never been close, but they phoned every couple of weeks and Viv always pretended her sister’s domesticity was interesting just like Merry pretended Viv’s work was important. Except it appeared domesticity was interesting.
“We never had sex,” Merry said hastily. “There was only one kiss.”
Viv frowned. “So who kissed what, exactly?”
For a moment, Merry stared uncomprehending, then blushed a fiery red. “Lips. We kissed lips…. Your mind, Viv!”
“C’mon, Mere, even a stick-in-the-mud like Charlie wouldn’t leave over a kiss.”
“What do you mean, even a stick-in-the-mud like Charlie?”
“Nothing. Your marriage always seemed so happy.” In a stage version of their marriage, Viv would have dressed Merry as a smiling 1950s housewife and given her brother-in-law a pipe and slippers to go with his smug expression.
“It was. But you can’t imagine how routine kills romance.”
“Oh, yes, I can. It’s not dumb luck I haven’t got hitched. Losing your identity to a couple. It’s bad enough being—” Viv took a sip of her coffee.
“An identical twin,” Merry finished flatly.
Viv dodged the bullet. “Brought up by unhappily married parents.”
“Except our trouble was that Charlie and I weren’t a couple anymore. We were parents, churchgoers, workers. I was a part-time nurse and full-time soccer mum. Our conversations revolved around kid pickups, clean laundry and what’s for dinner? I suggested date nights and Charlie said we were already overscheduled. And didn’t being married mean we could quit trying so hard?” Merry gave a small laugh. “I said I needed more intimacy and he thought that meant more sex. Even sex was becoming a chore…another thing to do before I could go to sleep.”
Speaking of sleep. Viv glanced at Harry, then her watch. He hadn’t settled until ten last night but at some point she’d have to wake him or he wouldn’t nap on the drive home. Why did babies have to be so complicated? She’d found a daily blog by a mother who chronicled her toddler’s every waking moment from bowel movements to teething to diet. And the woman had been almost hysterical with joy when Viv posted a question. It was like being dragged into a cult.
“Tell me about this Luke.” She needed to understand the emotional landscape to pull off Plan B.
“He was a colleague—a doctor—who became a friend. When our shifts coincided we’d lunch together in the staff canteen or later at a little deli a block away from the hospital. At the beginning there was a few of us, then gradually…” Merry began picking at her nails, cut short, unpolished, the nails of someone who never had time for small vanities.
“I knew I was skirting a line,” she continued, “but I thought Luke understood there was a line—that we were friends who flirted. When he kissed me, I could no longer pretend our lunches were innocent. I felt so guilty, so ashamed. I went home and told Charlie everything.”
Harry woke up, saw his mother and clamored to get into bed with her. Viv positioned him next to Merry’s good leg. Half-asleep, Harry cuddled against her with his blankie, sucking his thumb and looking the angel Viv had already learned he wasn’t.
“You named him after Houdini, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“Never mind. How did Charlie react to the confession?” As if she couldn’t guess.
“Angry.” Merry swallowed. “And so hurt. He knew those lunches constituted more intimacy for me than crazy monkey sex. He stormed off to Ross’s, and moved into his mother’s house a week later.”
“You mean that was it?” Harry started to squirm in his mother’s hold and Viv grabbed him off the bed before he could do any damage, distracting him with her half-eaten brioche. “What about when he calmed down?”
“He refused to discuss salvaging our marriage. You’d think after eight years and two kids I’d earned the benefit of the doubt.”
“Of course you’d earned it,” Viv asserted. “The way you used to run after that—” Merry caught her eye and she shut up. “You still love him.”
“That’s why when he started dating Susan I knew I had to move out of Auckland. I don’t want to become a martyr like Mum.” Their parents had recently separated and Mum was currently “finding herself” on an extensive tour of Europe with a couple of girlfriends.
“Heavens, no. I wouldn’t let you. And you’re not throwing yourself on your sword now,” Viv added decisively, “which is why I’ll keep impersonating you until we can get a transfer. You’ll need to stay in Auckland Hospital at least one night to explain the cast to Charlie anyway. But we could say the break’s simpler, couldn’t we?”
“You be me?” Merry stared at her. “That’s crazy.”
“Exactly why it will work. It’s so insane no one will consider it.” When Merry protested, Viv leaned forward. “Think about it, Mere. I haven’t been home in two years. There’s been no opportunity for comparisons. And nobody knows I’m in the country. Ross saw the person he expected to see, even though I was dressed nothing like you. He was puzzled when I couldn’t tell him where Tilly’s camp was but all I had to say was something Merry-ish—you’d mentioned you were worried Tilly’s sleeping bag wouldn’t be warm enough—and we were back on track.”
“You might be able to fool Ross but you’d never fool Charlie.”
“Normally, I’d agree with you. But your grieving ex is going to be way too busy burying his mother to pay any attention to me—you. And let’s face it, you’ve already acted so out of character by having a flirtation—because that’s all it was, Mere, and Charlie’s an idiot for thinking otherwise—that you’ve paved the way for any slip-ups I might make.”
“What about the funeral? You won’t know any of Linda’s friends and relatives.”
“Sweetie, you’re the scarlet woman. You’ll be lucky if they say hello.” Her sister winced. “And Linda being such a tyrant has one upside—none of our family will feel compelled to go if you phone and say you don’t want them there.”
Merry straightened. “Harry!”
Viv turned to see her nephew break into a trot, crushing her brioche in his fist as he made a break out of the room. She caught up to him in the corridor and he squealed a shrill protest as she scooped him up. “I get exactly how you feel, honey, but Mummy needs us so suck it up.” Holding him away from her body to avoid being smeared with chocolate she returned to Merry’s room, nudging the door closed with her hip before putting the toddler down.
Harry threw himself on the floor and screamed, ignoring his mother’s soothing calls from the bed. A nurse poked her head in to remind Viv that “this was a hospital,” then did a double take between the twins. In desperation, Viv gave the toddler her cell.
He beamed at her through crystal tears and held it to his ear. “Dog?”
“Tell that mutt he better not be anywhere near my shoes,” Viv requested, and turned to her sister. “You can phone work, ask for a week’s bereavement leave. So what do you say?”
Merry was chewing her lip, a good sign. “Tilly will work it out. She’s highly intelligent.”
What parent didn’t say that about their kid? “I’m sure I can fool an eight-year-old.” As long as I remember to say mummy not mommy.
“Tilly’s seven! See how little you know about my life?”
“That’s why I have you on speed dial… Which reminds me, we have to swap cells.” She tried to ignore Harry gumming hers. “You give me daily instructions and details of who I’ll encounter and if I get stuck I’ll sneak away and phone you.” Viv warmed to her theme. “I even booked a one-way rental so I can drive your car home. And if, by some remote chance, Tilly figures it out I’ll tell her the truth and swear her to secrecy.”
“You mean that Mummy’s lying to Daddy?” Merry folded her arms. “No, Viv, I’m not dragging my child into this.”
“It might not come to that, Mere, and look at the alternative. Charlie finding out is not a good thing right now. For him, for you or the kids.” She paraphrased Ross. “What if he decides to lobby for custody? With his inheritance, he’ll have more resources. I’m thinking of the greater good here.”
“By adding lie on lie?”
“Did the truth help when you told Charlie about Luke?”
“No,” Merry admitted reluctantly.
“Think big,” Viv encouraged. “Whenever I’m stuck it’s because I haven’t been thinking big enough.” She glanced at her watch. “I hate to rush you but if I’m getting back to Auckland by ten, you need to make a decision.”
Her twin’s cell started to buzz on the bedside trolley. Merry gulped as she checked the caller. “It’s Charlie.”
“We can do this, Mere.”
Her sister shook her head as she picked up the phone. “I have too much to lose.”
She’d got that right. “I need to tell you what Ross—”
“Hello, Charlie?” Merry turned away from Viv’s desperate gestures to catch her attention. “I’m so sorry about Linda…. How’s Tilly taking it?…I don’t deserve your thanks…Can I just say…Okay, I’ll let you finish first.” As she listened, a range of emotions flitted across her sister’s face.
“Mere,” Viv whispered urgently but her twin ignored her.
“What did I want to say?” Merry gulped. She blinked and two tears trickled down her cheeks. “Tell Ross to drive safely. I’ll see you soon.” Hanging up, she clasped the cell to her breast and looked at Viv.
“I’m a bad person,” she said brokenly. “But this is the first time in months he’s spoken to me with any warmth.”
“So we’re doing this?”
“We’re doing this.” Merry gazed at her son babbling nonsense on Viv’s phone. “And God help me if we can’t make it work.”