“No, you were born here.”
A faint beep came through the line. “It looks like that might be her now,” said Ruth. “I’ll call you back.”
Ruth disconnected and Valerie dropped her arm down, aching from holding the phone between them. She felt sick. Nico stared at her. “Rule Eight?”
“Ruth built her events business on what she calls her rules for success. Rule Eight isTake control to do what needs to be done, even if someone will be mad.” She groaned. “I thought Roger talked to Penny.”
“He did.” Nico drummed his fingers on the door. “What if she calls your father as well?”
Valerie rubbed her eyes, knowing she was further smearing the residue of yesterday’s waterproof mascara. “I suppose we deepen the web of lies.”
“What are you going to tell him?”
Valerie stared out the bug-splattered window at the cars whizzing by on the two-lane road. “Aliens are calling to subvert his brain-wave patterns and to stay away from all communication devices?”
“Or we say that your email was hacked, and to ignore any requests, especially if the person says they know you. You planted the scammer seed after Penny first suggested this, right?”
Valerie looked impressed. “I did. I like it. My grandmother nearly got caught by some online scammers, so he was already on alert for that. I can tell him to delete them right away without reading.”
Her father wasn’t answering, so Valerie left a message for him and one for her stepmother, then did the same for her mother and stepfather.
She handed the phone back with a huge sigh of relief. “Done.”
Ruth called back a minute later. “That was a very entitled woman, and I have extremely entitled clientele. She had the nerve to question me. Me!”
“I believe it.”
“I said I had no need to get to know her and furthermore did not plan to explain myself to a stranger. Also that I hoped she treated my lovely daughter with a modicum more respect than she was showing me.”
“What did she say?” asked Valerie as Nico’s shoulders shook in silent laughter.
“All she said, was, ‘I’m Penny Badgerton-Willis,’ as if that was a reason. What is the matter with people?”
“Thank you.”
“I’m not going to ask what’s going on, although I do wish to hear thisstory one day. I’ll tell you if she calls again, but I don’t think she will.” Ruth sounded satisfied.
“I appreciate this.”
Ruth paused. “You never called a Rule Eight when you were working for me,” she said. “I’m glad to see you do it.”
Valerie whoofed out her breath once she was off the call. “Ruth saved the day.”
Nico held up his phone. “Roger said that Penny walked by, furious. He’s going to talk to her again when she calms down.”
He started the car and they drove for a few minutes, reveling in the feeling of having dodged a Penny-shaped bullet. Then Nico said, “What did Ruth mean by never calling a Rule Eight?”
“She always said I needed to learn to stand up for myself when I thought things were going bad. That’s part of Rule Eight—having the confidence to sayNo, that’s not how things should beand to take action.”
“Ah.”
“I nearly called one,” she said. “It was a wedding and a groomsman was drunk. Like, really bad. Turns out he’d been in love with the bride for years. I was scared of confronting him or doing anything and Ruth was busy.”
“What happened?”
“It got super chaotic and when Ruth saw what was going on, she took charge. Stopped everything and told the groom. Put the guy into a room away from the wedding and had someone watch him. She asked me later what happened and why I didn’t call it.”
“Why didn’t you?”
