"So we're all clear right?" Edwin asked Lizzie setting something up on the bookshelves in Casey's room.
"Yeah. It is hooked up in my room right?"
"Yeah, direct link to your computer. You can move it around as well and focus it and stuff. I'll show you how it works in a second. Can I just ask, why do you want to spy on your sister?"
"That's not part of the agreement. Just stick to what I'm paying you for."
Edwin snorted and continued to hook up the webcam.
"Ed, where did you get that black eye?" Lizzie said after a pause.
Edwin hesitated. "Tripped. Hit my head on an open cupboard door."
"That's funny, yesterday you told me it was a bully at school."
"Then why ask again?"
Lizzie looked into Edwin's slightly fearful eyes. "Because I don't think it was a bully at school, since no one talks about it there, and it wasn't an accident, because there's clear indentation. Knuckles." She approached him and examined the bruise. He jumped slightly when she touched it. "Did Derek do it?"
Edwin shook his head with lowered eyes.
"Who then?" Lizzie asked gently.
Edwin pointed to a glamour photograph of Casey on a shelf on the bookshelves.
Lizzie looked very surprised but she chose to say nothing. "Is the camera set up?"
Edwin nodded and they left Casey's room. Just in time too. As they disappeared into Lizzie's room Casey and Derek rounded the corner from the stairs.
After Edwin showed Lizzie how to work the webcam and record to her computer he went upstairs. As soon as he was out of the room Lizzie picked up her phone and called Emily.
"Emily? Got some information for you. Edwin was beaten up by Casey. I know. Yeah. Well she does have a temper. What about? Don't know yet. Yeah I'm watching it now. Casey and Derek are just rehearsing. A kiss? Not yet. What do you think's going on anyway? Oh my god, you and your boyfriend have really warped minds. Good, I'm glad you know. Hang on there's a kiss. How should I know? I don't know what scene they're rehearsing. Hang on a second. Let me zoom in. Emily, you were right. That's more than acting. Now he's pushed her down on the bed. Ew his hand's sliding up her leg."
Lizzie dropped the phone as she screamed. She scrambled to shut off the webcam as quickly as possible. Edwin, Marti, Nora and George burst into the room.
"What's wrong?" Nora demanded urgently.
"Oh it's nothing. Big spider. Ed, will you help me get it?" Lizzie lied quickly, blushing furiously.
Edwin nodded and the rest of the family cleared out. As they left Casey and Derek appeared in the doorway.
"What's going on?" Casey asked. Lizzie noticed that the buttons on her blouse were done up wrong; in a hurry perhaps.
"Lizzie's steady nerves were tested by a big spider." George said a little mockingly.
Casey noticed that Lizzie was staring at her in tearful disgust as she and Derek left.
Everyone but Edwin cleared out of the room. As soon as the door was closed Lizzie burst into tears. Edwin caught her before she hit the ground and lowered her gently.
"I know why she hit you. You knew didn't you? You knew about them. How could she? How could he? They're family!"
"Not blood family Liz."
"Close enough. How could she do this to me? I never thought she'd do anything like this. And they're lying to everyone about it. All that time he spends in her room. They're not rehearsing at all."
"It's alright Liz. It's alright. She still trusts you. Just not with this. You know, when she was beating me up she kept insisting that whatever happens you mustn't find out. When I asked her why she said that you were still too innocent to understand. That you wouldn't understand. She said that she loved him, and didn't tell anyone because she was afraid of what they'd think of her. She also said she couldn't help falling in love with Derek; it happened before she realised it… when it was too late to stop it."
Nothing Edwin said could cheer Lizzie up. She felt that Casey had betrayed her in some way. The whole thing with Derek was so unnatural, and she couldn't understand why it was happening. And she hated that it was happening at all.