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Chapter 24: The Truth
Emily and Alison sat together at the Grill enjoying a nice lunch together. It had been a while since they spent time together like this. They were due for a date. When the waitress brought the check to the table, they got into a small dispute over who would pay.
"Let me get this one, Em," Alison said. "You paid the last two times, remember?"
"Actually, I don't. We haven't had 'us' time in weeks."
Alison smiled, "let me pay for this one, okay?"
Emily finally gave in and smiled, "okay. I'll wait for you outside then."
Emily grabbed her purse then took her phone out to check for any messages. She exited the restaurant. As she scanned through her phone looking for missed calls or texts, she heard two voices talking in the alley behind the grill.
"Are you kidding me?" The first whisper belonged to a female. "I can't believe you're still going to go through with the wedding. You should have just robbed her, and we'd be done with this."
Emily was about to get into the car but, the second voice that spoke peaked her interests.
"That wouldn't have worked."
Alison walked out of the restaurant to join Emily in the car.
"Hey, I got us a couple brownies for—"
"Shush!" Emily cut her off.
Emily grabbed Alison's arm and pulled her closer to the alley so they could hear. They peaked over the side. Emily's suspension was correct. Wren was having a conversation with a young woman with deep brown hair, ivory skin, and she is wearing sunglasses. Sensing an opportunity, Alison got her phone to start recording.
"You're actually going to go through the trouble of marrying that bitch," said the woman.
"We won't stay married for long," Wren assured the woman. "Once we get to London, I won't have any of her annoying friends breathing down my neck or that pathetic carpenter."
"Why can't we just go to London?"
"Babe, listen to me you're not seeing the bigger picture here," Wren stroked the woman's shoulders as he spoke. "I marry Spencer and her fortune, we move to London, and somehow Spencer gets into a life-threatening accident, and I'm left with her family's share of the money! Once we have her money then you and I will be set for a future!"
Emily gasped and whispered to Alison, "Toby was right. Wren is just using Spencer for her family's fortune."
"The police will just link Spencer's accident back to us," said the woman. "Just dump Spencer and let's go!"
"They won't find out! I'm a doctor! I know how to cover these things. Come on," Wren said. "No one knows it was me who caused that carpenters accident. That's what he gets for kissing my fiancé."
The woman crossed her arms and glared at him, "you sound jealous."
"It's not like that," said Wren. "I just had to think of something to get that creep from stealing Spencer from me."
"Emily," Alison tugged on her arm. "Come on we got to go before they see us. Besides, we have enough here that exposes Wren as a two-faced snake."
Emily and Alison rushed quickly, but quietly to their car. As they drove, Emily called Toby and told him to meet them back at their apartment to share some thrilling news. The girls were also called to meet at the apartment. Aria and Hanna said they would be driving back from Philly so it will take them awhile.
Toby's plans to mope around his loft all evening were put on hold. He drove the two miles to Emily's and Alison's apartment. Emily sounded worried on the phone, so Toby figured this would be something important. He climbed out of his truck and walked to their apartment. He knocked and an out-of-breath Emily answered the door.
"Aria and Hanna are still a half hour away," Emily said. "But this can't wait."
"What's going on?"
Toby followed Emily into their living room. Their living quarters were small, but bigger than Toby's loft. They have a nice living room with decorations that help give their space a homey feeling. Their kitchen is separated by a single wall, and they have a hallway that leads to their bedroom and a bathroom. Alison rushed out of the bedroom, down the hall, and back to the living room. She was holding her phone and appeared to be agitated.
"I can't get ahold of Spencer," said Alison.
"Keep trying her," Emily urged.
"Guys," Toby was panicking now. "What is going on?"
"You were right about Wren," Emily said. "Ali, show him the video."
Alison played the video back for Toby. Toby squinted his eyes trying to make out the figures on her phone screen. He instantly recognized Wren's voice and he could just make out his figure in the video. The woman was whispering, and she was dressed in black, so it was hard to make her out. In the video, Toby heard the two discussing their plan to escape to London together, but Wren insisted they couldn't do that without Spencer's money. It was his plan to marry her, stage an accident, then claim her money so that Wren and his mistress can be well off together.
"That bastard!" Toby exclaimed. "Can I see this one more time? I want to see if I can figure out the female. She sounds familiar."
"Good luck," Alison said, but she played the video for him again anyway.
Toby chewed on his bottom lip as he tried to place a name on that voice. That voice does sound familiar to him, but it belongs to a voice he hasn't heard from in several years.
"I don't know who Wren's side-skank is," Emily said. "But she doesn't sound on board with Wren's side of the plan."
"It is Wren being with Spencer she doesn't like," said Alison. "If she could, I bet she'd kill Spencer herself. I know that tone. It's the tone of a jealous woman willing to do anything to be with the one she wants."
Toby nodded in agreement. There was a knock on the door. Emily rushed to answer. It was Caleb, Hanna's boyfriend. He had his laptop by his side eager to show them something.
"Hanna's still fifteen minutes out, but she called me," Caleb said as he brushed past Emily.
Caleb entered the apartment and walked to the kitchen table. He set his laptop down then typed on his keyboard.
"We saw Wren talking to some woman," said Emily. "None of us know who she is."
"Jenna Marshall," Caleb said. "After Alison sent me the video, I was able to clean it up to get a better look at her face. I looked her up and identified her as Jenna Marshall. She is a con artist."
"Jenna," Toby's eyes went wide. "That's why I know her voice."
They looked at Toby.
"You know her?" Caleb asked.
"She's my stepsister," Toby sighed. "I haven't seen her in years though. I've always known her to be odd and troubled so, I stayed clear of her for most of the time. She moved out of Rosewood a month before she graduated high school and that was the last time, I ever saw her."
"Good job staying clear of her," Alison said. "Do you know where she moved to?"
Toby shrugged, "I thought New York or Vermont, but I don't know. Only my parents knew where she moved."
"It says here Jenna did live in New York for two years to attend college with a music scholarship," Caleb read from the computer. "She was kicked out after she allegedly stole a classmates music piece."
"That's Jenna," Toby rolled his eyes.
"I guess since then she's been making a living as a con artist," Emily said. "But how did she meet Wren? Did they know each other before Wren got with Spencer or during?"
Nobody answered, which meant nobody knew the answer. Alison's phone chimed.
"Spencer texted me back," Alison said. "She said, 'sorry, I had my phone off. What's going on? Is it important? I wasn't really in the mood to go out this afternoon.' What should I tell her?"
"Tell her…" Emily tried to think of something. "Tell her it is important and it's better to talk about it in person."
Alison shook her head at Emily but wrote back to Spencer anyway. It was only a five-minute drive for Spencer, but it would feel longer.
"We should've just met at Spencer's," Alison said. "That would've made more sense. What if Wren gets there and stops her from leaving?"
"You could call Jason," Emily suggested. "Tell him to distract Wren if he sees him coming."
"Jason is in Atlantic City this weekend," said Alison.
"Great," Emily rolled her eyes. "The one time he could've been useful."
"Hey! Emily, that's my brother you're talking about."
"I'm sorry," Emily said. "I just meant…"
"I'm just kidding," Alison smiled at her. "Believe me, if there's anyone here who understands how useless my brother is, it would be me."
"I should've told Spencer before," said Toby. "But no, I thought I was being the bigger person by letting her be happy."
"You didn't know for sure, Toby," Emily said. "You made the right choice waiting. You said it yourself, if you had been wrong and you told her, it would've just created unnecessary doubts."
"What if she just thinks I'm saying this now, so she'll break up with Wren and pick me?"
"We have proof," Alison said. "It's going to be fine. Spencer will know the truth and she will decide what to do with that."
The next five to ten minutes were the longest and most nerve wrecking time of their lives. Aria and Hanna finally arrived. When Hanna walked through the door, she was on some rant about how they should have considered Wren would have two phones. Just as the six of them were getting into a loud discussion, they froze when they heard a gentle knock on the door. Emily answered and they all let out a breath of relief when Spencer appeared on the other side.
"Geez, Emily, are you okay?" Spencer asked. "You look pale."
"Come in, Spencer. We need to tell you something."
Leaving her house was the last thing Spencer wanted to do. After Toby left, she managed to get herself off the living room floor only to end up crying under the covers of her bed. After a good thirty-minute cry, Spencer finally decided to check her phone. She had half a dozen missed calls and texts. From each of her friends. She finally responded to Alison who was the most insistent on her coming over. Spencer took a minute to clean her face and redo her makeup before getting in her car to see what her friends "so badly had to tell her." Could they not wait?
Spencer followed Emily into their living room and froze. All her friends were here. Caleb was here looking worried about something on his laptop. It surprised Spencer the most to find Toby here as well.
"Toby?" She looked at him, then the others. "What is going on?"
"Spencer, we think you're in danger," Aria said. She was sitting on the couch next to Alison.
Spencer looked puzzled. "How? Why are you all here together?"
"Because we all had the same bad feeling about Wren and we decided to look into it," Emily said.
"And we're glad we did," said Hanna. "Wren has been involved with another woman. We're not sure for how long, but they are working together on some scheme. Wren just wants to marry you so that he can get your share of your parents' money."
"What?" Spencer was in a state of disbelief. "Okay, you girls have shared some insane theories about Wren before, but this one takes the cake."
"It's true," Aria said.
"It can't be," Spencer said. "My parents were the ones who introduced us. Wren's family has their own mansion in London."
"We considered that," Emily said. "Believe me, we did not take this theory lightly. Didn't you tell us that Wren likes to spend his free time with his friends going to casinos and stuff?"
Spencer shrugged, "so."
"Come on, Spencer. I know it's going to take a little time to get on the same page as us but, you have to think about this," said Alison. "You can't tell us that you haven't had your doubts about Wren."
"Well, sure," Spencer crossed her arms. "But about other things." Spencer glanced at Toby and said, "I never suspected something like this. Because it's crazy."
"It is crazy, but it's the truth," Aria said.
"Alison now would be the time to show Spencer the video," Emily said.
Alison handed her phone to Emily. Emily walked over to Spencer and played her the video. Everyone has already seen it, so they know what to expect. Spencer watched the video but could not believe what she was watching. She sees Wren's figure and recognizes his voice talking to a mystery woman. She hears them talking about getting rid of her so they can keep her money, and Wren can be with the woman he's talking to in the video.
"Let me see this."
Spencer took the phone from Emily and sat on the chair. She played back the video trying to pick up something she might've missed. Something that she missed a long time ago. Something she should have seen ages ago but, nothing. Nothing was coming to her. She could not make out this mess she's somehow caught in. Had Spencer been loyal and fair throughout her whole relationship with Wren? No, but she would never in her wildest dreams plan something like this. She never even considered using someone for their fortune. Anything she shared with Toby in these last few months was simply her trying to understand what she genuinely wanted. Spencer felt like crying, but why? It was clear that she doesn't really have love for that man anymore. She wanted to break something. She was ready to give up her own life and happiness to adjust to what Wren wanted. Hell, she has bent herself backwards for him repeatedly. She said goodbye to Toby thinking they truly would never see each other again. The whole time, Wren was using her. Spencer wanted to break something. Like Wren's nose might be a good thing to start with. Spencer threw Alison's phone. She stood up and started pacing around the room.
"I cannot believe this!" She exclaimed. "That lying, two-faced… How did you guys even come upon this?"
"We overheard Wren outside the Grill," said Alison. "We knew something was up, so I started recording."
"And Toby told us that at his last appointment, Wren said something to him that tipped Toby off," said Emily.
"Toby?" Spencer spun around to look at him. Her eyes burned with rage as she shouted, "your last appointment with Wren was two weeks ago!"
Toby opened his mouth to speak, but Spencer did not give him the chance. "You knew about this for two weeks and you didn't say anything!"
"It-it was only speculation," Toby stuttered. "I-I didn't…I didn't know for sure. I wanted to be sure before I…"
"If you think something bad about someone you know I'm involved with, you don't keep that to yourself!" Spencer yelled. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. "Do you have any idea what I had to go through these last two weeks?"
"Spencer, stop," Emily stood between them. "Toby did all of this for you. All of us did this for you. We just figured it would be better to be sure about this hunch in case we turned out to be wrong. We wanted to protect you."
Spencer fought back her tears. She took a deep breath then let it out slowly. After a moment, she asked…
"What did Wren say to you that tipped you off?"
"Well, you saw from the video that Wren knows about…" the words hesitated on Toby's lips. He looked nervously at the others, even though they all learned from the video that Toby kissed Spencer. Toby sighed and said, "Wren made it known to me that he knows what's been going on between us, but he didn't seem to care. He tried to blackmail me with this scaffolding incident that somehow, I was trying to get close to you for your family's money. That's what tipped me off. Why would he assume that unless that was what he was up to?"
"Wren caused your accident," Spencer realized aloud. She learned that from the video, but it just now registered with her. Of course, it was Wren. It all made sense. Wren must've returned from London early, or he hired someone to loosen the anchors on the scaffolding causing it to fall. Spencer didn't know how Wren knew about the kiss. It was possible he could have heard it from Jason. Spencer and Toby did kiss in her front driveway, but Jason could have seen them from any of the front second story windows to his house. It was possible Wren had cameras installed around her property to keep an eye on her when he wasn't there. Did that mean Wren also knew about… Spencer tried not to think too much about it. She shouldn't care what he does or doesn't know when it comes to her and Toby. What matters is that Wren has been lying and using her from the beginning. Now, what comes next is figuring out what to do with this newfound information.
Everyone learns the truth about Wren. Now that Spencer knows the truth, what will she do? How will the group handle this going forward? I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know your thoughts and theories in the reviews. Please.