fifty-one

An hour later, we were at Harper’s apartment. Peggy and Evan sat on the couch. Nigel and I sat across from them in matching club chairs. Harper was in the nursery with Devin trying to put Gracie down for a nap. Donald was busy making us all drinks.

“I still can’t wrap my head around all of this,” Peggy said. “Dan actually tried to steal his own co-worker’s play. What a son-of-a-bitch.”

“Quite literally in this case,” Donald said dryly as he handed Peggy her drink.

“I guess I owe you an apology for all those times I teased you about being a Harry Potter fanatic,” Peggy said, after thanking Donald. “If it hadn’t been for your rather, ahem, obsessive knowledge of the books, Zack might have gotten away with it.”

I raised my eyebrow. “So much for your apology,” I said. Donald handed me my drink and I took a grateful sip.

Harper came down the hallway and flopped onto the couch next to Peggy. “Do you want a drink, honey?” Donald asked.

“God, yes,” Harper said.

“Is Gracie asleep?” Peggy asked.

Harper shook her head. “Not quite. She’s close though. Devin has her.”

“So what’s the deal with you two, anyway?” she asked. “Are you going to start seeing him?”

Harper accepted a drink from her father, took a sip, and then leaned her head back against the cushions. “I don’t know,” she said, closing her eyes. “I know my marriage to Dan was over. But it feels wrong to start anything now. I mean, we just buried him.”

Peggy reached over and squeezed Harper’s hand. “I know, honey. But that shouldn’t stop you from being happy. And I have a feeling that Devin will make you happy. And, if it doesn’t work out, send him my way, because he is gorgeous!” she said with a giggle.

Evan rolled his eyes. “You know, that’s not nearly as funny as you think it is,” he groused.

Peggy laughed and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Oh, it’s a little funny,” she said. “Besides, you know I adore you.”

Donald handed Evan and Nigel their drinks and then sat down with us. “So Dan not only stole someone’s play, but he was also trying to blackmail people into funding it?” he asked me.

I nodded. “He found out that Fletcher had once bilked investors out of thousands of dollars, Brooke was rumored to have pushed a rival off a stage, and that Jeremy was only pretending to be gay to take advantage of the goodwill of the LGBT community.”

Harper sneered in disgust. “I still can’t believe Jeremy did that. I don’t know which is worse, actually. What he did or what Dan did.”

“Both are pretty despicable,” I said.

“But what did Dan find out about Nina?” Harper asked.

I looked at her in surprise. “I would have thought you’d have figured that out,” I said. “Remember, you’re the one who told me that Dan had mentioned that Nina had a baby.”

Harper opened her eyes wide. “I don’t understand,” she said. “Why was that so terrible? So what if she had a baby and put it up for adoption? Why would anyone care about that?”

“Well, for one, I think Fletcher Levin would care a great deal. After all, it was his baby.”

Harper’s mouth fell open. “Fletcher’s baby?” she repeated.

I nodded. “I thought it was odd that after breaking off her engagement with Fletcher, Nina basically went on a one-year hiatus. Especially since she claimed that the whole reason for ending things with Fletcher was because she wanted to focus on her career.”

Peggy frowned. “But if Nina and Fletcher were already engaged, why would she give up their baby?”

“It didn’t click with me until the day that Fletcher came here to see Harper,” I said. “He went on and on about how a woman is meant to stay home with their children. It became clear that he would have forced Nina to abandon her dreams of being an actress.”

“So instead she put her baby up for adoption?” Harper asked horrified.

“Well, I don’t think she saw the alternative as an option,” I said. “When I first met Nina, she made a joke about the nuns who taught her. If she were Catholic, she might not be comfortable terminating a pregnancy.”

“But still,” said Peggy. “What could Fletcher do to her after all these years? Granted, he could make her life a little difficult, but she’s a star in her own right.”

I nodded. “Actually, I don’t think that Nina was worried about herself. I think she was worried about her daughter.”

“Daughter?” Peggy asked.

I nodded again. “Brooke Casey is Nina and Fletcher’s daughter.”

“Get the hell out!” Peggy said. “How the hell did you figure that out?”

I smiled. “Well, Zack mentioned to me how Brooke was adopted. And then there was the fact that Brooke intentionally dumped her wine on Dan at Fletcher’s party. After she did, I saw her wink at Nina. When I asked her about the wink, she said it was because Dan was flirting with her in front of Nina. She claimed it was a form of retaliation because she knew that Nina and Dan were having an affair.”

Peggy frowned at me. “But you said that Dan and Nina weren’t having an affair.”

“They weren’t,” I said. “And everyone I talked to seemed surprised at the idea that Dan would cheat on Harper. The only ones who said otherwise were Zack, Nina, and Brooke. Brooke actually made it a point to tell me that Dan was a well-known philanderer and that it was widely known that he and Nina were having an affair.” I paused and then said, “I thought it odd that two women with supposedly no connection other than a play would tell the same lie.”

Peggy stared at me a beat and then said, “You know what, Nic? I love you to death, but sometimes your brain scares the shit out of me. Remind me never to cross you.”