Free Impostor by Jill Hathaway Page B

and Mattie on the beach and sighs. “Is this at Lake Okoboji? My parents took Todd and me there every summer when we were little. We had so much fun.”
    I gently take the picture out of her hands. “Did Samantha tell you guys what Scotch did to her?”
    Mattie winces. “What an asshole.”
    I examine Regina’s face, looking for confirmation that she’s disturbed enough by Scotch’s actions that she’ll help us with my plan. She scowls. “Yeah. I can’t believe he’d do something like that.”
    “Well,” I tell her, “if you help us, we can get him back.”
    “What can I do to help?”
    “We’re going to teach Scotch a little lesson. And we need your help.”
    “Why me?” Regina asks.
    “He likes cheerleaders,” I say. “Obviously he’s not going to go for me or Mattie. He knows we both despise him. And he’d be too suspicious if Samantha came onto him, after what he did. We need someone younger, someone he’ll think he has the upper hand with . . .” I look at Regina, thinking how perfect she is for the part. Her hair is long and soft, falling around her face in light brown curls. Her heart-shaped face is bare except for a hint of lip gloss and mascara. She looks so innocent. Scotch would never suspect she’d be a part of a plan to take him down. “All we need you to do is ask him to take you to Lookout Point tomorrow night. Say you’ve been admiring him all year long, and you’d like a chance to get to know him better.”
    Regina blushes. “I can’t say that.”
    “Sure you can,” Samantha cuts in. “Just call on your inner vixen.”
    “My inner what ?”
    “Your inner vixen,” Samantha says, tossing her hair. “It’s what I always do when I’m feeling less than confident. I ask what my inner vixen would do. She always gives me the courage to be the strongest woman I can be.”
    “So what’s the rest of the plan?” Mattie asks, anxious to get back to business. “Regina gets Scotch up to Lookout Point, and then what?”
    “All Regina will have to do is get him up there. Then she’ll get out of the car and find Samantha, who will be waiting by the old pavilion. I’ll take care of the rest.”
    The three girls stare, waiting for me to go on.
    “What are you going to do to him?” Mattie demands.
    “Get him naked and leave him stranded.”
    “How are you going to get him naked?” Samantha demands.
    “You just leave that up to me,” I say mysteriously, thinking about how easy it’ll be to slide into Scotch, undress him, toss his clothes off the side of the cliff, and then leave him to find his way back to town, naked as the day he was born.
    Scotch will get just what he deserves.
     
    I wander into the hall, heading for the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth before bed. Mattie is downstairs with my dad, watching MythBusters.
    I notice that my father’s door is standing open. I see a shadow moving inside. It’s certainly not my dad, whose laughter I hear booming from below. It has to be Lydia.
    I tiptoe right up to the threshold and peek around the corner. Lydia is standing before my father’s bureau with her back to me, but I can see her reflection in my mother’s antique mirror. She’s got the top drawer open and is sifting through his underwear and socks.
    What exactly does she think she’s doing?
    In awe, I watch as Lydia retrieves a small velvet box from the drawer. She holds it reverently in her hand for a moment, caressing it with her eyes. Then she lifts the top and looks inside.
    It’s my mother’s wedding ring.
    My father has kept it hidden away in his drawer for years. Sometimes, when I was younger, I’d sneak into his room and pull it out. I even put it on once in a while and danced around the house, pretending to be her. My mother.
    But what could Lydia possibly want with my mother’s ring?
    And how did she even know where to find it?
    I duck out of the room and lean against the wall, my heart pounding. I don’t know what Lydia is doing in