Big Summer(78)

He sighed. “Okay, so the plan was for me to leave Drue at the altar. Instead of ‘I do,’ I was going to say ‘I can’t.’ I was going to say that I still loved Corina.” At that, Corina gave a smug smile and cuddled up even closer to him. I stared, remembering the pitch deck Detective McMichaels had shown me: There will be guaranteed glamour, celebrity sightings, and maybe a surprise or two!

Well, I thought. That certainly would have been surprising. It also explained Drue’s indifference to her husband-to-be, the way she’d rolled her eyes and said “Meh” when I’d asked if he’d mind her ditching their engagement party. And, of course, the way he hadn’t been around last night. “So that’s what you promised the businesses you were pitching. That was the big plot twist.”

He gave a small, miserable-looking nod. “We figured if the wedding didn’t happen, that would be in the news, and all three of us would get a bunch of new followers on social. We wanted to have deals in place before that happened, so that we could, you know…”

“Monetize the scandal?” I said.

“It was my idea,” Corina announced proudly. If she was even the tiniest bit sorry about what she and Stuart had been planning, if she felt even the merest scintilla of guilt, I could see no sign of it on her pretty face.

“And what was going to happen after that?” I asked.

Corina smoothed her silvery hair. “Stuart and I would get back together. He’d say that he never stopped loving me. In a year or so they’d get divorced and we’d get married. Like we’d planned. Only by then we’d be even more famous. Real famous, not just reality-TV famous.”

“And what about Drue?”

“I know she was talking to the producers about having her own season of All the Single Ladies,” Stuart said. “I don’t know if she’d locked it in.”

That part, at least, made sense. I could imagine the People magazine covers, the cover shot of Drue gazing into the distance, looking beautiful and forlorn, with a headline reading HEIRESS’S HEARTBREAK. And then, a few months later, Drue beaming, holding an armful of the colorful bow ties that the bachelorettes on “All the Single Ladies” distributed to their male suitors. DRUE BOUNCES BACK!!! I thought of the hashtags—#singleladies and #lookingforlove and #singlegirlproblems and #loveyourselffirst. I thought about all the single and searching women who’d follow her story, on TV and on social media; all the businesses who’d want a bite of the apple. Maybe she’d even have ended up as the face of one of the dating apps, if she didn’t land a man on the show.

“And Stuart would have the money to get his business off the ground,” said Corina.

At that revelation, Stuart slumped even farther on the couch, as if he was hoping the crevice between the cushions would swallow him up. “Money from the trust fund?” I guessed. At his unhappy nod, I said, “For the brain smoothies?”

“You think it’s a joke.” There were cords standing out on Corina’s neck. Her cheeks were stained a mottled, unlovely pink. “They’re going to be huge. Just wait. You’ll see.”

“So Stuart would launch his business. He’d get rich,” I said. “All three of you would get famous. You two could be together, and everyone would get to be on TV. Am I missing anything?”

“Yes. You’re missing the point. You’re making it sound like Drue was the victim.” Corina’s lips were curled, her teeth bared. “Like it was this plot we cooked up against her, when it was actually something we came up with together. Drue knew the score.” She raised her chin. “And she deserved it. Getting dumped on her wedding day. She was a bitch.” Corina’s voice was low and furious. “A one-hundred-percent, twenty-four-karat bitch. I guarantee, the only reason she wanted you around was so she could get a bunch of fatties to follow her.”

I felt my stomach twisting, my entire body suddenly cold. That isn’t true, I wanted to say as Corina kept talking. “You want to know what your friend was really like? Want to know how the whole thing started?” Stuart stared at the floor as Corina stood up and came stalking toward me, flaxen hair swinging. Spittle flew from her painted lips, spots of color burned in her cheeks. “She saw Stuart on TV. Right when the show started airing. And she decided that she had to have him back.”

I stood still, thinking that this sounded possible, maybe even probable.

“After the first, like, three episodes, after she saw how Stuart was blowing up, she called him. At first it was all sweet talk.” Corina pushed her hair behind her ears and raised her voice to a simpering falsetto: “Oh, I made a terrible mistake when I dumped you, you’re the only man I want, I love you so so much.” Corina rolled her eyes. “Like that. When Stuart didn’t fall for it, when he told her that he loved me, that he’d moved on, that’s when she offered the money.”

I looked at Stuart. “And all you’d have to do was… what? Marry her in secret, then pretend to be engaged for a while, and leave her at the altar?”

“Oh, she had a whole list of demands,” Corina said. She sat down next to Stuart and crossed her legs. “She wanted a June wedding on the Cape. She wanted it in the paper, and the magazines. She wanted five hundred thousand followers on Instagram, she wanted five major corporate sponsors. She wanted to win. At least for a little while. Everything was a contest to her, and she always had to win.”