Trouble at Home Read online

  TROUBLE AT HOME

  Written by

  Kate William

  Created by

  FRANCINE PASCAL

  Copyright © 2015, Francine Pascal

  "I love you, too," Todd whispered, bending over to press a tiny, gentle kiss on each of Elizabeth's cheeks. "Now, promise me you won't worry about a thing. Go straight upstairs, hop into bed, and have sweet dreams till I see you again in the morning."

  Elizabeth laughed. "I promise," she said softly.

  She opened the door and stepped into the foyer. Immediately she heard angry voices coming from the den.

  "I'm sick and tired of this, Alice. We haven't had dinner together as a family in ages. You're never home, and when you are home, you're working! What kind of life is this?"

  Her father sounded furious. And Mrs. Wakefield's retorts were just as sharp, just as angry.

  Elizabeth felt all the joy from her evening with Todd rush out of her. Her eyes filled with tears. It was a rude shock, coming home from a wonderful time . . . to this.

  She didn't even bother telling her parents she was home. She just ran straight upstairs to her bedroom. Closing the door behind her, she burst into tears.

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  One

  Elizabeth Wakefield swung open the front door of the split-level house and slipped her key back into her bookbag. "Hello," she called into the foyer. "Anybody home?"

  Silence greeted her. "Hey, Prince," she called, but not even the Wakefields' golden retriever greeted her. She could hear a breeze rustling the trees outside, but otherwise everything was quiet. Elizabeth frowned and headed into the kitchen. It wasn't unusual to find the house empty at five o'clock, especially on a Monday, when Jessica, Elizabeth's twin sister, had cheerleading practice. Both of the twins' parents worked—their father at a law firm, their mother as a partner in an interior design company. But somehow the house felt different lately when Elizabeth got home. Emptier, she thought, as she wandered into the kitchen.

  The red light on the answering machine was blinking, and Elizabeth pushed the rewind button, then helped herself to a glass of juice as she listened to the messages. There were four. She giggled. The first three were from boys calling for Jessica. That wasn't a surprise. Jessica was one of the most popular girls at Sweet Valley High, and certainly one of the most fickle! The fourth message was from her mother, who sounded distressed. "Hi, everyone, it's Mom. It's four o'clock, and I'm just about to go into a meeting. Looks like I won't be able to come home before the fund-raiser tonight. Could you come and pick me up at the office? We can head off straight from here. Thanks. Can't wait to see you."

  Elizabeth leaned back against the counter and took a small sip of juice. Her face brightened as she listened to her mother's message. She was looking forward to the fund-raising party that evening. The dinner and reception were to be held in the garden of a civic center in downtown Sweet Valley. All five Wakefields—the twins, their parents, and Steven, the twins' older brother, a freshman at a nearby state university—were backing Peter Santelli for mayor of the community. Mr. Santelli, Sweet Valley's planning commissioner, was well-liked and respected, and tonight's dinner was one of the first major fund-raisers of his campaign. Elizabeth was looking forward not only to the party itself, but also to the prospect of spending an evening with her whole family. Lately both of her parents were so busy, it seemed as though she hardly saw them. Her father had been especially distant in the past few weeks.

  Elizabeth replayed the messages and wrote down the ones that were for Jessica. She was just about to go upstairs when the back door flew open and Jessica burst in, her blond hair flying. Prince Albert was jumping up and down in excited circles, wrapping his leash around Jessica's ankles. "I got home before you did," Jessica chided her twin, "and poor Prince hadn't been out for ages! He was so happy to see me, he practically knocked me over."

  Elizabeth gave her twin a wry smile. Trust Jessica to take the one household chore she'd done all month and make it seem like the labors of Hercules! "Jess, you got a bunch of messages," she told her sister, passing her a slip of paper that contained the names and numbers.

  "Thanks. I saw that there were messages, but I didn't have time to listen because I had to walk Prince first," Jessica said, giving her sister a stern look.

  "Right, Jess. You're such a responsible person."

  Jessica ignored her twin as she studied the messages. "Mmm," she murmured. "Ben . . . David . . . I wonder what he wants." She folded up the paper and slipped it into the pocket of her jeans.

  "And Mom called. She's running late, so we're supposed to pick her up at work on our way to the fund-raiser tonight," Elizabeth said.

  Jessica's blue-green eyes were shining. "Do you think Mr. Santelli will win, Liz?" she asked. "Wouldn't it be exciting if the father of one of my fellow cheerleaders became mayor of Sweet Valley?" Maria Santelli, Mr. Santelli's daughter, attended Sweet Valley High with the twins. "Maybe once Maria is the mayor's daughter she'll invite me to all sorts of great political parties. The entire cheerleading squad will probably go to Washington to meet the President."

  Elizabeth laughed. "Running for mayor is a big job, Jess, but I don't think Mr. Santelli will be going to the White House. And I know you won't be." She gave her sister a playful jab in the ribs. "I didn't think you and Maria were all that close, anyway."

  Jessica opened the refrigerator and took out a diet soda. "Honestly, Liz. You think you know everything about me just because we're twins. Maria and I happen to be extremely close. I spend at least three days a week after school with her, remember? And we do all kinds of stuff together."

  "Right, during cheerleading practice," Elizabeth commented. "Although I did notice you and Lila eating lunch with Maria the other day. I don't suppose that has anything to do with the fact that her father is running for mayor now, does it?" Maria had always been friendlier with Elizabeth than with Jessica, until recently, when Jessica had taken a sudden interest in her.

  "For your information," Jessica said coldly, "Maria considers me a true friend." She pushed a lock of golden hair behind her ear. "Anyway, I'm going to get ready. I don't have time to stand around here and argue."

  Elizabeth was tempted to laugh, but she knew her twin well enough to sense this would turn Jessica's pout into real anger. However often, and however dramatically, she and Jessica disagreed, they knew each other inside out. They were extraordinarily close and would do anything in the world to help each other. Being that close, and looking exactly alike, was what made the twinship so special.

  Elizabeth bent down to pet Prince Albert. "Jess and I may look alike, but we sure don't act alike. Right, Prince?" she murmured. The dog gave a yelp that Elizabeth was sure meant he agreed. It was true. As far as looks went, she and Jessica were carbon copies, or clones, as Steven liked to call them. Both girls had long, silky blond hair, blue-green eyes, clear peaches-and-cream complexions, and perfect size-six figures. But as Elizabeth's boyfriend, Todd Wilkins, often remarked, their behavior was as different as night was from day.

  Jessica was four minutes younger than her twin sister, and those four minutes seemed to have made all the difference! While Elizabeth liked to read, spend time with Todd or a few close friends, or write articles and a column for Sweet Valley High's newspaper, The Oracle, Jessica loved fun, excitement, and change. All the extracurricular activities she chose
at school were high visibility, like cheerleading or membership in Pi Beta Alpha, an exclusive school sorority. With such different temperaments, it was only natural that the twins disagreed as often as they did. It was part of what made life around the Wakefield house so interesting.

  Elizabeth's reverie was broken by the sound of the telephone. She grabbed it before it rang a second time. "Hello?"

  "Jessica?"

  "Nope, Liz," she said.

  "Whoops, wrong clone. Guess where I am?" her brother asked her.

  Elizabeth laughed. "I don't know, Steve. Mars?"

  "I'm at the bus station. I'll be home in twenty minutes. I just didn't want you to leave without me for the fund-raiser." Steven had recently broken his arm in a hang-gliding accident, so he wasn't able to drive his car.

  Elizabeth laughed. "No chance of that. It looks like we're all running a little later than we'd thought, though. Otherwise, I'd pick you up."

  "Oh, that's OK," Steven said cheerfully. "I'll grab a taxi. See you soon!"

  Elizabeth felt her spirits lifting as she hung up the phone. She was really excited about the evening ahead. It had been a long, long time since the entire family had done something like this together. Which just means tonight will be all the more special, Elizabeth told herself.

  Elizabeth, Jessica, Steven, and their father were in high spirits as they drove downtown and parked at the side entrance of the building where Alice Wakefield's interior design company had its offices. There was no sign of Mrs. Wakefield yet, and the four of them continued talking and joking as they waited for her. Elizabeth felt secretly relieved to see her father in such a good mood for a change. Lately he hadn't seemed himself. He'd been unusually sensitive about his work. He would complain about his career as a lawyer; yet be resistant to advice or discussion about it. He claimed that serving the law just wasn't the profession it once was. For some reason, he no longer felt that it was worthwhile, and he'd been urging the twins and Steven to make sure they found more gratifying work than he had. His bad mood had affected all of them and the twins and Steven had noticed that he and their mother had been arguing a lot. Since Mr. Santelli's decision to run for mayor, however, Mr. Wakefield had been acting much more like his old self. He'd really thrown himself into the campaign, and much of his old energy and lightheartedness had come back.

  "Tonight should be wonderful. Steve, I'm surprised you were able to make it from school. Glad, but surprised," Mr. Wakefield commented. He glanced out the window, looking for Mrs. Wakefield. "Sometimes I forget what it's like to be a carefree college student," he added. He said it teasingly, but there was a wistful note in his voice. Elizabeth wondered if this was one of those times when he was feeling less than a hundred percent thrilled with his job.

  "Yeah, well, you know what it's like, Dad," Steven said with a laugh.

  "How was your day, Dad?" Elizabeth asked.

  Mr. Wakefield frowned. "To tell you the truth, not so great, Liz. We've hired a new associate who really rubs me the wrong way. His name is Griffin Pierce, and he's one of these really aggressive, money-hungry young lawyers who will take on any case, as long as it earns him glamour and big bucks. Unfortunately, he's been assigned to me, so I'll be working pretty closely with him."

  "I ought to interview this guy for my legal ethics project," Steven said. Recently Steven had been hard at work on an independent project for one of his courses at college. He wanted to become a lawyer in spite of what Mr. Wakefield had to say about the legal field.

  "I wouldn't recommend that. Not unless you want to prove once and for all that legal and ethics are incompatible terms," Mr. Wakefield said.

  "Maybe you should give up law to get away from this guy, Daddy," Jessica said with enthusiasm. "Do something new and fun. You could become an actor."

  "Jessica, at my age, you don't just go and change what you do," he said firmly. His face had clouded over. "What could be keeping your mother? I'd hate to be late to the fund-raiser," he murmured.

  Just then Mrs. Wakefield came hurrying out the side entrance of the office building. Her face was lit up with excitement. "Hi, everybody!" she cried, sliding into the front seat. She turned to Mr. Wakefield with a warm smile. "I didn't mean to keep you. Our meeting ran a few minutes over. We heard some pretty exciting news, too."

  "What is it?" Mr. Wakefield asked, backing the car up and pulling out into traffic.

  "You'll never believe what's happened. Remember I told you that the Valley Mall may be expanding? Well, it's definitely going to happen. They've already chosen the architects' design, and construction is due to begin any day. My firm is in the running for the contract to do all the interior design for the new wing!"

  "Mom, that's wonderful," Jessica cried. "Does that mean it will be called the Alice Wakefield wing?"

  Mrs. Wakefield laughed. "That's not terribly likely, Jess. But I'm excited about the chance to try out. This looks exactly like the kind of break our firm has been waiting for. Of course, our chances aren't that great. There will be at least four other firms competing, and some of them are very experienced. Still"—her eyes sparkled—"if we could do it, if we could get this contract . . ."

  Mr. Wakefield pulled up at the civic center. "That's wonderful news, Alice. If anyone has a crack at it, you do." He shook his head admiringly. "You've really came a long way in your business, you know that? I'm proud of you."

  "Thanks, dear. It makes me feel wonderful to know you're so supportive. I'm sorry you haven't been more excited about your own career lately—"

  Mr. Wakefield cut her off. "Nonsense! I just hope something this exciting comes up for me one of these days, too."

  "It will," Mrs. Wakefield said, leaning over and giving him a hug. "All right, everybody. Let's go in and give our support to Mr. Santelli," she added. "Something tells me he's going to be the next mayor!"

  On Tuesday morning, when Jessica came downstairs to breakfast, she found Mrs. Wakefield sitting at the table with a cup of coffee and the morning paper.

  "I can't believe it," she said as Jessica poured herself some orange juice. Mr. Wakefield, Elizabeth, and Steven came in as she spoke. "Everything was so wonderful at the campaign party last night, you'll never guess in a million years what's happened!"

  "What?" Jessica asked.

  "Mr. Santelli's been accused of accepting bribes as city planning commissioner." Mrs. Wakefield shook her head. "I'm stunned. I can't imagine Peter ever doing anything against the law."

  "There's no way Mr. Santelli would ever do anything illegal!" Elizabeth exclaimed. The party the night before had confirmed Elizabeth's sense that Mr. Santelli was a wonderful candidate for mayor. He'd always been a highly respected city official. They had all left the party full of excitement about the election.

  Mr. Wakefield's face was pale. "That's absurd. Peter would never accept a bribe. Not in a million years. I can't imagine who could make an allegation like that."

  "Neither can I," Mrs. Wakefield said, "but it's rotten timing. Even if the charges are dropped, one accusation can destroy a campaign."

  "Well, it isn't over till it's over, Alice," Mr. Wakefield said. "Don't start assuming Peter's out of the race. It's exactly that kind of reasoning that will cost him votes."

  Mrs. Wakefield looked surprised. "I wasn't—"

  "It makes me so angry," Mr. Wakefield cut in, his expression darkening. "Peter's worked for this for years. And now one stupid lie could undo him. It isn't fair."

  A moment of silence passed before Steven spoke up. "Well, listen," he said. "Maybe this is all just a terrible misunderstanding. I can't believe Mr. Santelli won't be able to clear his name. He's a wonderful candidate."

  "I think so, too," Elizabeth agreed.

  She picked up the newspaper. There was the story, right on the front page. "Mayoral Candidate Charged with Accepting Bribes!" the headline said. An "unidentified source" was cited. Elizabeth's stomach knotted up as she read the article.

  Everything had seemed to be going right for Mr. Santel
li the night before. The story couldn't be accurate. Elizabeth was convinced that there was absolutely no truth to the charges.

  Two

  "I can't wait to hear what everyone at school is saying about Maria's father," Jessica announced, climbing into the passenger seat of the Fiat Spider she shared with Elizabeth.

  "Jessica, I'm sure Maria must be pretty upset about all this. The last thing she needs is to think people are talking about her."

  Jessica sighed loudly. Elizabeth could be so unbelievably good sometimes, it drove her crazy!

  "Well, I think it's interesting," she said in a sulky voice. "That's all. I mean, maybe Maria's father really is crooked. Wouldn't it be exciting if he were?"

  Elizabeth shook her head. "Sometimes, Jess," she said, "your idea of what's exciting—"

  "It isn't like he couldn't mend his ways," Jessica interrupted. "It could be just like this movie I saw on TV last week." She started filling Elizabeth in on the plot, which was so long and complicated, it took the rest of the way to school to tell it.

  Elizabeth was still shaking her head when she got out of the car in the school parking lot. "Do me a favor, Jessica. Don't compare real life to the movies. I'm sure Maria won't want to hear about it." And before Jessica could say another word, Elizabeth had gone bounding off to greet Todd.

  Jessica watched as her sister gave Todd a big hug. Sometimes I can't believe we're twins, she thought. She couldn't imagine being the sort of girl who really wanted to do her homework every night, who really wanted to waste every single weekend with the same boy, instead of going out with lots of different gorgeous guys. There was nothing really wrong with Todd. He was cute and nice, but Jessica thrived on change.

  She hurried toward the school. She could hardly wait to find Lila Fowler and Amy Sutton, her two best friends, to hear what they had to say about the news!

  "Everyone's talking about Maria," Lila said the minute Jessica found her and Amy in the hallway by their lockers. The only daughter of one of the richest men in Southern California, Lila loved excitement—and scandal. "That's it—he's finished. History," she added dramatically. "Done for."