Page 86 of Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)

“Yeah, okay, I’m in too,” Aimes says.

Julia and Sana wrap her in a tight hug. “You’re gonna be great,” Julia says.

“And even if you bomb, it’ll be fine,” Sana says. She looks at them both and says, “It sounded more reassuring in my head.”

Across from Aimes, Qiang Wen nods. “All right. I’m not sure what is it you want us to do, Vera, but okay.”

“Good,” Vera says. She’s already whipped out her phone. “Robin, come and shoot the video.”

“I’m her cameraperson,” Robin tells everyone proudly.

“She is very good,” Vera says. “Robin, you shoot from that angle, okay? Remember, right side of my face is the good side. And don’t make me have double chin.”

“Grandma, you don’t have to worry about double chins, you know you look like a bad bitch.”

For a second, nobody in the room dares to breathe as everyone awaits Vera’s response.

Vera nods slowly. “A bad bitch. Hmm. Yes, I like that sound.”

The group breathes a collective sigh of relief.

“All right, everybody!” Vera calls out. “Places!”

“Wait, what?” Riki says. “Are we all in this video?”

“No. Just me, I am star, of course, and then Aimes, Qiang Wen, and TJ. The rest of you stand over there so you don’t ruin shot.”

“Geez, okay,” Sana says. They all file obediently to one side of the room.

Vera primps her hair, then nods at Robin, who starts recording the live stream. Vera looks at the camera and says in an ominous tone, “Who is Xander Lin? I think I find out who he is. His name is Thomas, and he is a member of”—dramatic pause—“a cult.”

Aimes can almost hear thedun dun dun. As Vera launches intoher dramatic speech about Xander, Aimes swallows the growing lump in her throat. She feels like she’s about to be sick. Can she really do this?

Someone places a hand on her arm. It’s Qiang Wen. He gives her an encouraging nod. “You will be okay,” he whispers.

Aimes nods, biting back her tears.

“—faking everything online, including his romantic relationship,” Vera says. She looks over at Aimes and gestures for her to join in.

Here it goes. Aimes steps into the camera’s line of sight. She looks straight into the eye of the lens. How many people are watching right now? “Um,” she squeaks. She clears her throat and tries again. “Hey, everyone. It’s Aimes here. I need to come clean about something. I’ve been faking everything on my profile. My place is a mess. It’s not at all Instagrammable. But there are two small spots that I keep neat so I can make content with them. And, like my apartment, my relationship with Xan was fake. We weren’t actually a couple. More like business partners. He would come to my place once a week, and we’d make content for an hour or two, then he’d leave.”

Her voice trembles and she wavers. But then she sees the crowd of people in front of her, some of them complete strangers just an hour ago, and others more familiar faces, and all of them are looking at her with goodwill in their eyes. Sana’s got her hands clasped in front of her and is wearing aYou go girlexpression, and Oliver is nodding at her to keep going. The sight of it bolsters her. Maybe her online life is about to implode, but if the trade-off is getting this group of people as her friends, it’s worth it.

“The day before Xan died, he came to me and asked me to help him expose something. Some huge secret. And part of thatsecret was our fake relationship. He wanted to do a live stream to expose everything. I got scared. I had gone too deep with my lies, and I didn’t want to be exposed for the fraud I am, so I told him no. And I have regretted it ever since. I am so sorry to everyone I have lied to.”

“We forgive you, Aimes,” Vera says, putting an arm around Aimes’s trembling shoulders. “And it’s not just Aimes who having fake relationship with Xander Lin. He also have same thing with his so-call grandfather and his talent manager.”

This time, Qiang Wen takes the stage. Aimes steps backward and listens in growing sadness as Qiang Wen tells the world about how Xander filled a hole in his life that he didn’t even know existed and how, like Aimes, he had turned his back on Xander in the end. TJ follows suit, and soon, a vivid picture is painted. One of a lost soul who, for whatever reason, wanted to create a perfect life online for himself.

“And now, Xander’s friend Millie is missing,” Vera says. “Millie is the one who bring this case to my attention. She is very sweet girl, here is a photo of her.” Vera pauses, then says out of the corner of her mouth, “Robin, you are posting photo of Millie now, yes?”

“Oh!” Robin says. “Uh, okay, let me just…There you go. It’s up.”

“Okay, good. You all see Millie? She is very good girl, very sweet, and I am very worried about her. I am scare that something bad happen to her, same thing that happen to Xander. Because even though the police say his death looking like suicide, I don’t think so. It’s a bit too convenient for him to want to expose big secret and then next day is found dead. Don’t you think so?”

“We’re getting alotof comments coming in,” Robin says.

“We’ll read through them,” Riki says. He and Sana move to stand on either side of her, tapping on the phone screen and scrolling through the comments.

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