Page 24 of My Twin Sister

“Just text her,” he says. “Ask when she’s going to be back.”

“That’s not too clingy?” I ask.

“No, not at all. You guys have plans, right? Just see when she’s wanting to go for your walk.”

I nod. “Yeah. You’re right.”

I pull out of his arms and immediately feel the coolness of the air where there was just warmth. I text my sister and stare at the screen, waiting to see a reply. My heart leaps out of my ribcage when I see the bubbles pop up that show she’s responding.

So sorry! I actually just got to the café with Brooke. Plans got delayed. Rain check on the walk?

My heart sinks. I can feel Wyatt watching my face and I try my best not to look as devastated as I feel, but I fail. Tears come rushing fast and hard, and Wyatt scoops me back into his arms.

“She’s bailing on me,” I say between sobs. “To hang out with Brooke O’Neil.”

“Babe, it’s okay. She’s staying here, she’ll be back. You guys will have plenty of time together.”

“No. She stayed away from me for eighteen years! And then she comes back and she’d rather hang out with someone she doesn’t even know. She should be here with family.”

I don’t even know if my words are coherent, but they come out of me like vomit. As I say them, I feel like a whiny brat. But am I not even a little justified? My twin sister just reappeared in my life after I thought she was dead for almost two decades. Literally a day ago. Am I so out of line to think she should be here with me? Catching up with me on the last eighteen years of our lives?

“I’m okay,” I say, pushing away from Wyatt and wiping my face with my sleeve. “Sorry. I lost it for a second, but I’m okay.”

He looks at me with a raised eyebrow.

“I promise. I’m fine. You’re right. She’ll be back and we have plenty of time in the grand scheme of things.”

I say words I don’t mean, and Wyatt takes a step back, accepting them. Does he know I’m lying and is choosing to let it go like I do to Grace? Or does he believe me when I say I’m okay?

Eighteen: Grace

I feel horrible for blowing off my plans with Geny, but I can’t leave this café. Not yet. I met up with Brooke an hour ago. I expected maybe thirty minutes of talking and then I’d go back to Geny’s and we’d have our walk. But Brooke blew that out of the window.

“The Raven police covered up my sister’s death,” she said.

“Why would they do that?”

She shrugs. “You tell me.”

I look at her with wide eyes. “How would I know?”

She pushes air out her nose with a smirk. “Oh, I don’t know. Because they did the same thing to you. Only you didn’t die. So you know something you’re not supposed to and I want to know what that is.”

I lean back in my chair. “Whoa now. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She tilts her head. I stay silent and keep a straight face. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I don’t know what happened to Morgan, but it doesn’t have anything to do with what happened to me. It can’t.

Can it?

Sure, she disappeared into the water too, but that isn’t exactly strange. The lake is dangerous and it’s taken more than a few lives over the years. But that’s where the commonalities end. Brooke is a grieving sister looking for answers, and I don’t fault her at all for that. I don’t even doubt that there’s something sketchy about either her death or the way it was handled. It just doesn’t have anything to do with what happened to me, and I tell her so.

“I think you’re wrong,” she says. “But it’s fine. I’ll figure it out myself.”

She stands up to leave.

“Wait,” I say. She looks at me expectantly and she sits back down. “I’m not bullshitting you when I say I don’t think what happened to your sister and what happened to me have anything to do with each other.”

She moves to get right back up, so I keep going.