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I stayed quiet, watching him.
“He said the old necklace was special, that it meant something else, but now, it was for me because I was theirs. His and Mom’s.” He put his hands together. “They gave it to me when I was like real little. I’ve had it for forever.”
I stared at the two, all that meaning there. What he’d said was so beautiful, wonderful.
“But I hadn’t seen mine in years,” he said, and I looked up. He nodded. “I used to lose it all the time, and it meant so much I had my mom keep track of it. The day of my party, I pocketed that one I found, then texted my mom after. I wanted to know where mine was so I could compare them. I hadn’t seen mine in a while, you know, so I wasn’t completely sure they were even the same.” He focused on me. “I also asked her if another was made. I figured there could be a possibility because I was, uh… well, because I was a twin.”
My throat dry, I squeezed the emblems. “What happened?”
“Well, nothing at first. My mom’s not much of a texter, and both my parents were out of town that day.” His breath was harsh, labored. He gripped his legs. “She didn’t call me until late. Told me where mine was and confirmed there’d been two. She said my sister Pilar had the other one, and both were on our baby blankets before Mom and Dad made mine into a necklace.”
I rubbed my chest, my throat.
“I bet I’ve seen that photo a million times. Us. Me and Pilar in those blankets.” He faced me, his mouth turned down. “But I never put two and two together. That my necklace came from the blanket and her charm obviously came from hers.” He pressed his hands to his face, his mouth. “I just hadn’t put it together, and even after my mom told me the connection, I didn’t believe what I had was Pilar’s. I mean, how could I? I couldn’t.” He studied the sky. “It didn’t make sense, and it definitely didn’t that you found it.”
I sat up, struggling to.
“No sense at all,” he continued, looking at me. “You looking for it in that hallway, my hallway in my school didn’t make sense. Pilar’s would have been on her baby blanket.” His jaw tightened. “She was taken in her baby blanket so no, that didn’t make sense.”
I’d heard how I was taken, the details. The news had talked all about it, and Thatcher had given us a room with a TV. The baby had been swiped, right from the hospital, and in the middle of the night. She’d been taken from a family and only been a newborn. She’d been in the NICU because she’d been sick.
“I found my necklace after the conversation with my mom.” Ares stared at the ground. “She told me where it was. It was easy.” His words sounded haunted, his eyes appearing the same, and I think he was cold now the way he squeezed his arms. “I compared the two and…”
“Ares.”
His attention shifted, on me again. “It still didn’t make sense, and I wouldn’t believe it.” Emotion hit his voice, his eyes. His nostrils flared. “I spent so long looking for her.”
I noticed he didn’t say me, but I didn’t blame him. I was sure a lot of pain came with that search.
And I had heard about it, his search.
That topic was for another day, another thought, and I definitely couldn’t think about it now. This was too much for me now.
I covered my mouth. “Is that why you poked me?” I asked, and though he didn’t look at me, I knew he heard me. His back straightened, his jaw tight. “That day in the hall at your house? You poked me, right? Got my DNA?”
The news talked about that too, how the families had DNA evidence, and it didn’t take me long to put together how they’d gotten it. I thought Ares had stabbed me with something that day, a prick to my leg.
“I needed evidence,” he said, glancing my way. “I needed the truth, and even after I had it, I still didn’t believe it.” He scanned me. “No matter how obvious it was.”
He didn’t even have to elaborate on that. His own friends had said how much we looked like each other, acted like each other. “You’ve known that long then? Since then?”
“Not long after. Found out the DNA results that day Bru did the haze.”
I closed my eyes. That day had been a mess, and I recalled Ares acting weird that day. He’d texted me out of the blue and had been weird. He’d been weird about Dorian.
Dorian…
Chills covered my body again. My face touched my knees.
“I was going to tell you.” His whole body shifted in my direction. “I wanted to tell you so bad, Sloane. I swear to God—”
“Why didn’t you?” I shot, eyes cloudy, voice strained. “You knew that whole fucking time, and you said not one word, Ares. You didn’t say a goddamn thing to me. You didn’t… You didn’t…” Tears blinked down, and I couldn’t finish. My throat was raw, and I couldn’t see. “He didn’t tell me either.”
I barely heard those last words spoken myself. I didn’t want to hear them, feel them.
He lied. They all lied.
Everyone in my life lied to me, everyone I cared about the most. Everyone I trusted, and especially Dorian Prinze. His lie had been the worst.
