Page 85 of Mirror Image

Mary flinches. “Wh-what? Why?”

“Do it! Or so help me God, I’ll come across this table and do it for you!”

“Mary, you don’t have to—” I begin, but it’s too late.

Mary opens the robe, pushes the collar of her silky pajamas off her bruised shoulder—

There it is.

A tattoo.

Two simple line-drawn figures that, up close, resolve into something unmistakable:

Gemini.

The Twins.

I lean in without meaning to.

Of course. Of course that’s what it is.

Terry’s voice breaks open like a fault line.

“My daughter doesn’t have tattoos. She”—she points with a shaking hand—“she does. That is Samantha. That’s Samantha.” Her voice collapses, shredded by grief and fury. “What did you do to Mary? What did you do to my daughter?”

Suddenly I’m moving without thinking, dropping into a squat so my eyes line up with the girl’s. She’s trembling, breath ragged, shoulders caved inward like she’s trying to disappear.

I take her hand and squeeze.

Quietly. Carefully.

“You can tell me the truth,” I whisper. “Are you Mary? Or . . . are you Sam?”

Her eyes fall to the table.

There’s my answer.

I straighten and turn to the others. “Okay. We need to stop this. Right now. She’s in no condition—”

“I want her arrested!” Terry screeches, nearly coming out of her skin. “She killed Mary!”

Doug’s grief hardens into something sharper. “We want the investigation reopened,” he says tightly. “We want charges.”

Rivera looks like he’d rather walk blindfolded into a nest of hornets.

“With all due respect,” he begins, rubbing a hand over his scalp, “no one killed anyone. The Me ruled the death accidental. Snakebite. No signs of foul play.”

Julian slams his palm on the table hard enough to rattle the water glasses.

“Why would you do this?” he demands, leaning over Mary—no, Sam—with fury he’s barely containing. “Why would you pretend to be Mary? What were you trying to accomplish, Samantha?”

She recoils so sharply, she nearly curls into herself.

“Julian, enough!” I snap. “You’re scaring her.”

Doug cuts in viciously. “She did it for the money! You wanted the trust fund, the house, the lifestyle—you wanted to steal Mary’s life!”

“Can’t you arrest her for identity theft?” he fires at Rivera.