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“I just thought you’d want to,” she’d said as they were driving into the city one day, the traffic stalled as they were trapped on the Bay Bridge. Rain had been steadily falling, the water on either side of the bridge choppy, cars all around them. “I’m going to do it! I’m going to make James Cahill fall in love with me. It would have just been easier if you helped me out, you know. He’s got a wandering eye, but we’ll see to it that he is kind of like blinded by us—can’t get away from us, you know, sees us everywhere he goes so that he can’t get us—or you—or me—out of his mind. We’ll be everywhere—looking hot, hot, hot—always ready to be with him, you know, sexually or romantically or whatever, so that he never gets a chance to find someone else; then we could really get him to marry us. Other guys will look at us, but we’ll only have eyes for James!”
“Marry?” Sophia repeated.
Julia’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “Of course, silly.” She laughed in delight, her enthusiasm contagious. “How else are we going to get what was really ours in the first place?”
Julia had explained how their mother, Deidre, had given the twins up for adoption even though she herself had been estranged at one time from her mother, their grandmother, Marla Amhurst, who had married a Cahill—James’s father!
“So he’s not related to us?” Sophia had asked, intrigued, and really, James was handsome. She’d seen pictures Julia had on her phone.
“Not really. His mother is half-sister to our grandmother or something like that. It’s no biggie. But the point is, he’s rich, rich, rich. Going to inherit mega millions, and I’d like to be a part of it. I thought you might want to also.”
Sophia had stared down at a picture of James.
“I don’t know . . .”
“Well, that’s fine.” Traffic had begun to move again, and as they inched across the dark water, Sophia had thought of her life, how lonely and empty it had been, and now she and Julia could be together.
So Julia had dropped it for a while, but as the weeks had bled into months and they’d become closer, Sophia had slowly decided her sister was right. Julia had sworn no one would get hurt, not really. They were just reclaiming what they should have gotten in the first place.
Eventually, Sophia had agreed to go along with the plan. After all, it was all about family, wasn’t it? Finally, she had a sister and not just a sister but an identical twin! Everything would work out. Julia’s enthusiasm had been contagious. Also, the more time they spent together, the more like Julia Sophia became. They could finish each other’s sentences and thought so much alike it was weird—but in a good way. And Sophia eventually came around to her sister’s way of thinking. Hell, yes, they were entitled to a piece of the family fortune!
Then she’d met James.
At the heart of the scheme.
At the heart of everything.
How the hell had that happened?
And then there was something else . . .
As much as she hated the idea, she had a sneaking suspicion that Julia had something to do with what had happened to Phoebe, but she wouldn’t go there—at least not yet. Certainly, her sister couldn’t have tried to kill the old bat. Sure, the old lady was a snoop and irritating, but . . . seriously, her twin wouldn’t go that far.
Or would she?
The uneasy feeling persisted, because though she’d tried to convince herself differently, Sophia had noticed a darker side to her twin. She hated to think of it as evil; that wasn’t it really, but Julia was quick to get mad, her temper explosive, and little things irritated her. Worse yet, she was always suspicious, and she’d taken to the idea that Phoebe Matrix was onto them, like she was a master spy or something. Julia had mentioned that living here would be a lot easier if Phoebe wasn’t around . . . well, that was true, but so what?
Sophia chewed her lower lip, refused to think of the time that Julia, in California, had berated a coffee barista for sloshing coffee on her, yelling at the girl, calling her an “idiot,” and threatening to sue the shop, causing such a scene that the girl, all of sixteen, maybe, crumpled into tears and ran away from her station with all the patrons and workers in the coffee shop looking on. Only when the girl was completely humiliated had Julia been satisfied. Another time, a feral cat had made the mistake of crawling into the open window of her car and sunbathing. Julia had discovered it and threw open the door, finding an umbrella to shoo the skinny thing out. She’d landed a blow, and the cat had turned and hissed, ears back, needle-like teeth showing before jetting across the street and nearly being run over by a passing pickup. “Too bad the truck missed,” Julia had remarked, eyeing the feline as it skittered down an alley. For the next two hours, she’d been in a dark mood. And how about all the times Julia had claimed that life wasn’t fair, that she’d gotten a bad deal, that she would “get back” at anyone who crossed her. She’d gotten a look in her eyes that had actually caused goose pimples to rise on Sophia’s skin. No matter how many times Sophia had warned her to “calm down” or “chill out,” Julia hadn’t. In fact, once, when discussing how unfair the situation was, Julia, who had been chopping onions with a vengeance in the kitchen, had nicked herself, blood dripping, onion juice getting into the cut. She’d whirled, holding the knife up between their noses. “Back off,” she’d warned, and in that second, Sophia had felt her heart clutch, and she’d wondered fleetingly how far her twin could go, just how dangerous Julia could be. Julia’s eyes had narrowed behind the bloody bl
ade and, ignoring the drips from her fingers falling to the floor, she’d glared at her twin and warned, “I thought you of all people would understand! Either we’re in this together, Sophia, or we’re not!”
“Wow,” Sophia had responded, and that had sent Julia spiraling into an even darker, more desperate mood.
Julia had tensed, her teeth bared, and for the briefest of seconds, Sophia had worried for her life. Then her sister had muttered, “Oh, fuck it!” and tossed the knife into the sink before hurrying to the bathroom for a Band-Aid.
So now, was it possible that Julia had done something to Phoebe Matrix? That seemed unlikely. Still, she felt a chill in her blood and had to tell herself she was letting her imagination run wild.
How had this all turned out so awful? When Julia had contacted her last year, Sophia had been ecstatic. Through one of those genetic-testing companies, they’d found each other, met at the bistro, and were both taken aback. Not only a sister, but a twin!
It had been a little spooky, but so exciting.
And then, eventually, Julia had told her about her plan to get their hands on the fortune that was rightfully theirs. Though reluctant at first, Sophia had eventually embraced the scheme, even the part about pretending to be one person. Twins might scare James off, but one girl who was always around would keep him interested, or so they’d hoped. And it would be fun, Julia had insisted. They could make a game of it, fool everyone in Riggs Crossing. That sounded a little lame to Sophia, but she hadn’t said so—Julia had been so excited. Sophia hadn’t wanted to burst her bubble. Julia had also insisted that they deserved their piece of the “San Francisco old money pie.” After all, hadn’t they both suffered enough? Sophia was an only child whose parents were wrapped up in their own lives, their marriage brittle, their interest in their only child waning as she’d become a teenager. And Julia had ended up with younger siblings whom her parents had doted upon. She’d been little more than a slave helping take care of them.
Neither Sophia nor Julia had been given a fair shake in life!
So Sophia had put her reservations aside and gone along with the plan:
Get close to James Cahill. Real close. Be always around, so that he can’t imagine life without Sophia. Eventually marry him. Get what was due to both of the twins! The goal was to walk down the aisle before he inherited his millions.
