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PartTwo
ChapterTwenty-Seven
Jane
Angelina is really upset. She keeps driving all over town like a bat out of hell this morning. I don’t bother holding in my amusement. In fact, I let it out vigorously. I haven’t had a good belly laugh in a long time. Years, probably. It feels good.
She started going crazy after I showed up to pick up her brats from daycare again. Only this time it didn’t work. Ol’ Angie wised up since last time and came up with a password. It took me aback at first, but I’m nothing if not adaptable, so I acted like I knew all about the passwords. At first when I claimed I’d forgotten the one I came up with this morning, I thought I had the chick behind the desk convinced. But then she said she had to call me.
I told her to have fun with that and went to the bathroom while she made the call. That way I wasn’t standing right there when she was talking to “me.” The whole time, I imagined my spoiled twin freaking out and more than likely having to leave some snooty hair appointment early.
When I returned, I played it off like I was annoyed and I left, telling her how pissed I was and that I’d be back soon to tell her off.
The look on that chick’s face was priceless. Too bad I couldn’t have been there to see her and Angie going at it. That would’ve been fun.
Oh, well. I have more important things to do. Like watch my twin burn rubber all over this mind-numbing little town that she seems to think is so exciting. There’s no graffiti, no obvious drug sales, no “escort” services. This place is like some Hallmark Channel movie or something. I half expect it to start snowing, everyone to stop what they’re doing and break out into song, then some big-city mogul to come into town and fall for the most innocent single girl living here.
I hate those movies. People like me never get happily-ever-afters. I thought they were only the things of fairy tales until the day I found my twin sister. I’d known about the adoption for as long as I can remember—Mom told me about it before drugs took over her life—but it wasn’t until I took that spit test that I realized there was someone out there with my face.
At first, I didn’t care. Then curiosity got the better of me, and I did some digging. It wasn’t easy in the beginning because the site would only tell me that I had an identical twin, but it wouldn’t give me any more information unless we connected. I almost clicked the button to connect with her.
Almost.
But I wanted to see if she would click to find out more about me. The company would notify her of the connection.
She never requested the information, and I sure wasn’t going to be the one to reach out first. If she didn’t want to hear from me, I didn’t want to hear from her, either. Forget that. And I’m nothing if not resourceful, so I got to work.
I reached out to a private investigator. Not because I have enough money to be able to afford luxuries like that. That’s laughable. My mom didn’t leave me two pennies to rub together the day she overdosed.Mymom left me bills and other debts I refused to pay. Not my problem. There was nothing in the barely standing mobile home that I wanted—I checked—before I left town. One of her druggie boyfriends or pimps could take care of the mess she left behind.
I’m moving forward. It’s time I get the life I deserve, the one Angie got instead of me. How fair is it that we share the same DNA but she grew up in the lap of luxury, while I moved from one dilapidated apartment to the next until my mom inherited my grandparents’ mobile home, a rustbucket that smelled like dog butt, rotting fish, and cigarettes? Now it also reeks of corpse since nobody noticed my mom hadn’t shown up anywhere for an entire week.
Watching my sister makes me sick. Her pampered life should’ve been mine. It was nothing more than a clerical decision that led me to a life of taking care of myself from a young age while dear ol’ Angie ate from a silver spoon.
It’s time for a reckoning.
I thought about killing her and just stepping into her life, but that comes with too many risks. Too many things could go wrong. I decided early on that I would have to be slow and meticulous in my efforts to steal her life. The life that should’ve belonged to me in the first place.
What makes her think she’s so special?
I can hardly believe how different our lives are. She grew up with two parents who adored her. Sure, Angie has a psychopath for a brother that only made her parents appreciate her all the more. Now she has the perfect family and the perfect husband. He’s an anesthesiologist! I looked that up, and it’s one of the highest paying professions in existence. Our girl knows what she’s doing.
It didn’t take me long to decide I needed to insert myself into her life. How hard could it be? I look exactly like the overprivileged little princess.
But as I came to find, it wouldn’t be a simple switch. Convincing her acquaintances was easy enough, but Peter wasn’t so easy—a much bigger challenge.
Angie is nothing like me, so I had to spend an insane amount of time studying her. Scrolling through her social media accounts was enough to make my eyes bleed. Must be nice to have a perfect life and all the money she wants at her disposal—all while not having to work!
How did she get so lucky, when I ended up with nothing? Less than nothing, really.
My mom wasn’t always so bad off. She was married for a while, but that didn’t last. He found out about her drug addiction and tried to help her, but he soon figured out she was beyond help. He disappeared one night, never to be seen again. I always wished he’d have taken me with him, but Mom fought him for me. She always saw me as hers and hers alone. I wasn’t his biologically, so who could blame him for leaving me behind?
Me. I did. And I made sure he eventually paid.
But in the end, he was just one guy in a line of many. They were all basically the same, though they varied in their degree of acceptance of her drug habits. Eventually my so-called mom stopped trying to hook up with clean guys and went straight for the other druggies. The best I could hope for from those idiots was that they would dismiss me and leave me alone. It was the ones who preferred a young daughter to a used-up mother that showed me just how cruel the world really was.
But soon, I’ll experience what the other side is like.
And my twin will find herself facing what the world actually has to offer people without money and entitlement. I’ve laid all the groundwork. Now it’s time I take over her life.
