The Twin

by Natasha Preston

  “Why does that make you think she’s killed her now?”

  “I went to the bridge where Mom died. One side of the bridge has a tiny dip, but the other side is a long drop with rocks at the bottom. It’s on the side of a hill that leads to a farm. Mom wouldn’t have taken that route, not when in the next field there is a public footpath. Someone—Iris—made her take that route so she could push her.”

  “Babe, why?” he breathes. His eyes are wide and jaw hanging slightly open.

  “I found a book in Mom’s closet. It was about child psychology and mental illness in children. I think Mom suspected something was wrong with Iris and Iris found out.”

  “Ivy, you’re accusing your sister of murdering two people—and one of them is her own mother.”

  “Yes,” I reply. “I just need to prove it.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know. But I have to figure out exactly what happened to Kat first.”

  “How do you plan to do that?”

  I shrug. “I’ll work it out. She must have at least one person in her school who was friends with her still. I’ll find them and go from there.”

  “How did she die?”

  “The posts on her Facebook suggest that she fell while taking a selfie. Iris doesn’t have much strength, but she can shove someone.”

  “Jesus, Ivy.”

  “It’s a lot, I know.”

  “How are you so matter-of-fact about this?”

  “I have to be, Ty.” It’s eating me up. I can’t think about much else other than what my sister is doing and has done. “I can either sit back and wait to see if anyone else figures it out, or I can take control. I haven’t had control of my own life since she moved here, and I’m done with that.”

  He shakes his head. “If you’re right about this, she could turn on you.”

  “She already has. Look at everything that’s happened. She’s alienated me from my friends, taken over the swim team, got everyone on her side, convinced the teachers I’m a test thief, and tried to cause problems between us by sending that picture.”

  “That was Iris?”

  “I know it was. I found a burner phone in her room. A really old one that had the battery drained and no charger.”

  “Where did she get the picture?”

  “My guess is someone on the football team. If it was a cheerleader, it would have been leaked by now. All she had to do is go through someone’s phone at a party and find it.”

  “The picture was old, right? Wouldn’t it be buried? The number of selfies people take alone…”

  “Folders, Ty. I have tons of named folders in my photos.”

  “That’s crazy.”

  “That’s Iris.”

  “What are you going to do now? You should go to your dad.”

  I laugh, but there is no humor in my voice. “He doesn’t even believe I wouldn’t steal. You really think he, or anyone, would think I’m telling the truth when I spill this secret?”

  His shoulders drop because he knows I’m right.

  It’s okay. I have time to make things right. Now that Iris isn’t in most of my classes, I’m concentrating better. The teachers will see that; Dad will notice the change. I’m working on gaining trust all while snooping for things to cause doubt in Iris. I’m going to start by talking about her old friends to Dad. You know, why don’t we reach out to them and see if they want to visit.

  First, though, I need to back off from her and let her think she’s winning.

  Iris has started this at a sprint but in a marathon, you have to pace yourself. She’s going to burn out and I won’t have even broken a sweat.

  My time is coming, and my sister is going down.

  46

  Iris followed me to school in her car. We have an unspoken rule to not leave our house together. Neither of us wants to be in the other’s company. She can’t have waited longer than twenty seconds.

  Is it just my rule, then? We’ve been avoiding each other all week.

  I get out of my car and watch her drive past to a spot closer to the building. She parks near Ellie’s car.

  I cross the lot, turning my head from the blistering sun. It’s much hotter today than yesterday. The air is dry, and I think a storm is coming, but right now we’re in the hotter-than-hell stage.

  Jogging up the steps outside school, I shove the door open and walk toward my locker. Ty will meet me there, but until I see him, my heart beats with nerves.

  I bite my bottom lip and keep my eyes on my end goal. The assistant principal’s voice comes over the speaker. “Would Ivy Mason please come to the principal’s office?”

  I let out a small gasp. I’m not supposed to see him until the end of the month when he checks in to discuss my behavior. It’s absurd. I’ve never been in trouble before. Now, thanks to Iris, I’m a regular in the principal’s office. Yet, he doesn’t see the connection either.

  Everything is being blamed on Mom’s death, not Iris’s presence.

  I turn around slowly because my locker is in the opposite direction of where I’ve been summoned. I’m not aware of Iris doing anything else, but when do I ever get a memo?

  “What’s she done now?” a voice whispers behind me as I make the walk of shame.

  I’m not going to look back and see who it was. It doesn’t matter. Everyone is talking about me anyway. People who don’t even know me are talking about me. It’s a small school, but I keep to myself.

  I walk into the assistant principal’s office, trying to stay calm.

  “Ivy Mason is here,” the secretary calls out, looking up at me over a folder.

  It’s a manila folder but I would assume mine is sitting on the principal’s desk with him poring over it.

  “You can go in, Ivy.”

  “Ivy, take a seat,” Principal Grant says, clearing his throat as I open the door.

  “Okay,” I whisper, my throat suddenly dryer than the air outside.

  My jellied legs carry me to his desk. I sit down opposite him. “What is this about?”

  I sit down and curl my fingertips into my palms.

  “This morning, when the pool was checked, it was found that the chlorine level was thirty PPM. We have had to cancel the next swim meet, and if the water cannot be treated, we will have to drain the pool.”

  My eyes widen. “Oh my God.” A safe level is between three and five for our pool.

  His dark eyes pierce into mine like he’s waiting for something.

  Oh.

  My palm slams down on my chest. “You think I did it?”

  “We’re speaking to a few people. But, Ivy, you have recently been removed from the team and there have been other…issues.”

  “I would never do that! I’m doing everything I can to prove that I haven’t done all the things I’ve been accused of so I can get back on the team. I would never do anything to the pool or to hurt the team. Please, you have to believe me.”

  “Can you tell me where you were last night?”

  “At home,” I reply. “I didn’t do this. I’m training hard to impress a scout from Stanford!”

  My skin prickles from the heat flooding my scalp and fingertips. The accusation makes me feel sick. And what’s worse is that it’s going to be so hard to get anyone to believe me. I’m the obvious choice.

  My lungs feel like they’re being squeezed in a vise. The team will blame me. Coach too. I’ll never get a scholarship.

  “Who was with you, Ivy?”

  I shake my head, tears welling in my eyes and blurring my vision. “No one until my dad got back at ten.”

  “Where was your sister?”

  At the pool, setting me up.

  I didn’t think she could sink much lower than she has. I thought she would get bored when she got what she wanted. She has my f
riends, my spot on the team, everyone eating out of her hands. Even Dad is looking at me differently.

  My heart beats too fast as my Stanford dream sinks to the bottom of the thirty PPM pool.

  “I don’t know. She said she was going out after school but didn’t tell me where or with who.”

  She doesn’t tell me anything these days. Unless Dad is present, then she’s all about helping Ivy through her breakdown.

  “Ivy, this is very serious.”

  “I know,” I croak. “Hopefully they’ll find out who did it because it wasn’t me. I want my name cleared, and I want my shot at a scholarship. I’ve worked too hard to sabotage myself! I wouldn’t do that to the team either. I love those girls.”

  He holds his palms up. “No one is accusing you.”

  My eye twitches. “You’ve called me in here to question where I was last night.”

  “Like I said, you won’t be the only one I speak with.”

  “But I’m the first, so that tells me a lot. I know that things have been falling apart recently,” I say, careful not to sound too defensive but also not admitting any fault, “but I’m not stupid.”

  “No one could ever accuse you of being stupid, Ivy. You’re a straight-A student.”

  “What else do you need from me?” I ask.

  He threads his fingers together and lays his hand on the desk. “Only the truth.”

  “I went straight home from school. I was going to watch Ty’s practice, but I decided not to, since people—and by people, I mean cheerleaders—aren’t that friendly anymore. When I got home, I worked on an essay for English Lit, made some pasta for dinner, and watched Netflix. I didn’t leave my house again until this morning.”

  “Okay,” he says, nodding. “Did you speak to anyone?”

  “Ty, when he got home from practice.”

  “What time was that?”

  This is sounding more and more like an interrogation.

  “Around five. I didn’t do this.”

  He looks straight through me like he doesn’t believe a word I’m saying.

  “I would never do anything to the pool.”

  “All right, Ivy. You can go.”

  “I can?”

  No calling my dad in? No suspension?

  “I have a few more people to speak to.”

  Reading between the lines there: Then I’ll come back and find you.

  * * *

  • • •

  The rest of the day passes so painfully slowly that I want to whack my head against something. I walk down the hallway, and at the end is Iris, standing with a big group of people and laughing. Haley and Sophie stand with her on one side, Ellie and cheerleaders on the other. A few of the football team are scattered around too.

  I take a deep breath as my heart drops to the floor.

  The whispers around school are obviously that Ivy ruined the pool out of revenge.

  Is this what Iris wanted? To be surrounded by people who are eating out of her hand while I’m standing alone? It doesn’t make any sense.

  To get out of school, I need to walk past them.

  I keep my head up and straight as I walk.

  Whispers bite at my skin as I pass them.

  Iris laughs and says, “I have no idea.”

  I’m unsure of the question, but her snarky tone makes me think it was about me.

  Neither Sophie nor Haley jumps to defend me. The sting of their betrayal cuts through my heart, and I wince.

  Nope, I’m not giving any of them the satisfaction of seeing me upset. If they can ditch me so easily, then they never were very good friends. That doesn’t stop it from hurting, though. I thought they were real.

  I shove the door open and my footsteps falter. It’s pouring. Pushing off my back leg, I jog down the stairs.

  Rain pelts my skin like hundreds of tiny darts. Covering what I can of my forehead to protect my eyes, I head for my car.

  A chill runs up my spine as someone falls into step with me.

  I glance to the side and see a mirror image staring back.

  “What do you want?” I snap at Iris.

  “To make sure you’re okay.”

  I stop, half because I want to be able to hear her properly and half because her words have shocked me to my core. Not that I believe them for one second, but the very fact that she can even say them with a straight face is testament to her deviousness.

  My muscles lock as I think about everything she has taken from me.

  What would be the point in holding back now? I have no credibility; the whole world thinks I’m lying.

  Haley and Sophie are still mad at me…all because of Iris’s interfering. Like everyone else, they believe the wrong twin. I’ve lost the relationship I once had with my dad, my friends, my chance at Stanford.

  I have nothing left.

  “Did you kill Kat?” I ask.

  There’s a bigger question, one that hovers over my head like the gray clouds above me. I want to know. I want the truth about my mom’s death, but I’m so scared that she’ll confirm what I already know.

  What do I even do when she admits it all?

  Will the police believe me if my own friends and family don’t?

  If I tell, I will lose Dad.

  Our relationship is hanging by a thread. He thinks I hate Iris and want her gone. Every time I bring something up, he shuts me down and acts like I’m the one with the problem.

  She’s manipulative, and I don’t know how to take her down because I’m not pure evil.

  “Iris, what did you do to Kat?” I repeat.

  There’s a reason we’re doing this out in the middle of the parking lot.

  Who could record a confession over the noise of vehicles driving past, students chatting, laughing, and shouting?

  A slow grin tugs across Iris’s lips. “I followed her. She had to know it wasn’t nice that she was talking behind my back. Kat always said too much. You shouldn’t have gone there, Ivy. Her blood is on your hands.”

  “What?” I spit. “You’re trying to blame me for this? You are the one who killed her. Tell me what you did!”

  “You already know, Ivy. She was taking a selfie and fell in a river. All for a silly picture.”

  “She didn’t fall.”

  Iris laughs. “Well…she had a little bit of help.”

  “Did you push her? Did she even know you were there?”

  “We spoke. She accused me of the most heinous crime. Children murdering their own parents.” She shakes her head, and I press my hand to my stomach, which is roiling with nausea. “See you at home.” She turns and slowly walks across the lot to her car, not caring that water is cascading down her.

  She’ll see me at home. She’s going to start talking when we get home.

  I unlock my car and jump in.

  47

  Iris gets home first because I was parked farther from the exit. Not that it really matters. We’re having this out right now.

  I pull the parking brake, leap out of the car, and run inside. She’s already in the house, and I don’t want to give her the opportunity to lock herself in her room.

  She doesn’t, though. She leaves the front door wide open.

  I kick it shut behind me, and she stares back with her hands on her hips.

  This is it.

  The enormity of what she’s done to my beautiful mom hits me like a freaking tsunami and I hunch like she’s punched me in the chest. “Why, Iris?” I demand as tears roll down my cheeks.

  She shakes her head. “Poor perfect Ivy. You had everything and you didn’t care!”

  “What makes you think I didn’t care about what I had?”

  “You have the perfect group of friends who would do anything for you. Tyler would cut off his arm to make
you happy. You’re successful on the swim team. You get straight As.”

  “Iris!” I snap. “Friendships work both ways. I put in the effort with them too. I study for those As, and I was in the pool every opportunity I got. Nothing magically happened for me. I worked my ass off for it all. You can look in and assume that I got lucky but that’s not what happened. This is never going to work for you if you take what you want without earning it.”

  She tilts her head. “Look around, Ivy. It’s worked. I’ve already taken everything I want.”

  “But why? What do you think you’re going to get out of this?”

  “I wanted what you have,” she says without hesitation, no sign of guilt or remorse in her steady voice.

  “You could have it. Why can’t you see that? You don’t need to make me look bad to make yourself look good. One day it will all fall apart—everyone will know what you’ve done, and you’ll be left with nothing. Do you think Dad will forgive that? He won’t. No one is going to be behind you, and it will be all your fault.”

  “Wow, you really underestimate me. Don’t assume that anyone will find out anything. I know what I’m doing. I’ve planted exam papers and wrecked a pool without leaving a trace of evidence.”

  I smirk. Not because I’m sure of myself, but because I want her to think that I am. Besides, I already know what she’s done. But the reality is, I have no idea what’s going to happen. I’m not underestimating her. I’m scared, but I will never allow her to know that.

  “Iris, I saw through you. I knew there was something wrong with you, and a couple of people have been asking me rather interesting questions about you recently. Especially after your old bestie was found in a river. It’s only a matter of time, and I can’t wait.”

  Iris’s eyes narrow into slits. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with. Be grateful it’s only your friends and swim team that you’ve lost.”

  Is this it? Is my sister about to admit to murder?

  “Please, what else are you going to do? Cut my hair in my sleep? Tell everyone what a terrible person I am? Oh, wait, you’ve already done that and I’m still standing.”