by Regan Black
Were they identical twins? Some small part of her felt ashamed that she hadn’t known about sharing a womb with another human being. According to the articles, she should’ve had some sense of that, and yet she hadn’t. Not once in her life had she ever felt incomplete. She’d skipped through life, the only child of wealthy, devoted parents.
What had her sister’s childhood been like? And what had brought her to Charleston now? Those questions would likely be answered in the next few minutes. There was a bigger question, one that plagued her in light of the recent revelations. Why would her father adopt one twin and not the other?
Carter had warned her time and again they didn’t really know anything about this woman, not even her name. He’d directed her to be cautious, to follow his lead, and she would do her best.
“Paige you’re shaking.” He chafed her hand between his broad palms. “Please take a breath.”
“She isn’t here.” Her gaze raked over the people coming and going through the square. “Maybe she changed her mind.”
No. She’d reached out. Clearly she wanted to meet. Then Paige spotted her, and any attempt to breathe or relax was futile. Her heart knocked against her ribs and she laced her fingers through Carter’s, gripping his hand for support.
Her sister wore dark sunglasses and her long dark hair was pulled into a ponytail through the back of a baseball cap. She wore a tie-dyed top and a faded denim jacket over leggings and running shoes. The casual style blended perfectly with the tourists wandering through the park, but Paige knew that was her.
“Here we go.” Carter started forward.
As they circled the fountain, her sister watched them intently. Was she feeling as nervous as Paige?
“I’ll keep an eye out for trouble, so you can talk freely,” he added.
“Thank you,” she rasped, her throat bone dry. Carter had thought of everything. They’d be able to walk and converse in relative safety. Hiding in plain sight, unless they should be hiding from her. Paige had braided her hair and added a scarf, something she did so rarely it might as well be a disguise.
It seemed to take forever before they were finally face to face. The other woman removed her sunglasses and smiled. The shock of it stole her breath. It was like looking in a mirror, seeing her own familiar face that wasn’t actually her.
Carter stuck out his hand. “Carter Oakes.” He tipped his head to Paige. “My client, Paige Coker.”
“Jayne Salter.” She shook his hand, but her eyes were locked on Paige. “I can’t believe this. I’m not sure twins get more identical than the two of us.”
The words gutted Paige. “Looks like.” It was all she could manage. “No need to ask for an ID.”
“He needs it.” Jayne extended a driver’s license for Carter and Paige peered at it while he snapped a picture with his phone.
She had a sister. Jayne Salter from Florida according to the ID.
What could have been a moment of joy and wonder was fraught with tension. Joy for one, pain for another, she recalled the advice from the website. This woman might have killed Melissa and yet, looking at her, Paige didn’t see anything hard or vicious. Not even close.
She saw herself. Although Carter had warned her not to make assumptions about her twin’s character, she couldn’t maintain any objectivity. It would’ve been like accusing herself of murder.
She started to apologize, but stopped short. That felt like the wrong response, too. Being separated at birth hadn’t been within her control.
“I’m no threat,” Jayne said, addressing Carter as she tucked her ID into her pocket.
“Let’s walk,” he suggested, his voice gruff.
He was on full alert. She appreciated every single ounce of his protective nature right now.
“D-did you know about me?” Paige asked as they strolled along the waterfront path. Her voice sounded tight and stressed. “I had no idea about you.”
“I figured out there was a sibling. Our mother wouldn’t have made the mistake of getting pregnant twice, so the idea of a twin was an educated guess. I had no idea we were identical twins, until all of this.” She sighed. “I’m sorry. Based on the news and the funeral it seems like you and the chef were good friends.”
“We were,” Paige confirmed.
“I didn’t kill her. I came here to learn about my father. And you.”
There was enough foot traffic on the path to prevent being overheard. Despite the awkwardness and the grim topic, Paige reveled in the astonishing moment. She had a sister. A sister who had wanted to find her. And here they were, walking, talking. Together at last. It was an unbelievable miracle. The mysterious connection between twins that researchers mentioned, the sensation she scolded herself for not feeling earlier, she felt now. In spades.
“I have a thousand questions,” Paige admitted. “And I’m ashamed to admit that only a few of them relate to Melissa. I’m overwhelmed with sorting out how and why we were separated.”
“I didn’t shoot your friend,” Jayne said again. “The first time I touched a gun was in that kitchen when the shooter left it behind.”
“Only your prints are on it,” Carter said.
Jayne shook her head. “I touched it, that’s all. I didn’t come here to cause you grief.”
“Yet here we are,” Carter grumbled.
Paige drew Jayne over to sit on an empty bench. Carter stood like a sentinel beside them. “Tell me what happened that night.”
“I was followed that night. Honestly, I was looking for a way to approach you without scaring you. You’d met with the chef and I thought it would be a good place to start.”
“How did you even know to approach Paige?” Carter demanded.
“Shortly after I got into town, I saw her face during a news spot for a holiday toy drive,” Jayne explained. “The resemblance was pretty obvious and I had to find a way to get close enough to talk.”
Jayne took off her sunglasses, resting them on her knee. Paige appreciated being able to see her eyes even though the reflection effect was disconcerting. During her brief research, no one seemed to have any idea how much time twins needed to get used to each other after being separated. Was it a pro or con that they were reuniting as adults with nearly thirty years of different life experiences?
“I’d nearly been mugged in a parking garage the day before.” She glanced up at Carter. “I blew it off as random. It wasn’t. The would-be mugger followed me to the kitchen that night.” She tapped the inside of her wrist. “His tattoos, about here, gave him away. I walked in through the service door, hoping to convince the chef to tell me how to reach you. He came in right behind me and aimed the gun at my chest.”
Paige gasped. “You were the intended target.”
Jayne nodded. “Apparently. But I don’t know why he’s after me.” She paused, her gaze drifting out over the harbor. “Again, I’m so sorry. I just grabbed whatever I could reach and started fighting. He had a ski-mask over his face, but I got it part-way off. Scratched him.” She pointed to the base of her neck. “Your friend walked in and shouted for help. It happened so fast. I pushed a rolling rack at him, tried to pin him to the wall and the gun went off.”
“Twice. Two gunshots,” Carter said.
“I know.” Jayne winced. “The echoes haven’t faded. I checked her for a pulse. I’m a registered nurse,” she explained. “I would’ve started CPR, but she was gone. The guy ran off. I ran when I heard other people coming.” She pulled in a deep breath. “I’m not proud of that.”
Paige reached out and rubbed her shoulder. “Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“I wanted to, especially when I heard they suspected you. But I spotted the gunman near my hotel and decided it was safer to hide. I went to your house to explain things.”
“You broke into her house,” Carter corrected.
“No. That wasn’t me.”
“Mr. Tattoo again?” Carter’s voice dripped skepticism.
“Yes. I watched through the windo
ws as he searched your office. When he headed for the main part of the house, I distracted him.”
“The security camera and alarm were disabled,” Carter grumbled. “Tell me you have a description of his face and his tattoos.”
Though Carter’s gruff interruptions were borderline rude, Paige realized she’d been sucked into the story. Without his objectivity, she wouldn’t question anything her mirror image said.
“I do, yes.” She gave him the basic physical description and showed him a rough sketch of what she recalled about the man’s ink.
Paige wanted to build a relationship with her sister. There was no guarantee Jayne was interested in the same thing. While Carter sent a text with this new information to his assistant, she asked, “Was your childhood good growing up?”
Jayne gave a short, brittle laugh. “No. Yvette, our mom, seriously resented being stuck with me. Her words not mine. She would often lose her temper, shouting that she could’ve sold me too if I hadn’t been sick and worthless and wrecked everything.”
“You’re sick?”
“Not now,” Jayne assured her. “Picture of health today. Twin A,” she pointed to Paige, “was born healthy. Twin B,” she tapped her chest, “had a congenital heart defect that required surgery. She couldn’t cash in on me right away because no one wanted a defective baby.”
Guilt and temper blazed through Paige’s system. No child should be spoken to that way. She’d had a beautiful, near-perfect childhood while Jayne had been raised by a negligent, cruel woman. Cora, despite her weaknesses, had been a loving, nurturing mother. Paige rubbed at her arms through the thick cable knit sweater she wore, wishing she could hug her sister and erase the past.
Yes, she was a big softie and Paige refused to regret it. “I have some good news,” she said. “My dad, Jack Coker, is our biological father. He had an affair with Yvette.” She pulled out the old picture of Yvette and Jack and handed it to her sister.
Jayne whistled and slumped back against the park bench. “When did he tell you?”
“He didn’t.” Not yet anyway. Her soft heart hardened. “I recently had a paternity test done.”
“Oh.” Worry clouded Jayne’s eyes. “Still, that’s so much better than who I thought our dad was.”
“Who did you think it was?” Carter asked. Apparently, he’d finished updating his assistant.
“An attorney named Michael Yost. Yvette had a heart attack and died the month before I turned seventeen. I planned to move out the minute I was legal anyway, but the state of Florida dumped me into foster care. Fortunately, I wasn’t there long.”
Paige pressed her lips together, holding back a torrent of sympathy. Her sister never should’ve been subjected to any of this. Why hadn’t her father adopted Jayne too?
“When I aged out of foster care, I got Yvette’s personal effects,” Jayne said. “That amounted to a banker’s box with pictures, some legal documents, and a few pieces of high-quality jewelry from boyfriends.
“I pawned a ring right away and used the cash to rent a room for a couple of weeks. There was a checkbook register for an account I’d never seen before, along with a single page letter from Michael Yost on letterhead for a firm here in Charleston. I called the bank and pretended to be Yvette and learned there was just over fifty thousand dollars in the account.”
“Holy cow,” Paige murmured. She caught Carter sending another text.
“It was perfect timing. I suddenly had money to live on and to get myself through college. The deposits kept coming until I turned twenty-one. I assumed he knew she was dead and he wanted to help me. Even if he didn’t know, I couldn’t turn down free cash.”
“Who would in your situation?” Paige mused. Carter arched his brows, but he didn’t contradict her.
It sounded as if Jayne’s life had been all stress and strife with no real support. Call her gullible, but Paige was all-in to give Jayne the good family she’d missed out on. “And you became a nurse?” Paige beamed. “That’s fantastic.”
“Thanks.” Jayne peered up at Carter. “Is she always this open and trusting?”
“I haven’t known her long,” Carter allowed, “but in my experience, yes.”
Wasn’t that a good thing? Everyone else in her life seemed to appreciate that. Paige couldn’t go back and change the past, but she could definitely shape the future. No, she didn’t know much about her sister—yet. The only way to rectify that was to be open and listen.
“So you used the windfall to get through college.” Carter shifted, scanning the area behind the shelter of his sunglasses. “Why come to Charleston now? You need money?”
“Carter!” Paige gasped. Sure, one of them needed to ask the tough questions, but he didn’t have to be rude.
Jayne’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. “You’re pretty lucky he’s here to watch out for you.” She met Carter’s hard stare. “No. I’m not after money. I came for answers about my past, maybe to find my dad or some extended family. I had no idea my twin would be here.” Her smile wobbled, faded. “My therapist thought it would be helpful. Either to close a door on the past or be pleasantly surprised by something good. I keep bailing on relationships before anyone can hurt me like Yvette did.”
Paige silently hoped she fell into Jayne’s category of something good.
“Yost isn’t our father.” Jayne returned the photo to Paige. “What a relief. The man’s an arrogant jerk. But who else would keep sending money except a guilty parent?”
“It’s a logical assumption,” Paige agreed. “When did you go to see him?”
“Last Monday.”
Melissa had been killed on Wednesday night and Jayne had nearly been mugged the night before that. “That isn’t a coincidence is it, Carter?”
He shook his head. “Sure doesn’t sound like coincidence to me.”
“Can you help her?”
Chapter Nine
Carter didn’t like this at all. His job was to help Paige and she clearly believed every word her newly found sister had told her. In all fairness, her sister was either an excellent liar or telling the truth. He’d sent details to Jenna as Jayne offered them up and though it would take some time to be thorough, his assistant hadn’t found any immediate, glaring discrepancies.
He hit record on his phone. “What happened when you met Yost?”
“It took some legwork to find him since there wasn’t a listing for the law firm on the letterhead.”
To his surprise, she withdrew a folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to him. Old and faded, the letter was dated a month after the girls were born and signed by Yost. Three short paragraphs outlined a new agreement, including an allowance for medical bills and child support. He snapped a picture and sent it to Jenna for research before handing it back.
“When I found his current office, I set up an appointment using a fake name. He recognized my face. Looked as if he was having a bad flashback. He just stared at me for the longest time, his mouth gaping. Then he called me Yvette.” She turned the folded paper around and around in her hands. “He blew up when I asked about my twin sister. It got worse when I asked why he didn’t want to be my dad. He ranted about Yvette and extortion. He asked me how much it would take to keep me quiet.”
“And you said?” Carter prompted when she went quiet.
She hunched her shoulders and leaned forward. “I made some crack about being better than Yvette and having principles and compassion. Then I walked out.”
“The mugger found you the next day,” Carter stated. Jayne had unknowingly confronted the wrong person. A dangerous person. Considering Yost was the only person who knew Jayne was in Charleston, he was almost certainly behind the mugging and murder attempts. Particularly since she refused his money. The man had to be afraid of something if he automatically went to such extremes. What the hell was he hiding?
Paige looked up at him. “I still don’t understand why Dad would take only one of his babies. My mom would’ve loved mothering twins.” She
sighed. “We always would’ve been dressed alike, but the love would have been equal.”
Jayne gave a snort. “A different set of issues to overcome as adults.”
Carter marveled that they could crack jokes. “Let’s walk a bit.” He could feel someone watching them, but couldn’t pinpoint a specific person. He sent a text asking Jenna to use any area cameras to help him identify the tail.
“I’m glad you found a way to get in contact at the funeral,” Paige said.
“Wasn’t easy,” she admitted. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t been there.”
“Well, I was.” She reached out and gave Jayne’s shoulders a squeeze. “Now the three of us can tell the police the truth.” Paige twisted back to look at Carter. “They can find the man with the tattoos, right?”
“They can,” Carter said absently. The question was would they look for him if they had the woman who’d been right there at the scene?
Jayne hesitated. “I’m willing to give a statement to help you,” she said. “But I’m not going down for killing your friend. That video puts me at the scene, and I don’t have the resources to defend myself like you do.”
“My parents and I will back you,” Paige declared.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Carter said, ending the conversation. “Keep moving, ladies.”
“I’m sorry I brought you bad news about your bio-mom,” Jayne said after a few minutes.
“Dad’s assistant said Yvette was a flirt at the firm and many of the other women thought she intended to sleep her way into a better life.”
“Sounds right,” Jayne agreed. “Given a choice, she’d always take the easy way over real effort.”
“It doesn’t look like either one of us inherited that trait,” Paige said.
Behind her, Carter agreed. Jayne wasn’t completely clear of suspicion, but he was leaning that way. The niggling awareness of being watched prickled at the back of his neck. Whoever was out here was good. Come on Jenna, he thought. Find the tail.