Page 54 of My Twin Sister

“What?” I practically shout, but Wyatt presses his finger to my lips. “Have me killed? Are you serious? He can’t do that.”

“He can. And he was serious on the phone. I know he was. You’re in serious danger, Grace. You have to leave here.”

“How?” The tears come faster. I’m scared and confused. What have I gotten myself into?

Wyatt shoves a plastic baggy into my chest. “Put this in your top. It’s money. A good amount.”

“What am I supposed to do with this?” I ask. “I need to talk to my dad. We can call the police.”

“He is the police, Grace.”

“There are other police. The FBI. Whatever.”

“You think you can convince them to take your side over Frank’s? A decorated sheriff who’s never had a scratch on his record over a teenage girl who’s gotten in a fair amount of trouble over the years?”

I don’t say anything because he’s right.

“He’s going to have you killed. But not if you die first.”

I look at him like he’s gone crazy. I want to go home now. I want all of this to go away.

“Listen,” Wyatt says.

And then he explains it. His plan. For me to “drown” and for him to tell his dad that he killed me in the lake. Frank’s problem will go away, and he won’t look for me because he’ll believe me to be dead. But really, I’ll swim down the shore, climb out, and disappear.

Only it means everyone will think I’m dead. My sister. My parents. It means being alone in the world for the first time and with no idea how to make it on my own. For who knows how long. Wyatt says six years. It’s the statute of limitations for crimes like this, he says. If I come back after Frank feels safe from the consequences of what he did, I’ll probably be safe.

And so we go through with Wyatt’s plan to save my life.

“I love you,” he says one last time.

I press my lips to his. “I love you.”

And just as I end our kiss, lightning flashes in the sky.

A storm is coming.

Thirty-Three: Grace

I lie awake, my head filled with images of lightning and cold water, of half-baked plans and consequences too big for us teenagers to understand. I had no way to contact Wyatt after I left. He didn’t have a cell phone or social media, and anyway, it was too risky.

It turned out we weren’t working with all the information. That only came later, and then I was left on my own to adjust the plan. I always wonder what he thought and felt that sixth year. If he was waiting for me to come back. He would have already been married to Geny with Jack and a whole life, but we planned for me to come back.

What did he think when I didn’t show up? Was part of him relieved?

When I swam away that night, I didn’t see myself as the victim of anything but a future murder plot. I didn’t understand why Frank would want me dead or why he was afraid of me telling anyone. I was nineteen. I wasn’t a kid. I was old enough to make decisions.

It took years to see it all differently. The attention he paid me as freshman. The priming. All the other it’s our little secrets before our secret became what it did. The fact that he kissed me for the first time when I was sixteen. Everything else that came soon after.

My phone buzzes, bringing me back to reality. I grab it off the nightstand, dread filling my veins. Is it another anonymous text? It’s not. It’s a text from Brooke O’Niel.

Are you free this morning?

I check the time. Almost six in the morning. She’s up early. Maybe she always is. Or maybe she can’t sleep either. I text her my parents’ address and tell her to come by and that I’ll have coffee. Then I quickly get dressed and go downstairs to start the coffee pot and throw a bagel into the toaster.

I’ve felt so alone in all of this, and I wish I could talk to Geny about it. Or my dad. Even my mom. But two out of three are already gone, and I can’t risk something happening to Geny because of me. Wyatt is the only one who knows and who might be safe, but he can’t talk to me in private without causing other kinds of issues.

So maybe Brooke is the person I’ve been wishing for. She’s just as suspicious of Raven PD as I am and she doesn’t know what I know. She could help me. If she’s right about Morgan’s death being fishy, maybe it’s related. I spent many years thinking I was the only one Frank was abusing. But what if I wasn’t? People like him don’t usually stick to one victim.