Page 8 of My Twin Sister

“Why didn’t you come home?” I ask, my back still to her, wanting to get away from the image of my dad’s stiff and bloated body hanging like a macabre piñata straight out of my nightmares.

I turn back to face her.

Her expression goes serious, and she looks at the ground. “I didn’t remember I had a home.”

I narrow my eyes. “What does that mean? What happened that night on the beach?”

She looks up, meeting my eyes. “I just remember not being able to breathe. Trying to swim against the current and then losing my sense of direction. I thought I was dead. I woke up on the shore a few miles away. I didn’t remember anything. Not you or home or who I was. I just started walking.”

“You didn’t go to a hospital or the police? You had to know that something was wrong, waking up on a beach with no memory.”

She shrugs. “I thought about it. But I decided not to. It might seem weird to you, but I didn’t remember anything. There was no urgency to get home to anything. I only started remembering things recently. There are still holes, but I remember more now.”

I watch her for a moment. “That must have been scary,” I say.

She nods. “It was, kind of. But I’m so sorry it caused you guys so much grief.” Her eyes well up, and she gets to her feet, wrapping me in her arms. “I wish I could have remembered sooner and come home before now.”

“Me too.”

I hug her close, unsure what else to say because my sister is lying to me.

Nine: Grace

She knows I’m lying. I can tell. But she isn’t calling me on it, the same way she never did when we were younger. And so we let the lie sit there. I have questions of my own, but I won’t ask them. I let one comment about her and Wyatt slip, but there won’t be another. If I make her feel guilty, she might push me away and I don’t want that.

“What do we do now? How do we catch up on the last eighteen years?” Geny asks, pushing away from my embrace. Tears make her eyes shiny again.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when Mom and Dad died. That you had to go through that alone.”

I wish I could tell her more. That I could tell her the truth. But Geny has always been fragile, and I don’t want to put her in danger. Not when I have so much to do and figure out. I can’t worry about her in that way right now.

I take my place back on the couch. “What do you know about the allegations?”

She shakes her head, face scrunching up. “It’s bull crap. Obviously.”

I smirk at her almost cuss. “Yeah. Obviously. Do you know anything else?”

“Not really. It was an anonymous tip. One of the officers seized his computer and phone. He was really upset, but who wouldn’t be. It’s a horrible thing to be accused of. He didn’t seem worried though. Only after they said they found stuff.”

I push out a long breath through puffed cheeks. “Did they arrest him?”

Geny shakes her head. “No. But I think that’s just because of Frank. Dad was mad at him, like he could just make it go away or something. But obviously Frank was obligated to look into it, no matter how insane it was.”

“Of course,” I say, chewing my bottom lip. “How did he seem . . . before—”

“Before he killed himself?”

I close my eyes. She has to know he wouldn’t do that. But then, what do I know? I haven’t known him in eighteen years. He’d lost his daughter and then his wife. And now he was losing his good name. That kind of stuff changes people.

“He was weird. Angry,” Geny says. “He almost seemed frantic, but that makes sense, doesn’t it? He didn’t seem suicidal. People say that though. That they seemed okay or there were no signs. He had reasons.”

“He had reasons not to too.”

Geny winces. I want to hug her again, but I stay where I am. I don’t know what to say. Because if he did kill himself, it means he left her and his grandchildren. If he didn’t . . . well, that means something else entirely.

“I should be getting back to the boys,” Geny says. “Jack took it really hard. He needs me.”

I nod, getting to my feet. “Of course,” I say. “My car is back at the church with all my stuff in it.”