Tiff was the biggest reason I’d always preferred male friends. I couldn’t stand the mindless followers from the cheerleading squad whose lips had been permanently suction cupped to my sister’s rump throughout high school. For four years, they’d practically lived at our house, harassing me daily. Regardless of what crowd she’d surrounded herself with, Tiff was always the leader of my torment, which was why I always hung out with guys—less drama, less headache. But even that had its downside. I was always just “one of the boys,” while my identical twin sister—yes, the same exact DNA—was seen as the “hot twin.”
That unspoken bond people talk about between identical twins? Yeah, we never had that. We were never close, and aside from us both being freakishly tall with long blond hair and blue-grey eyes, we couldn’t have been more polar opposites if we tried.
But bond or not, I never wished anything bad to happen to her.
“Is she okay?” My voice shook as I questioned the condition of my sister.
Without answering me, Ty lifted his briefcase from the floor and opened it on the ottoman. Pulling out an iPad, he held it against his chest and continued. “You know that she was vacationing in Mexico with her fiancé, Adam…right?”
I nodded. I don’t know why I nodded, because no, I had not been aware of any vacation. Especially not one to Mexico. The only reason I knew anything about Adam was because my mom hadn’t been able to talk about anything other than the uber-famous athlete who was marrying my sister. It was rather sickening if I were being honest.
“Oh, good.” He sighed, as if my knowledge of Tiff’s romantic getaway offered him some relief. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there were some complications, so she has to stay for a little while longer.”
“You’re either going to have to slow down or speed things up. Where is she?”
“She’s currently in a hospital…in Mexico.”
“What?” I shrieked and clutched my chest. “Why? What complications did she have? And from what?”
“Well, I’m going to FaceTime her so she can discuss her condition with you and explain why I’m here. But first, you need to prepare yourself. Her appearance is…a little disheartening.” His pauses were about to get him punched in the throat. “Don’t freak out, as it’ll upset her, and right now, she needs to remain calm. Got it?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I physically nodded and mentally shook my head.
The iPad began to ring as he handed it to me. A dark picture consumed the screen as the tiny thumbnail of my eager expression appeared in the upper right corner. At first, the image was pixelated and blurry, and then it slowly began to clear up. My stomach twisted into knots as Tiff’s face—what used to look just like mine—came into focus.
There she was, sitting in a bed, almost unrecognizable. Layers of white gauze circled her face from the top of her head down to her chin, covering both ears. Errant strands of her platinum-blond hair poked out randomly from beneath the bandage wrap. My mouth dropped as I took in the sight of her porcelain skin, adorned with deep-purple bruises under her eyes that almost appeared to be sewn shut with stitches. There was not an inch of her face that wasn’t swollen, all the way down to her lips, which were about four times their normal size.
“Oh…oh my God, Tiff. What happened to you?” My breath hitched as anxiety immediately consumed me. Suddenly, questions bombarded me, filling my brain faster than I could ask them. Concern for my twin, coupled with the need to protect her, overwhelmed me. “Are you okay? Were you robbed? Did they beat you? Were you in an accident?”
“Tasha, I need you to listen to me.” Tiffany spoke like she had cotton stuffed in her mouth, the sh sound added to every word, regardless if it even contained an S.
“Holy shit, Tiffany! Did the Mexican drug people kidnap you? What are they called…cartel? How much money do you need for ransom? I hope it’s not a lot because I don’t have much. Oh my God. Did they catch whoever did this?”
Ty snatched the iPad from my hands and turned it toward his chest. In a stern whisper, he lectured, “I told you to refrain from freaking out. You need to remain calm. If you can’t, then I’ll have no choice but to disconnect the call.”
“That was before I saw her.” My voice may have been low, but my panic wasn’t so quiet. Different possibilities of what could’ve happened to her continued to race through my mind, but nothing I’d come up with made sense. “What the hell happened to her?”
“Wait…” He held up his hand. “She did tell you she went to Mexico for a little…work. Right?”
“Work? What kind of work?” Then the room suddenly got brighter as the light bulb over my head came on. “Ahh…like plastic surgery?” When he nodded, I couldn’t contain the barking laughter that erupted. “For real?”
I could not believe anyone, let alone someone so closely related to me, would purposefully do that to herself. I mean, she looked like a semi-truck had run her over, and then a forklift had repeatedly stabbed her.
“Yes,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “Now, are you going to calm down so your sister can tell you why I’m here? Or will I have to disconnect the call and move on to plan B?”
I choked down the humor and cleared my throat. Nodding, I held out my hands, palms up, asking for the iPad. Now that I knew she’d inflicted this upon herself, my worry had all but faded. She obviously needed something from me, and I planned to enjoy this moment a little while longer. It wasn’t every day that
