Page 73 of Just the Wrong Twin

It was just like old times.

Damn them both.

Her interest, though, had been noticed.

“Isn’t it romantic?” the woman behind her in line asked. She sighed with rapture when Sonia glanced her way. “True love after those years apart. I think it’swonderful.”

Sonia doubted that her step-father’s second wife took quite as rosy a view of the situation but she kept quiet.

“They were making a holiday movie together, you know,” the woman confided, apparently not needing any encouragement to continue. “About a second chance romance in a small town at Christmas—and they had their own second chance romance! It’s so perfect!”

At that point, Sonia could either speak up or go back for ice cream. She chose option number one.

“I wonder what his wife thinks,” she said and the woman’s eyes went round.

“I was thinking the same thing!” The woman eased closer and Sonia backed away. “Last month, I saw that Gloria had been pregnant again, but lost the baby. Do you think it was Derek’s child? Maybe itwasn’t!” Her fascination with the lives of strangers was faintly horrifying to Sonia. “Maybe he wanted a child and she couldn’t give him one. Maybe that’s why he left her, to have a baby of his own.”

Sonia indicated the cover picture. She knew that Derek wasn’t interested in babies. Young girls were more his style. “I doubt Olivia can have a baby now. How old would she be?”

The woman frowned. “Fifty, easily, although she doesn’t look it. But I’m sure she and Derek have children already.” She shook her head even as Sonia’s blood ran cold. “I wonder what ever happened to those kids. Do you remember?”

Sonia shrugged, keeping her secret, and paid for her order. She hurried out of the store so there was no chance of the other woman continuing their conversation, then headed for her apartment.

Reunited. The only thing her mother and step-father liked better than publicity was drama. That made sense in a way, given that they were both actors, but Sonia herself had a serious allergy to attention-seeking scenes.

It was a learned response.

Nothing had ever been normal when she was a kid: everything had been a performance, over the top, calculated for maximum effect. She found even the memory of it exhausting. There was no way she was going to stand by and let them wreak havoc in her life all over again. They still didn’t know where she was—they couldn’t know or she would have heard from them. They would have turned up, with cameras, insisting on a reconciliation captured forever on film. Sonia walked a little faster at that prospect.

The weak link was that Katia knew where Sonia was. And Sonia’s twin sister loved stirring things up as much as their parents did.

She had to make up with Katia.

After Nate left.

His car was still parked at the curb, so he hadn’t left in her absence, and it didn’t have a ticket, which was good, too. Maybe her day would turn around.

As she entered her building, Sonia had to wonder what her life would have been like if she’d been born into a different family. A sane one, for example. It might have changed everything.

But she was making her own life, away from them and the past. She was well on her way and no one was going to stop her now.

* * *

Nate awakenedto find himself alone in Sonia’s bed. He could smell the body wash she had in the shower and the apartment was humid with steam. She wasn’t in the bathroom, though, because the door was open and the lights were out.

He found a note on the counter.

Gone for bagels and coffee.

Back in ten.

She’d added the time,which was about five minutes before. He was amused that she was so precise. Nate had time to quickly wash and dress before she returned, then he’d leave. He was fastening his belt buckle when a key turned in the lock. Sonia came back into the apartment, moving really fast.

Had she been worried he’d leave without saying goodbye?

Nate couldn’t otherwise explain why she’d be so flustered.

“Hi!” she said brightly, then continued without waiting for a reply. “I realized I didn’t have anything for breakfast.” She had a take-out tray with two large coffees and a bag that smelled like warm bread, as well as a tabloid tucked under her arm. “Do you take cream or sugar?”

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