The Good Twin(21)

Except for the two hours a week I would train with Jackie, I was alone day and night for the first time in my life. No mother to take care of, no customers to wait on, no classmates to shoot the breeze with. I was completely isolated, charged with one task only—become Charlotte Jensen Gordon. I didn’t think it would be difficult. I was used to playing the part people expected of me.

I had watched a few of the videos Ben had left me. He was right—Charly’s accent was different from mine. Not by a lot, but enough so that someone who knew her well would wonder about it. I had purchased a recorder and planned to practice speaking into it until our voices were indistinguishable. I didn’t think I’d have trouble with that. I was more concerned about losing enough weight. I’d always weighed the same, and I didn’t eat that much to begin with. One of the perks of growing up poor. But I supposed I could eat better—fewer carbs and more vegetables. And definitely cut out the sweets. Maybe the wine, also, although only if I absolutely had to.

Being alone left me a lot of time to think about what I was doing. I had given it considerable thought before I’d told Ben I was in. In my reasoning, Charly was a monster who didn’t deserve what she had. If Mom had kept Charly instead of me, then I could have been adopted by the Jensens. I could have gone to private schools and an Ivy League college. I could be the one inheriting their wealth.

Watching Charly on the videos, though, changed her from a concept to a real person. She was flesh and blood. She was my sister.

When I wasn’t thinking about Charly, I thought about the money. What I would do with it. I knew I would need to get away from New York, away from the possibility of running into anyone who might know either one of us. I loved the idea of living overseas, maybe France, studying art in Paris. Or Italy. Or Spain. With the kind of money I would have, the world would be open to me. I’d never let myself dream, growing up. Now I could dream big.



My phone rang just as I walked into the Gordons’ house—my house for now. It was Ben.

“It might happen faster than we thought,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Rick was turned down for the experimental drug treatment. His doctor said it could take anywhere from two to four months. Can you be ready in two months?”

I thought about it. I’d never tried losing weight before. I didn’t know how easy or hard I’d find it. Still, much as I loved this house, loved being in the country, I could see how living in isolation from other people more than two months could drive me batty. “I’ll be ready.”

“Good. I’m just about finished with a list of everybody Charly knows, all her friends going back to elementary school. And her relatives, of course. With a description of each, and how she feels about them. Little anecdotes about them. Pictures, too. I’ll e-mail that to you tomorrow.”

“I think it would be useful if I had her passwords on social media. I could learn a lot from seeing what she posts.”

“I don’t know her passwords. But mine is GypsyMax29, and you can access what she posts from my accounts, since we’re Facebook friends. Twitter and Instagram, too. Password’s the same.”

When I hung up, I immediately headed to the pantry closet, removed the box of chocolate chip cookies and a bag of potato chips, then dumped them in the garbage. I opened the freezer and did the same with the half gallon of black raspberry ice cream I’d bought. When I finished, I hopped in the car and headed back to the supermarket. I needed to pick up veggies and sugar-free Jell-O. It was time to get serious about losing weight.



Two days later, I was startled by the ringing of the front doorbell. I opened it to find a bearded man dressed in a fleece jacket and Timberland boots. He was at least six feet tall, with wavy brown hair that fell midway down his neck.

“Hi, uh, is Judith home? Or Sidney?”

It took me a moment to remember that those were the names of Ben’s parents. “No. They’re in Florida for the winter. I’m a friend of their son, Ben Gordon. He’s letting me stay here for a few months.”

“I thought that’s where they were. I passed by a few times and saw the lights on in the house. I wondered if they’d come back.”

More likely, he wondered if there was an intruder in the house. “Well, thanks for checking in.” I hoped my voice gave him the message that I wasn’t interested in chitchat, but he didn’t move from his spot.

“Is there something else I can help you with?”

“I plow the driveway for Judith and Sidney when it snows. And, well, if you’re going to be here over the winter, I provide fireplace logs for my customers. I’d be glad to add you to my list.”

I looked over at the stone fireplace in the living room and thought how nice it would be to curl up with a book in front of a roaring flame. “That would be great, but you’d have to show me how to start it up.”

“No problem.” He flashed a wide smile, and for the first time, I realized how handsome he was. Stop it, Mallory, the voice in my head warned. Even before I’d embarked on this charade, I’d sworn off romantic entanglements. This certainly wasn’t the time to start.

“So, uh, I’ll drop off a half a cord for you tomorrow, say, around eleven? That should hold you for a couple of months. If you’re home then, I’ll show you how to get it started.”