Two Truths and a Lie

20 BLOOD DOESN’T LIE

Thirty minutes later, Emma got out of a cab in front of Ethan’s house. It had begun to pour, a bizarre phenomenon for Tucson. It made the air smell like ozone and wet asphalt. The gravel in his front yard glinted under the moon.

Emma dashed across the grass, avoiding raindrops, and rapped on the white door. She leaned her ear close to the wood until she heard footsteps pad down the hallway inside. The door swung open to reveal the foyer. Ethan’s pale blue eyes widened at the sight of her. His dark hair was disheveled, like he’d been sleeping.

“Emma?” he asked, carefully stepping forward and touching her shoulders. “What happened?”

“I needed to see you.” Emma glanced over her shoulder. “Can I come in?”

Ethan stepped aside. “Of course.”

Emma shut the door behind her and collapsed into Ethan’s arms. The weight of everything that happened with Thayer pressed down on her until her head fell into her hands. She sobbed for a good five minutes, her nose stuffing up, tears burning her eyes. Ethan rubbed her back the whole time.

I was happy my sister had someone to comfort her. If only I had someone like that. I was the one who’d just seen that horrible memory, after all—I was the one who’d been brutally murdered by someone I loved. It felt like my insides had been hollowed out. The Thayer I’d picked up at the bus station seemed nothing like the madman he’d become by the end. How could I have been so stupid as to have gotten mixed up with him?

After Emma’s sobs turned to whimpers, Ethan led her through the kitchen and curved around the breakfast bar. A cluster of take-out menus covered the sand-colored granite. Two cans of Coke sat on the long wooden table next to an empty pizza box. The stilted dialogue of a true-crime show sounded from the living room. He kicked open his bedroom door and flipped on the light. “Here, sit,” he said to Emma, gesturing to the bed. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Emma’s legs felt numb as she sank onto the dark blue comforter. She grabbed a quilted pillow and hugged it to her chest. “I saw Thayer,” she started, glancing at Ethan nervously.

Predictably, Ethan’s face clouded. “In jail? I told you not to!”

“I know, but I—”

“Why didn’t you listen?”

Tears flooded Emma’s eyes again. She didn’t need a lecture right now. “I didn’t know what else to do,” she said defensively. “I needed answers. And he gave them to me. He told me he was the only one who knew who I really was.”

“He said that?” Ethan’s eyes widened.

“Uh-huh.” Emma nodded. “He talked about the letters he sent me, too. He must have meant the note that was on Laurel’s car, the message on the chalkboard at the pep rally. He did it, Ethan. I know it.”

Ethan placed his head in his hands. “I’m so sorry.”

Then Emma pulled Thayer’s note to Sutton from her pocket and unfolded it. “I found this today,” she said, passing the paper to Ethan.

He grimaced as he read the letter. When he finished, he folded it neatly and handed it back to her. “Whoa. It’s like he basically confessed that he might hurt her unless things changed between them.”

“I know. And then … he did hurt her.”

I shivered at Emma’s words, the memory once again spiraling in my mind. But where had Thayer taken me? It had to have something to do with my car, right? There was blood on it, after all—surely my blood. If only I could have seen the rest of the memory. I felt like the puzzle was almost complete, save for that missing piece.

“Every time I’ve seen him, he’s looked at me like he knows I’m not Sutton,” Emma whispered. “Thayer must have killed Sutton and lured me here,” she said softly. “And think about it. Since he was missing, he never had to be anywhere at any given time. He would have been able to slip around Tucson easily, spying on me, leaving me notes, threatening me.”

“You’re right,” Ethan said softly. “It would have been easy for him.”

“He’s got me where he wants me. If I say one word against him, he’ll tell the cops who I am. And then they’ll blame me for Sutton’s death. This is playing out exactly as you said it would.” She shut her eyes and started to sob again. “He told me that his lawyer is working hard to get him out of jail by next week. That could be in a matter of days! What am I going to do?”

“Shhh,” Ethan whispered. He took Emma’s hand and rested it against his jeans. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “Thayer is still locked up. You’re still safe. There’s still time to prove what he did. I’m here with you, okay? I’m not going to let you go through this alone. I’ll keep you safe.”

Emma laid her head on his shoulder. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“And I don’t know what I’d do without you. If something happened to you …” Ethan broke off, his voice cracking. “I couldn’t bear it.”

It was such a relief just to hear those words. Emma swallowed a sob and smiled gratefully at Ethan. Her lips were about to touch his when she noticed a leather journal next to the bed. It was open to a page near the back and neat letters formed short verses, like a poem. Suddenly, the guilt flooded back. The prank. Laurel had asked her to steal his work. She winced, then pulled away from him.

“I need to tell you something else,” she said. “Something you’re not going to like.”

Ethan cocked his head. “Of course. You can tell me anything.”

Emma stared at Ethan’s hands entwined with hers, hating what she had to do next. But she had to warn him. She took a deep breath. “Sutton’s friends are planning this prank on you. It has to do with your poetry reading.”

Ethan shrank back. “What?”

“I tried to stop them. But they really—”

Ethan waved his hands, cutting her off. He blinked at her hard, as though Emma had just hit him over the head with a shovel. “How long have you known about this?”

Emma lowered her eyes. “Um, a few days,” she said in a small voice.

“A few days?”

“I’m sorry!” Emma cried. “I tried to stop it! It wasn’t my idea!”

Slowly, Ethan’s expression turned from hurt to disappointment to disgust. “I think you should go,” he said numbly.

“Ethan, I—” Emma tried to reach for his hand, but he was already making his way to the door. “Ethan!” she called after him, running into the hall. They were almost to the foyer when she caught his arm and swung him around. “Please! You told me we could be honest about everything! And I thought—”

“You thought wrong,” Ethan interrupted, wrenching his arm away. “You could have called this off instantly. They think you’re the all-powerful Sutton Mercer. One word from you and the prank’s off. Why didn’t you do that? Is it because you don’t want them to know about me? Are you”—his voice caught, and he cleared his throat roughly—“ashamed of me?”

“Of course not!” Emma cried, but maybe Ethan had a point. Why hadn’t she tried harder to nip it in the bud? How had she let it get so out of control?

Ethan’s hand turned the doorknob. “Just go, okay? Don’t bother talking to me until you remember who you are—Emma Paxton, the nice twin.”

“Ethan!” Emma cried, but he’d already pushed her outside and slammed the door in her face. It was raining harder now, and the drops mixed with the tears that streamed down her cheeks. It felt like she’d just lost the only good thing she had in the world. She cupped her hands against the glass of the side window and stared into the house, watching as Ethan stormed back down the hall, knocking over a stack of books on the living room table as he went.

It was a scene I hated to watch. Once again, I cursed the Lying Game. If my friends and I hadn’t started that stupid club, Emma wouldn’t be heartbroken right now. Her one and only ally wouldn’t hate her.

Emma rang the doorbell a few times, but Ethan didn’t answer. She texted him to please talk to her, but he didn’t reply. After a while, there was no use in lingering—Ethan had made his feelings clear. She trudged across the front lawn, instantly getting soaked, wondering how she was going to get back to the Mercers. As she was pulling out Sutton’s cell phone to call the cab service again, the phone lit up in her hands. Emma frowned. The number was from the Tucson police station. A horrible thought came to her: What if the cops were calling about Thayer? What if he was being set free?

“Uh, hello?” Emma yelled over the rainstorm, trying to quell the nerves in her voice.

Detective Quinlan’s voice boomed on the other end. “Evening, Miss Mercer. We got the blood results back from your car.”

Emma tensed. “W-what are they?” She braced herself, sure he was going to say the blood was Sutton’s.

“The blood is a perfect match for Thayer Vega,” Quinlan’s low voice pronounced.

Emma stopped short in the middle of the street, certain she’d heard him wrong. “Thayer?”

“That’s right,” Quinlan said. “Any idea how it got there? Mr. Vega certainly isn’t talking.”

“I …” Emma trailed off, not having a single thing to say. She paused next to a spindly mesquite tree, trying to catch her breath. She felt completely blindsided.

“Sutton?” Quinlan prompted. “Is there something you need to tell me?”

Emma huddled under the tree, not that it provided much shelter from the storm. There was so much she needed to tell him. Did she dare? Could she somehow convince him this time that she was Sutton’s twin, but that she hadn’t wanted to steal Sutton’s life? Would he believe her if she told him Thayer had been sending her threatening messages—and that Thayer had killed Sutton? She doubted it. Sure, she had Thayer’s note from Sutton’s locker, the one that said he was going to snap, but while it was proof enough for her, it was unlikely the police would consider it definitive evidence.

“I-I’m sorry. I have no idea how it got there,” Emma answered finally. She shut her eyes, thinking. “Were there any other fingerprints on the car?”

Quinlan sighed. “Just yours and your father’s. He was a co-owner of the vehicle, correct?”

“Uh-huh,” Emma said distantly. She recalled Mr. Mercer talking about how he and Sutton had restored the Volvo together.

There was a cough on the other end. “Well, since there’s no longer any reason for us to hold your car, you can come pick it up,” Quinlan said gruffly.

“Thanks,” Emma said, but Quinlan had already disconnected. She held the phone outstretched, staring at it as though it were an alien life form. Wind tossed a cold, wet leaf against her ankle. An engine whined in the distance. The world was still turning as usual, but Emma felt utterly changed. Thayer’s blood. But … how?

I was as stunned as she was. I thought back over the memory I’d just regained. It didn’t make sense—Thayer was the lunatic after me, not the other way around. There was only one answer: I must have somehow managed to get into my car and hit Thayer before he killed me. I was glad for that—Thayer may have taken my life, but at least I got a piece of him on my way out.