Seven Minutes in Heaven

13 SISTER ACT

Since she’d taken Sutton’s place three months earlier, Emma had gotten used to the wide berth given her by most of the students at Hollier High. Sutton was notorious, after all, and no one wanted to get caught in the crossfire of a Lying Game prank. But the following day, when the crowds parted before her and Laurel as they made their way down the hall, it felt different. On either side she could hear barely stifled whispers.

“Did you hear the dead girl was her sister?”

“Her twin sister.”

“Yeah, right. I don’t care what you say, this is some kind of prank. Remember last year, when she told everyone she’d been carjacked?”

Emma kept her breath steady and even as she walked, trying not to let panic overtake her. She had never gotten used to everyone looking at her, and now they weren’t even bothering to hide it. If she ever needed to channel Sutton’s bitchiest attitude, it was now.

She rounded a corner to see Charlotte and Madeline standing by her locker. When they caught sight of her they hurried forward to meet her, both of them looking pale and worried. Charlotte carried two paper coffee cups and tried to hand her one and hug her at the same time.

“There you are,” she murmured, her voice low. “Are you okay?” Emma took the cup gratefully. The night before, she’d set up a three-way video-chat with Charlotte and Madeline to tell them everything that had happened. She hadn’t wanted to have to explain more than once. By then they’d seen the news—Madeline couldn’t stop saying that it was “so weird,” and Charlotte had seemed almost hurt that “Sutton” hadn’t told them about her twin. But to their credit, both girls had seemed more worried about her than anything else.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Madeline barked at a short boy in a flannel shirt who seemed to be lingering a few feet away, listening. He jumped and scuttled off, looking terrified. She sighed, running her hand over her sleek, jet-black hair.

Emma smiled her thanks. “I can’t believe these people.”

“I can’t believe how calm you are,” Charlotte said, eyeing Emma. “I’d be a mess.”

“Well, my sister’s a great actress,” Laurel said, looking steadily at Emma as she spoke.

Emma squirmed under her friends’ stares. She adjusted her purse on her shoulder. “Well, I’m not as calm as I look. In fact, I need some air. I’m going to step out, okay?” And before they could say anything in reply, she hurried out the glass door into the courtyard. She took a deep, grateful breath. Soon she would have to go back in there, enter another classroom, and deal with more questions and stares and snide whispers, but for this one moment she could just be.

The courtyard was deeply shadowed, the morning sun still too low to touch the corners of the little square. She was alone—everyone else was on their way to class. A handful of acacia trees in terra-cotta planters dotted the area. She took a step toward the shade-dappled benches.

Then a hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. She shrieked, instinctively stepping back, but the hand clenched tighter around her. And then she saw who it was.

Thayer.

Dark shadows hung under his eyes, which shone with a manic gleam. He stood looking down at her, still holding her arm in a tight grip, and Emma was suddenly and painfully aware how much taller and stronger he was.

“You need to tell me the truth,” he hissed. “Now.”

Emma looked around frantically, but no one saw them. The bell for class rang inside.

“Let go of me, Thayer,” she said sternly.

Thayer’s eyes narrowed, but he dropped her arm suddenly, as though she’d been on fire. “I know you’re not Sutton,” he said. He took a deep, ragged breath, running his hands through his hair like a man possessed. “You’re the twin, aren’t you? You switched places with her. I don’t know why or how. But I knew you weren’t her. I’ve known it since the first time I saw you.”

Thayer. Part of me wanted Emma to reach out and touch him, so that I could feel him, if only for a second.

But she just flipped her hair and stared at him coolly, doing her best to mask her racing heart. “Thayer, you’re being crazy. I never even met Emma.”

At that, Thayer let out a cry—something between a snarl and a scream—and grabbed the front of Emma’s shirt, yanking her forward. The muscles in his neck were rigid. “Tell me the truth,” he growled, his breath hot on her face. Emma whimpered, trying to pull out of his grip, but he wouldn’t let go. “Don’t lie to me! What did you do to her?”

“Thayer, stop it!” I yelled uselessly. “She’s trying to help me.” But I was powerless—powerless to talk to him, powerless to soothe him. I could only stand and watch.

Tears welled up in Emma’s eyes. For a moment, Thayer’s face was a grotesque mask, twisted in rage, but when he saw that she was crying, something in his expression shifted. He let go of her shirt so abruptly she stumbled. Then he was pacing back and forth in a short, tight course, like a panther searching for its prey.

Emma hugged herself, trembling uncontrollably, and wiped the tears from her cheeks. Thayer’s hands were clenched into fists, and every movement he made seemed tense with barely controlled power. But when he stopped and turned back to her, the anger had melted away, leaving nothing but anguish.

“Please,” he whispered. He took a step forward, but stopped when he saw her flinch. “I just need to know. Is she—” He choked on the word. “Is she dead?”

Thayer’s hazel eyes searched her face with desperate longing, moving over her features, trying to find the girl he loved inside them. Emma’s heart twisted in her chest. She wished she could tell him how trapped she felt. How deep her own grief ran. How sorry she was to have hurt him. But a cruel, nagging voice recited the threat in her mind. Sutton didn’t do what I told her, and she paid for it . . . Keep up the game, or Nisha won’t be the only person you care about who dies for your sake.

Garrett had already tried to hit Thayer with her car. If he killed Thayer, she would never forgive herself.

Summoning every ounce of Sutton Mercer coolness she had left, Emma leveled a steely glare at the boy in front of her.

“How dare you?” she asked, her voice as sharp and cold as glass. Thayer opened his mouth to say something, but she talked over him. “My sister died in that canyon. Everyone at school is looking at me like I’m a freak. And now you accuse me of taking her place in some kind of sick Parent Trap plot?” She pulled herself up to her full height, poking a finger at his chest savagely. “Are you high? Or just jealous? You’d love it if I were Emma, because that would mean I hadn’t really dumped you for Ethan at all. Well, guess what? That’s exactly what happened. You were gone. I fell in love with Ethan. End of story. What you and I had is over . . . and maybe we shouldn’t bother trying to be friends if you’re going to be so cruel.”

Thayer’s hand fell limply away from her, and he stood there dazed, like she’d slapped him. She fought the urge to reach out to him, to take it all back, her throat burning with every word. Hurting him was the only way to keep him safe. She picked up her purse and turned to go back into the school.

“Hey, Emma?”

And before she could stop herself, she paused.

“I thought so,” he said in a low voice.

Emma turned, desperate to say something, anything, to fix her mistake—but Thayer was already gone.

I’d been waiting all these months for someone to realize Emma wasn’t me. But now that it had finally happened, all I felt was cold, sick dread.

Because what Thayer knew could kill him.