Ficorpio
Chapter 1
I’m a lesbian, and I’d been single for twenty-five years.
After my thirteenth confession, my best friend finally couldn’t take it anymore.
“I’ll introduce you to someone. Meet me at the bar tonight.”
But when I arrived at the agreed location, she was the only one there.
She was wearing heavy makeup and clothes completely unlike her usual style. She was also unusually enthusiastic.
I thought it was strange, but I didn’t dwell on it.
Then I drank until I blacked out.
When I woke up, she was lying beside me.
“You have to take responsibility for me.”
I panicked. “We’re best friends!”
Just then, my phone rang.
My best friend’s voice came from the other end.
“Where did you disappear to last night? The woman I introduced waited for you all night.”
The moment I heard Evelyn Sterling’s voice, I instinctively looked at the woman beside me.
At that moment, the Evelyn in front of me was sitting against the bed, her arms folded as she watched me.
The bizarre scene sent a ringing through my head. My scalp prickled.
“Say something. Where did you go last night? I couldn’t reach you. Do you have any idea how close I was to calling the police?”
She kept pressing me from the other end, but my mouth seemed frozen shut. It took a long moment before I came back to myself. I shifted backward and stammered, “Evelyn, I… I think I might have…”
Had I run into a ghost?
Before I could finish, the woman across from me suddenly leaned closer. Her gentle voice carried a deliberately playful lilt.
“Claire’s with me, Sis. Don’t worry.”
There was three seconds of silence on the line.
Then Evelyn’s voice turned unmistakably cold.
“Vivian? Why are you with Claire?”
Vivian?
Sis?
My hand locked in midair around the phone. I stared at the woman in front of me, who looked exactly like Evelyn, and blinked in confusion.
Since when did Evelyn have a sister? An identical twin?
Vivian Sterling curved her lips into a smile. There was a sly, mischievous quality in it that I had never once seen on Evelyn’s face.
“Don’t get so worked up, Sis.”
Vivian plucked the phone from my hand and switched on the speaker. Her tone was casual.
“I happened to run into Claire at the bar last night. It had been ages since we’d seen each other, so we had a couple of drinks. Who knew she’d mistake me for you?”
Her voice rose at the end, wrapped in an innocence that was far too deliberate.
The hangover and the impossible situation had left me completely dazed.
On the other end, Evelyn fell silent again.
After a long pause, she finally spoke. I couldn’t detect any emotion in her voice.
“Claire, send me your current location.”
The call ended.
I stared at the call log as the screen returned to the home page, still standing there like an idiot.
Vivian, meanwhile, was perfectly composed. She set her phone on the nightstand, turned to me, and let out a laugh.
“Don’t look so nervous. I’m her identical twin sister, Vivian Sterling. We met when we were kids. Don’t you remember?”
Identical twin sister.
Chapter 2
I opened and closed my mouth, unable even to express my shock.
I had known Evelyn for years, but she had never once mentioned having an identical twin. And when had I ever met Vivian?
“You drank a lot last night. Are you dizzy?”
As she spoke, Vivian lifted a hand toward my forehead. I instinctively shrank away, my mind still circling the words she’d said earlier.
You have to take responsibility for me.
“Th-that… yesterday, did we…”
“What about yesterday? Don’t tell me you don’t want to take responsibility.”
Vivian gave a soft snort and pulled the blanket higher.
“But I don’t remember anything. I couldn’t have… not when I was that drunk.”
Aside from the headache, I didn’t feel as though anything was wrong with me. That left only one possible explanation for what Vivian was implying.
“And I thought you were Evelyn, so there’s no way I would have done anything to you.”
“That isn’t necessarily true,” Vivian shot back. She rolled her eyes at me. “What if you’ve been plotting something against my sister all along? Maybe you took advantage of the alcohol and forced yourself on her…”
She hadn’t finished when someone suddenly pounded on the hotel door.
I scrambled off the bed and rushed over to open it.
I regretted it almost immediately.
One second earlier, I had been thanking every possible deity and looking forward to seeing Evelyn. The next, I saw the cold eyes beneath her rimless glasses and the storm-dark expression on her face, and panic seized me.
She stood in the doorway. Her gaze moved slowly down from my face, finally stopping at my bare shoulders.
“Where are your clothes?”
I looked down and realized that I was wearing nothing but my underwear.
I was doomed. Completely doomed.
There was no way I could ever explain this.
I had slept with my best friend’s sister. Would Evelyn kill me?
“Say something.”
Her voice wasn’t loud, and her tone was perfectly even.
That somehow made my back go cold.
“Let me explain!” I blurted out, so frantic that my words tangled together. “I really was drunk last night. I had no idea what was happening. Your sister brought me back, and my clothes were probably ruined because I threw up or something…”
Evelyn said nothing. She stepped into the room and casually closed the door behind her.
The lock clicked.
My heart gave a hard jolt.
She walked forward two steps, then folded her arms and looked at me.
I had already imagined a dozen different ways to die. If she wanted to yell at me, fine. If she wanted to hit me, I would take it. Anyone would have lost their mind over something like this.
Chapter 3
But I still felt wronged. I didn’t remember anything!
Just as I was preparing to explain myself properly, Evelyn said something I never expected.
“Claire, do Vivian and I really look so indistinguishable to you? You couldn’t even tell me apart from her?”
I opened my mouth, still completely bewildered.
What kind of question was that? I was so terrified by the whole situation that my soul had nearly left my body, and this was what she wanted to ask first?
“You two look exactly alike,” I explained instinctively. “Besides, I didn’t even know you had a twin sister.”
A quiet scoff escaped Evelyn’s nose. Her eyes narrowed.
“So what if we look alike? And when have you ever seen me wear makeup that heavy?”
I fell silent.
She had a point.
When I’d seen “Evelyn” at the bar the night before, a tiny part of me had felt that something was off.
The “Evelyn” who had smiled at me across the bar had been wearing a wine-red camisole dress that left most of her back bare. Her hair had been styled in big, loose curls.
She had eagerly taken my hand, poured me drinks, and smiled far more than Evelyn usually did.
At the time, I had noticed how strange it was.
Evelyn never wore clothes that bright or attention-grabbing. She wore rimless glasses, kept her hair straight or loosely tied back, and rarely used more than a little foundation and lipstick.
Her wardrobe was always some combination of black, white, and gray. Even her scarves were dark.
But I’d assumed she had simply felt like trying a different style. I hadn’t thought much of it.
Who would have guessed she had an identical twin?
The room fell silent for several seconds.
Then a cough came from the bed.
“Hey there.”
Vivian was propped against the headboard, the blanket pulled up to her collarbone. She waved at Evelyn and me.
“You two do realize I’m still here, right?”
Evelyn turned to look at her.
That alone would have been harmless. Unfortunately, the moment she saw Vivian, her brows drew together.
“Why aren’t you wearing any clothes either?”
Vivian glanced down at the shoulder showing above the blanket, then looked up again with an utterly untroubled smile.
“Seriously, sis? What kind of question is that? Who sleeps in clothes?”
Evelyn didn’t answer. Her lips pressed into a thin line.
I stood to the side, watching the two identical women stare each other down. The air seemed to freeze around us.
Evelyn said nothing. She pushed her glasses up, then turned and sat on the edge of the bed.