life, and mine. I wanted the truth, and now that I have it I can’t pretend it isn’t so.
I’m my sister’s clone. That’s the reason we have a psychic connection, and why I glimpse her memories. She’s not a ghost, she’s a part of me—no, I’m a part of her. I never would’ve existed without Iris.
“You want to talk or just walk?” Ty asks as we step outside, a breeze ruffling his hair.
“Walk,” I croak.
As we start around the perimeter of the parking lot, I breathe in the warm, humid air. It bathes over me, washing away my denial. The roar of city traffic on the highway sounds as peculiar to me as my life has become. But no matter how strange or frightening it is, I can’t hide from it.
It takes three laps before I’m finally cried out. “I’m ready,” I tell Ty. “Let’s go back in before he decides to leave.”
Ty ducks his head to capture my attention. “You sure?”
“Yeah.” I push his hair back, let my fingertips linger. I’m so glad I have him to lean on. “Thank you,” I say.
“Anytime.” He smiles and takes my hand.
We go back inside the restaurant and I slump into the chair across the table from Jake, shaking from head to toe. He looks ragged as he scrubs a hand across his face and drags it back through his hair.
“How could Dad do that to me? To her?” I ask him, my voice breaking again. “He used his own daughter! He made me a freak.”
Ty’s arms wrap around me. He holds on tight, but not tight enough to still Iris. I sense her energy inside me more strongly than I ever have before. She’s the fluttering in my breastbone, the sinking sensation in my stomach, the press of dread surrounding my heart.
Crying again—for her, for myself—I sink into Ty, but it’s Iris I cling to. She’s the only one who really understands how I feel. The song from the music box flows through my veins as she hums it, trying to comfort me.
Our food arrived while Ty and I were gone. Jake pushes his coffee aside, his face flushing red. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I don’t know what to say.”
I sit up and sniff, staring down at my plate of toast. “Have you always known about me?”
“No,” Jake says. “I knew they tried, but I didn’t think it worked.” Looking from me to Ty, he adds, “You said you suspected . . . how?”
Ty explains the events that led him to me as I sit numb and speechless beside him.
“Adam and Melanie must have been afraid that Ian Beckett wouldn’t keep their secret about the cloning,” Jake says. “He was in on the whole thing. It was his idea to begin with. But he was an egomaniac with an agenda. If he knew the cloning was a success, he would’ve leaked it to the media. I’m sure the Marshalls didn’t want you to become some kind of sideshow phenomenon.” I flinch, and Jake sits forward, wincing. “Lily, I’m sorry. That was insensitive.”
“But that’s what I am, isn’t it? And what’s worse, the experiment wasn’t a success, it was a disappointment. I was a disappointment.”
“That’s not true,” Ty says gently.
“I think I was to Mom. She’d get so unhappy. And the way she looked at me sometimes.” I grab a paper napkin from the dispenser, wipe my eyes, then clutch it in my hand. “She probably wanted a perfect duplicate of Iris, but instead she got a poor imitation.”
“Why would you think such a thing?” Jake asks.
“I’ve seen Iris play the violin. I found a video online. She was amazing.”
“But so are you,” says Ty.
I shake my head. “I couldn’t do it in front of an audience like she did. She was so calm. So perfect. The way she looked . . . everything.”
Jake sits straighter, his eyes going wide. “You can play?”
Ty nods. “Yeah, and she’s incredible, whether she’ll admit it or not.”
Pride blooms inside of me, sweet and soft and unexpected. Maybe there is something good in all of this. My sister’s talent somehow became mine, and it’s a wonderful gift. “Thank you,” I say. “Not that I had anything to do with it.”
Jake smiles. “I’d love to hear you play sometime. Iris’s music meant everything to her. Whenever she’d hear from a fan about how much joy it brought them, she’d be so happy. There was something special about it. Something soothing and powerful.”