Chapter 10: The Twin

My phone lit up before I reached the bottom of the stairs.

No name, just a number I knew by heart.

Roof of the Elm Street deck. Midnight. Come alone, Nini. I have your book.

I stood in my father's garage with the light off and my pulse in my ears.

There was only one person on earth who knew what the book was called.

I did not tell Bea.

I did not tell Donal, who had left at nine with his blazer over his arm and a promise in his eyes.

At 11:50 I climbed the concrete ramps of the parking deck on Elm Street, where I'd parked a thousand times for a thousand of Kyla's errands.

The top level was empty except for a single car and the wind.

Kyla sat on the hood of her white Audi in a gray hoodie, one leg swinging.

She had no crutches and no brace.

In her lap she held two green cloth books, one on top of the other.

"Hi, Nini," she said. "You look good in the dress."

"Where did you get the key to my father's garage?"

"Your neighbor lets people use the bathroom. It took four minutes." She patted the hood. "Sit."

"No."

"Okay. Stand. You were always better at standing." She lifted the top book and tossed it. "Catch."

I caught it against my chest.

It was mine, with the loose thread at the spine.

I opened it to the last page, and every number was where I'd left it.

Owed to N. Faulk: $212,480 and one life.

"I didn't read it," Kyla said. "Well, I read the end. You always did write beautifully."

Then she held up the other book.

It was the same green cloth, but newer, with a gold K stamped on the bottom corner.

"Mine came the same afternoon," she said. "In my gym bag. I thought, what the hell, this isn't a gym bag I own."

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