“Yeah, that’s the one,” April nodded, relishing in her anguish. “See, the thing is Deven, none of this was supposed to happen. It started out as a little prank honestly. Just a quick way to get a few dollars out of you and your rich ass daddy. It was my mom’s idea to take it a little further.” She laughed as if she’d just been told the punchline of the world’s funniest joke. “You see, she never really liked your mom because Keith was still so in love with her. That shit was too obvious. And she and I, well, we were already pros at the fraud shit. So, reaching out to you seemed like the perfect opportunity to capitalize on the ultimate scheme. I knew how to contour my makeup just right to even look a little more like her. And well, the rest was too easy! You and Iris just welcomed me in with open arms like you didn’t even get rid of that girl. Like everything was supposed to just go back to the way things were. I guess it was the guilt eating at you because it worked so brilliantly. Don’t you think?”

April was maniacal as she paced in front of Deven with that sinister laugh of hers. Each confession only ripped her heart once more until it was nothing more than tattered ribbons. How did she never know, not once, that she’d been conned by the ultimate con artist? “Did Keith, know?”

“Nope. Nobody knows. Not even Benji. Just me and Erika. Had all your asses fooled, huh?” April took a mock bow and clapped as if there was a round of applause in her honor. The way she pranced around so damn proud only aggravated the situation. Shit was repulsing and Deven gagged as she did her best to hold down her vomit.

The realization was numbing. Her mother’s will, Paul, everything was just scam after strategic scam by a mother/daughter con duo. And everyone else were just puppets while they pulled the strings.

“So . . . my sister, my real sister . . .” Deven trailed off, unable to speak the words as the beautiful woman in the morgue, the woman with the sad eyes floated into her thoughts. She couldn’t . . . it couldn’t be . . .

April steeled; her mood not quite as callous as she spoke. “I didn’t kill her, if that’s what you mean,” she said.

The comment had Deven dissolving into a flurry of fitful sobs. “How could you?” she cried. “Oh my God how could you do that?”