“Oh, stop!” Julia was having none of it. “Come on. You know we had to get rid of her. So that James could focus on you. On us.” She crouched down so that her face was close to her twin’s. It was like looking in a bloody mirror, she thought—well, aside from Sophia’s now mottled complexion and the waterworks making her eyes red and puffy. “You think I’m a monster, don’t you?” she taunted. “You wonder just how far I’ll go. I can see it in your eyes.”

Sophia reacted, coiling, trying and failing to hurl spit right in her twin’s face and failing miserably, the spittle running down the corner of her mouth.

“Oh, now you’ve just made a mess of your face.” Straightening, Julia scowled. “You’re just lucky I really wanted a sister and right now I can’t find it in my heart to get rid of you too. So you stay here, okay? And you think about everything we’ve done, how involved you are, how you tricked James, how you were a part of the scheme to fleece him and get rid of the other women in his life!”

“Nnnnnnnnnoooooo . . .”

“Oh, shut up!” She stared down at the wretched being that was her identical twin. So alike they were, and yet so very, very different. “Rebecca’s got to go,” she said and felt her heart warm a bit. Now that she had free rein, that she didn’t have to worry about Sophia messing things up, that she didn’t have to rely on her twin for every little, inconvenient alibi, she could deal with Rebecca Travers on her own.

In fact, if push really came to shove, she might find a way to use her sister as the sacrificial lamb, though she probably couldn’t go through with it.

Just like she didn’t have the heart to kill her.

A flaw. One she’d try to correct.

She remembered to slide Sophia’s phone out of her pocket, then started for the door again.

Sophia, damn her, lunged upward.

Nearly got her feet under her, but stumbled and twirled, her arm flailing outward in a wild arc.

Thwack!

Her fist connected, banging against Julia’s shoulder before Julia could spin away.

“You bitch!” Julia cried, scrambling to the door before her twitching, gurgling, wild-eyed thing of a sister launched herself again. Fingers fumbling, she locked the door and swore loudly, the wind tearing at her jacket and slapping her in the face. Never had her sister attacked her. Never!

It was time to get away before Sophia was able to control her body again.

She just needed time to cool off and put things in perspective.

Of course, Sophia would try to escape.

Who wouldn’t?