But soon enough, Julia thought, alone up here in the middle of no-damned-where, Sophia would realize that she had to acquiesce, that Julia knew what was best. For both of them.

They were twins, after all.

That should count for a lot—maybe everything.

Julia climbed behind the wheel.

As she drove through the surrounding forest, she plotted her next move and felt her anger returning. She’d have to do this alone.

“You stupid, stupid bitch,” she ground out, fury coursing through her veins. Her shoulder was really throbbing now, and she rubbed it. She’d probably have a major bruise. At the gate, she got out and locked it, worried a little about the tracks going into the woods, but couldn’t let it bother her. More snow was predicted, though, so the bad weather should take care of any impressions in the snow.

She should just let Sophia rot up there and die. Alone. Not knowing when anyone would come for her. If ever. Serve her right.

No way, no effin’ way was Julia going to lose out now. She got back into her car and headed back to town, the wheels of her hatchback slipping a little with the ice that had built up on this rarely used Forest Service road, the damned heater not throwing out enough warmth. God, it was hell to have to scrimp and save and sacrifice!

She was so close to the Cahill money, she could almost taste it. That fortune was going to be hers. While her mother, Deidre, and her grandmother, Marla, only wanted revenge, Julia wanted more. And she’d thought Sophia was on board.

Until the idiot had fallen in love with James.

Julia hadn’t spent the last three months wearing ugly wigs, brown contacts, and thick glasses, forcing prosthetics into her cheeks, and strapping on that degrading fat suit to alter her appearance for nothing. No way.

She rounded a corner, taking it a little too fast, and she fought the steering wheel for a second, still wound up in her thoughts.

She probably should have reversed the roles, let Sophia wear the disguise while Julia had seduced James, but really, Sophia just didn’t have the brains to pull it off, and Julia had had a few brushes with the law that would have been a liability had she been found out.

Some of her anger gave way as she turned onto the main road; she was altering her plans and seeing the next few weeks in a different light.

Now it was just a matter of becoming Sophia, slipping into her skin. She’d been playing with the idea for a while now. If anyone asked about the sister they may have glimpsed her with, she’d explain that Julia had to return home. Family emergency or something.