Page 1 of Chance
Prologue
Evie
It wasthe melodic rhythm of the rain against the window that called to my soul.With the door slightly ajar, I could hear the wind picking up, the rustle of the trees in the distance.But I wanted to be closer.Throwing back the curtain, I looked out at the midnight sky.
Shut doors tended to make me twitchy.Heart pounding, body bathed in sweat, sick to my stomach, air trapped in my lungs twitchy.Seeing them, being reminded of my life before Evy saved me, took me back to those dark places in my mind.
I felt trapped.
Smothered.
So the doors stayed unlocked and open.Just a little bit.Not like it had been earlier, when some guy named Reid had dropped by.I hadn’t met him, but Evy had while I was trying to wrangle the sheets onto our bed.She’d come back to help me, looking…dazed.Definitely a little smitten.There had been a new glow to my sister’s cheeks at the time, her eyes all dreamy.
She was totally crushing on the guy.
I liked the smile that’d stayed on her face since then.Above all else, I wanted my twin to be happy.
Lifting the window, I breathed in the cleansing smells and imagined the rain washing away the suffocatingly lonely past that constantly tried to steal my newfound peace.I didn’t want to think about what was behind me or what the future would bring.
There was only now.
“It’s really starting to come down out there,” Evy murmured, walking out of the bathroom.She was dressed in cute panda pajamas that matched my own.
It was still surreal that we were living together.That for the first time since birth, we were under the same roof for more than a few hours.Twenty-one years of only seeing my twin on our birthday had been torture for us both.Planning our life together once we were adults had been the only thing that saved either of us during those lonely years of being separated.It had taken three full years longer than expected, but we were finally where we’d always hoped to be one day.
Side by side.
Under the same roof.
Free.
Given that we’d grown up apart, it should have felt like I was living with a stranger, yet for the first time, I was in a place that finally felt like home.
Some identical twins probably did all they could to be more individual.But not Evy and me.For too long, all we’d had was the image in the mirror to help us stay connected while being forced to live separate lives.Seeing my face, knowing that it was the same one that my sister saw when she passed any reflective surface, had been the one thing that had helped me hold on when my isolation had been at its worst.
Isolation.I nearly snorted at that ridiculous understatement.Imprisoned, that was a better description.Locked away, behind a gate with guards that changed every eight hours.Not allowed outside, even though there was a thirty-foot-high wall that surrounded the house.Shut behind impenetrable doors and bulletproof, tinted windows that blocked most of the sun’s rays.
There was staff that cooked, cleaned, assisted my father in his day-to-day, but those people might as well have been ghosts.I was never allowed to see them, let alone speak to them.Only my father spoke to me.My single connection to the outside world was the online homeschool courses I took—all prerecorded—and my birthday, when I got to see Evy.
Talking to the mirror, pretending it was my sister, that was what had helped me stay sane.What had kept me from falling completely into the darkest parts of loneliness.
Until I couldn’t hold on anymore…
Evy dropped her head on my shoulder, jerking me back from the scary parts of my mind that wanted to pull me under.Mentally shaking away the memories, I focused on the two of us enjoying the storm.And our connection.I didn’t think she would ever understand exactly how much I needed the physical contact with her.Her warm skin.Her heartbeat.Her laughter.I was so hungry for human contact.
Even when we didn’t speak, having her close was all I needed.It calmed the panic that was constantly fluttering right below the surface.
“I always wondered what it would be like to play in the rain,” I confessed, letting out a longing sigh.
Having lived in Seattle my entire life, I knew it rained at least forty-five percent of the year.Yet I’d never once felt it touch my skin.I always hoped it would rain on my birthday, so I might get the chance to touch a raindrop, but oddly, it never did.
My twin’s head popped up, her eyes darkening for only a moment before she grinned.“There’s no one here to tell us we can’t.”
I nibbled my bottom lip.That was true.I just had our dad’s…mydad’s voice echoing in my head, grumbling all the reasons why I shouldn’t.My dad, I reminded myself.Evy went silent when I called him “our” anything.
To Evy, he was merely William.He’d never considered himself Evy’s dad.There were times I’d felt like he even hated her.Outwardly, my twin didn’t appear to let that bother her, but I could almost feel the pain that lived inside her from his rejection.Her anger was plentiful—and understandable.I hated that bastard more than anyone, even more than my sister did.His rejection of her had carved a scar on her soul that she couldn’t acknowledge, but she couldn’t hide it from me.
With his death came unbelievable relief.Finally, we were both free.
