The box didn’t contain any ‘bedroom wear’ at all. At least not the sort of bedroom wear I was expecting….

It contained several black latex fetish-wear items, including a full-on gimp mask and a ball-gag. There were also a couple of butt plugs with hairy pink tails attached, nipple clamps, nipple tassels, a whip, and several porn tapes with titles which parodied popular movies from the past.

“Star Whores, Priscilla: Anal Queen of the Desert, and Four Weddings and a Fisting. Hmm….” Andreas read the porno names out, breaking the silence. Then he clasped a hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh.

Gloria looked like she was about to faint, prim and proper as she was. “Oh, lord…” she whispered, fingering the silver cross which hung on a chain around her neck.

I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me whole. Emilia, Mel, and Bianca’s faces were pulled into expressions of shock combined with amusement, and then they all began to giggle uncontrollably. Andreas joined in. I couldn’t fault them for it—if I were in their shoes, I’d probably laugh too.

But I wasn’t laughing. Not at all. I slammed the box lid shut, seething. I knew exactly who was responsible for this stupid, immature prank.

Cade.

There was no one else who’d want to embarrass me like this. He was obviously humiliated by what I did yesterday, and so he’d decided to get back at me in a totally childish way instead of waiting for me to explain myself. And god, I was going to. But I got caught up with the far more important issue of my long-lost sister’s sudden return. That trumped everything else, right?

“I… um…”

I didn’t know what else to say, and everyone was still crying with laughter. So I simply fled upstairs to my suite with the box and tucked it at the very back of my walk-in closet. I couldn’t exactly put it all in the garbage just yet, because the last thing I needed was someone seeing me outside and snapping a candid shot of me throwing out a boxful of fetish wear. That’d just start even more tabloid rumors about me.

I guess I’d have to slowly dispose of the things, one by one.

Once the box was safely tucked away, I sat back on my sofa, my chest heaving. I was so mad at Cade. I knew it was him who’d embarrassed me like this. I just knew it.

I was absolutely furious. I liked him. I thought we were building up a friendship. Maybe even something more. At least that’s what I’d hoped…. And then just one little incident was enough for him to turn on me and do something as ridiculous as this. Honestly, was he twelve?

I knew what I did yesterday was wrong. I shouldn’t have let him overhear me saying those things to my father. I should’ve stepped farther away so that he wouldn’t. Hell, maybe I should’ve even told Dad the truth. But I was so worried about Cade getting fired that I just…didn’t.

That wasn’t so bad, right? I did it out of concern for Cade, not out of snobby bitchiness. I didn’t look down on him because of his job at all. I respected everyone who worked for us (and anyone who worked anywhere else, for that matter) and I knew how incredibly fortunate I was to be born into my particular place in life.

The longer I sat on the couch stewing, the angrier I got. I wanted to confront Cade. Wanted to tell him what a dick he was, and how embarrassing it was for me to open that box in front of someone like Gloria, who’d practically gone into cardiac arrest at the sight of it all.

An idea popped into my head, and I stood up and stomped over to the landline phone which sat on one of my bedside tables. Then I dialed the hotel’s HR office and asked for Nadia.

“Hi, Peyton. What can I do for you?” she said when she answered.

“Hey, Nadia. Could you do me a favor?”

“Sure.”

“Could you tell me where Cade Miller is working right now? I didn’t see him down in the lobby. I need to um… give him something.”

She paused for a second, and I heard her typing. “He’s not in. He worked an early morning shift today, so he finished at twelve.”

My shoulders deflated. “Oh.” Then I sat up straight again. “Actually, could you give me his address? It’ll be in his file, right?”

Nadia didn’t respond right away. I knew she was hesitating because she wasn’t supposed to give out employee information like that, but she also didn’t want to say no to me, given who I was.

“I just want to give him a birthday present,” I said hurriedly.

“It’s not his birthday.”

“Not for him. For his, er… sister. He was asking me for advice on what to get her yesterday, and I told him I’d pick up the perfect thing. I just love buying gifts, you know. And it’s her birthday tomorrow, so I want to get this thing to him as soon as possible.”

Nadia sighed. “Fine. He lives in apartment 6C on East Baylor Street, in the Greenough apartment building. It’s in Harrington.”

“Thanks.”

After I hung up, I went downstairs and outside to my car, still hell-bent on confronting Cade about his behavior. According to my GPS, his apartment was about fifteen minutes away, and my anger didn’t dissipate as I drove.

Deep down, I knew the real reason I was so mad. Since I met Cade, I’d developed a giant crush on him. I’d shared so many intimate details of my life and fears with him during our little chats, because I blindly trusted him, and he made it so easy to do so.

Now he’d gone and done this.

If it was anyone else doing it, I might’ve just laughed along with the others. But coming from Cade, it seemed like a betrayal of sorts. All because of my stupid feelings for him.

As I ascended the stairs at his run-down apartment block fifteen minutes later, I tried to remind myself that I barely knew the guy, and it was just a crush. The feelings would go away soon.

If that’s true, then why are you here, stalking him at his apartment like a crazy person? a little voice in my head asked.

I ignored the thought and rapped on the door to 6C. A petite elderly lady answered it a moment later. “Hello?” she said, squinting at me.

I was silent for a few seconds. I hadn’t been expecting anyone else to answer the door. “Um… hi,” I finally said. “Is Cade in?”

“Who?”

“Cade Miller. This is his apartment, right?”

The old lady shook her head. “No, it’s just me and my husband here. You must have the wrong address.” She turned around. “Earl!” she hollered. “Do we know anyone named Cade? Any neighbors?”

A gruff man’s voice called back out to her. “No. What the hell kind of name is Cade?”

The lady turned back to me. “Sorry,” she said with a shrug.

“Oh. That’s okay. Sorry to bother you.”

She bade me a polite goodbye, then shut the door. I took a step back and frowned. This was definitely the Greenough apartment block in Harrington, and I was sure that Nadia said 6C was Cade’s apartment number. Then again, I was so angry when I called her earlier that I could barely think straight. I probably just misheard her.

I thought about calling her back to get the right apartment number, but then I finally listened to the little voice in the back of my head that was telling me how utterly ludicrous this was.

How weird and creepy did I look right now, angrily stalking all the way over to Cade’s apartment block like this, just to yell at him over a prank? A prank that I wasn’t even 100% sure he was responsible for. I’d just assumed it was him.

It was a blessing in disguise that I accidentally got the wrong address, because I might not have lived this down if I hadn’t.

Feeling a little calmer, I walked back to my car. I wasn’t going to confront Cade now, even if he admitted that it was him behind the prank. I was going to take the high road and pretend it never happened. ‘What package?’ I’d say nonchalantly if he ever asked me about it. Or better, I could gush with effusive praise and thank him for sending me a box of all my favorite things.

That’d confuse him for sure.

I grabbed a blueberry and banana smoothie from a drive-through juice bar on my way back to the hotel, glad to finally get something in my stomach. I was just taking the last sips of it when I stepped back into the Mirabella lobby, and when I looked up from my pink straw, I spotted DeeDee heading over to the elevators. She was dragging a suitcase behind her.

“DeeDee!” I called out.

She turned around, smiling when she saw me approach. “Hey,” she said.

I gestured to the case. “Um… what’s this?”

She shrugged. “My appointment ended up being canceled. So I got coffee with Mom. While we were doing that, she suggested that I come and stay here at the hotel with her, you, and Dad. I said yes. After all, it’s my home, right?”

I had to admit, I was a little taken aback by that. It’d only been a few hours since we were reunited with her, and she was already comfortably calling our parents Mom and Dad as if she hadn’t been raised elsewhere for fifteen years and forgotten about them until just recently.

Something about it seemed… disingenuous. It was all moving so fast. Too fast.

I guess it wasn’t her fault, though. Now that she was back and regaining her old memories, she probably wanted to try and fit in with the family as much as possible. It made sense.

“Oh, sure,” I said, giving her a friendly smile to disguise my shock. “Do you need help with your case?”

“No, I’ll be fine,” she replied. “Mom already got a bellboy to take all the rest upstairs.”

All the rest?

“So this isn’t just a short stay. You’re moving in permanently?” I said.

She shrugged. “Why not? Like I said, it’s my home, right? And honestly, my apartment in the Towers sucks. Mom was horrified when she came inside to help me pack a few things. It’s practically a shoebox, and Oakwood isn’t exactly the best neighborhood.”

“Oh, I see.”

Her brows pinched together. “Where were you, anyway?”

“I went to get some food while I waited for you to get back,” I said, holding up my empty smoothie cup.

I left out the part of the afternoon where I’d stalked Cade like a lunatic.

DeeDee nodded. “Cool,” she replied. Then she looked around and sighed. “It’s all so crazy, right?”

“Yeah, it really is.”

“Every time I step in here and look around, I remember more and more of the things I forgot from when I was a kid,” she said, gesturing around. “Even just the mosaic on the floor here… I remember it all.”

I lifted one eyebrow. The mosaic tiles had only been put down in the lobby eight years ago, and Allegra/DeeDee hadn’t been here for fifteen years. I figured it was just a false memory, though. They were common, right?

I let it slide.

“What else do you remember?” I asked curiously.

“I think… I think I remember us playing here,” she said, glancing around. “You used to chase me around everywhere, right? And we’d play hide and seek.”

I nodded. “Yeah. You always used to hide in the kitchen. And whenever I found you, you had that big pink stuffed dog with you. Henrietta. You carried her everywhere.”

She laughed. “Wow, yes, I remember that now!” she said with a wide grin. “Henrietta... god, I wonder what happened to her? I loved that dog.”

“We probably still have her lying around somewhere. Mom and Dad never touched your old bedroom,” I said, my voice softening. “All your childhood toys are still in there.”

She smiled at that, and my forehead wrinkled as something occurred to me all of a sudden. I was the one accidentally mixing up memories now. Henrietta the pink stuffed dog never belonged to Allegra. I was confusing her with my friend Serena—she was the one with that toy dog, and she was the one who carried it around everywhere when we were kids.

Allegra had always been more of a doll girl.

So why did she agree with me and claim to remember Henrietta? Serena never brought the toy here. In fact, she and I didn’t even meet until a couple of years after Allegra went missing.

I squinted slightly as I gazed at DeeDee, trying to figure out if it was just another false memory that I may have accidentally put in her head.

Suddenly I knew what it was that’d been bothering me since I first looked into her eyes. There was something in them, quite literally. I could just make out the faintest of outlines around her irises.

“You wear contacts?” I asked.

She raised her hand to her eyes self-consciously. “Oh…yes. I’m very short-sighted,” she said. Then her eyes narrowed. “These aren’t fake color contacts, if that’s what you’re implying.”

God, she was sensitive. Paranoid, even. That was a little suspicious.

“I wasn’t implying that,” I said, holding a palm up. “Jeez, it was just a question.”

Her gaze was flat and emotionless when she looked at me now. “Whatever. Look, I get that this is weird for you. You got used to being the only sister. The only heiress. And now you feel like I’m here to take all that from you.”

I frowned and shook my head, blindsided by her sudden mood swing from happiness to paranoia. “What? No, it’s not tha—”

She cut me off and stepped a little closer so she was right in my face. “It’s fine. But let me just say this, Peyton. I’m here to stay now. No matter what you do, you can’t stop me from being a part of this family, or part of this world. Just try.”

I wasn’t sure whether she meant for me to ‘just try’ to include her in my life and our family, or whether she was taunting me into trying to prove her wrong about who she said she was. Surely she meant the former… but her tone of voice, specific choice of words, and narrowed eyes told me it was more likely the latter.

Right now, there was only one thing I was sure about.

This girl was not my sister.