Voices. At first I think I’m dreaming. Casper’s arms are around me beneath the covers, and I hear the steady sounds of traffic outside the hotel. British accents. We must’ve left the TV on all night.

“Well this is unexpected,” says a female voice that’s oddly familiar. “Daddy’s going to kill him.”

“That’s if I don’t kill him first.”

The female voice huffs. “Don’t turn your volcanic eyes on me, Leo. It wasn’t my idea to send him to Florida.”

“I only suggested him for the job because Dad refused to let me go. I didn’t think this would be the result.”

Casper groans against my neck, nudging me. “Wake up, Mila. We have company.” He stirs. My brain slowly leaves the warm, fuzzy place between sleep and awake, and I stretch beneath the covers.

“How’d you two get here?”

“Picked the lock,” the female voice says proudly. “Last year I dated a locksmith. He taught me a few tricks.”

My eyes flare open.

I know that voice. Except for the accent. That’s a new development.

I sit up, looking around for its owner. There are two silhouettes I can’t make out in the dark of the room. Either I’m crazy or that’s…

“I meant how did you find us?” Casper says, his voice sounding more gruff than usual.

“Oh, right. Daddy told us you were coming. Warned us to stay away. Quite explicitly, too. He mentioned something about there being all kinds of hell to pay if we even thought about coming near you. But, you know us. We’ve never been any good at listening to the old man.”

The curtain is drawn, and sunlight pours into the hotel room. It takes several seconds to adjust. I have to blink several times—it is her.

Standing at the foot of my bed, dressed in tight-fitted black clothes from head to toe, is my high school best friend, Madelyn. Slightly more polished than I remember, and her short, wavy hair is now sleek and long. Her slender, teenage body now very adult and curvy. She’s also wearing a pair of thin black eyeglasses.

“Madelyn?” My voice is craggy from sleep. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey there, Milly.” She smiles, using the same nickname for me she used in high school. I don’t smile back. The last time I saw her, she’d told me she was moving away. She told me she would keep in touch. Then she disappeared from social media, and I never heard from her again.

“My name, it’s um, Viviana.” She lowers her gaze. “Not Madelyn.”

Madelyn is Viviana.

Viviana is Madelyn.

You two could be sisters. We’d heard it said hundreds of times around school. But I thought the similarities were just that, similarities between friends. Holy hell—sisters!

How did I never notice before? She’s shorter, curvier, but otherwise an exact replica of me.

My head hurts. God, everything hurts. Maybe I am still dreaming. I kind of wish I was.

Grabbing the nearest pillow, I pull it close to me, needing something to hold onto. An anchor. I feel like I’m spreading every which way, unsure of what’s real and what’s not.

Memories of high school swirl around as I try to make sense of it. I never once met Madelyn’s parents. They were always out of town on business trips. Whenever we hung out at her condo, they were never home. There were no pictures on the walls, no mementos or items of a personal nature. But Gran kept our own house so minimalistic, I didn’t think much of it.

Casper’s hand finds mine, untangling it from the pillow. “Just so you know, I was unaware that the two of you previously met. Nor do I have anything to do with them being here.”

“Bloody obvious conclusion there, mate,” says a male voice coming from the far side of the room, by the window. “If you had known we’d find you in her bed, you’d also know you’d be in deep shit.”

The guy speaking is leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, looking anything but relaxed. He’s tall and lean, has the same Serra coloring and bone structure, the same pouty lips and deep-set brown eyes, only his are full of fury and fixed on Casper. He must be Leo.

My brother.

The head spinning only gets worse. I look back and forth between Leo and Viviana in disbelief. My brother and sister.

This is too much to process. I’m still in my pj’s for God’s sake. The universe could have waited until I had coffee before setting off this bomb.

“Tell me it’s not what it looks like, Casper,” Leo growls out. “Because it looks like you took advantage of a vulnerable situation.”

I glance at Casper, waiting for him to explain that it’s actually not what it looks like, that someone broke into my hotel room, and that he slept in here to keep me safe. But Casper doesn’t mention any of those things.

“Next time try knocking on the door. Then you won’t have to see things you don’t want to.”

Leo takes a step in Casper’s direction. “Vivvy, get Mila, and stand back.”

Viviana moves to block him, holding up her hands. “Enough. If you haven’t noticed, our baby sister is still waking up. Give her a moment to piece things together.”

The anger in Leo’s sharp gaze softens when he looks at me. He sighs, then leans back against the window. “Fine, but you’d better start explaining. The poor girl looks lost.”

Madelyn—Viviana—whatever the hell her name is—turns to face me.

“You lied to me,” I say tightly.

“Yes, I did.” She winces, shuffling her feet at the foot of the bed. “Daddy never told us what happened to you. I always resented him for that. He kept me from having a normal relationship with him by forcing me to live in London while he lives in New York, but I figured that was his choice to make. You, on the other hand, never got a say. So I hacked into his email server, found some messages between him and Grandmother, then located the IP address. It wasn’t hard to track you and Gran down after that.”

“You came to Florida by yourself,” I say, stunned. We met at the start of our senior year, and she left right before graduation. All that time, she’d been alone.

“I was more rebellious back then, tired of hiding. A friend hooked me up with some fake papers, and I ran away from home. I changed my accent and registered at your school as a senior. It was the only way I could meet you.” She shrugs, like it was no big deal. “No one knew except for Leo. He was the only one I told.”

“Not even Gran?” I think of all the times I invited Madelyn over to spend the night at my house or invited her anywhere Gran would be. She always came up with excuses. That answers my question.

“I couldn’t let her find out. I’d been asking her for years if I could come visit. She refused every. Single. Damn. Time.” She paces the room as she speaks, shaking her head. “Too risky, she’d say. I know you loved that woman, but she was impossibly stubborn about keeping you away from us.”

The back of my throat burns, forcing me to swallow.

Gran’s soothing voice fills my mind. She acted as both my mother and father. Patching me up when I scraped a knee. Reading to me before bed. Helping me with my homework.

I think of the album I found while moving. She kept it tucked away, hidden, the same way she did the real people. Like they didn’t even exist.

“She’s the one who busted me,” Viviana continues. “She must’ve snooped through your prom pictures. I was so careful every other time, trying to keep my face off social media and out of photos.”

“You were always so camera shy,” I say, remembering how she hid her face anytime someone pulled out their phone. I never understood that because Madelyn loved photography. She was always taking pictures, but never of herself.

“Prom was my mistake. It was supposed to be special. I wanted us to have those memories, so I broke my own rules for the night. Gran saw me, and she immediately called Daddy. He sent his people to collect me the very next day. That’s why I didn’t say goodbye in person. They didn’t give me the chance.”

I still remember how it all went down.

Madelyn called me that day, crying. She said her parents were taking jobs in New Zealand. The way she left so suddenly never felt right. I tried calling her dozens of times only to find out her number had been disconnected. There was never any new activity on her Facebook or Twitter accounts either. Now it all makes sense.

Casper squeezes my hand. “You doing okay?”

I don’t know how I’m doing, but I nod anyway, thankful to have him there beside me.

“I’m sorry for the lies and the secrecy, Milly.” She exhales a long, defeated breath. “I just wanted to know my sister. Can you forgive me?”

My throat feels like it’s closing up, all the oxygen stuck in my chest, ready to burst at any second. I’m angry, but the anger is steadily being redirected. This isn’t her fault. It’s none of our faults. Of course I forgive her.

Moving the pillow aside, I let go of Casper’s hand and leave the bed. Viviana throws her arms around me for several long seconds, then backs up again. She smooths my hair as she looks me over. “You look the same, but different too. Does that make sense?”

“Yes. So do you.”

“You still have your charm bracelet.” She lifts the sleeve of her black sweater to show me her own matching one. “I wear mine every day.”

We’d given each other the bracelets for Christmas. She was the one who suggested adding the sisterhood charms. Back then, I remember wishing Madelyn was my sister and thinking of her that way. All along, she had been.

Surreal doesn’t even begin to describe this.

Viviana wipes tears from the corners of her eyes. “I’d like to hog you all to myself. But someone I know is dying to meet you. Officially.” She nods to where Leo is standing by the window. “Ignore his moodiness.”

“This is crazy,” I mumble awkwardly as I approach. “You’re my brother.”

“Welcome to the family,” he says, leaning in to give me my second hug of the morning. “We die in this one. Keeps things interesting.”

Viviana sucks her teeth. “God, Leo. Don’t be so morbid.”

Clearing his throat behind us, Casper says, “How about we continue this little family reunion after me and the girl have a chance to get dressed?”

Leo scowls at him. “No one invited you, mate. Besides, you’ll just climb out the window before I have a chance to kick your arse.”

It appears Casper has no problem letting them both think something happened between us, which bothers me. The guy could’ve let something happen, but he was honorable enough to stop it. I don’t want anyone getting the wrong impression.

“Someone broke into my hotel room last night,” I explain. “Casper slept in here to keep me safe.”

Both of their faces turn pale. “So it’s true then,” Viviana says, her voice no more than a whisper. “The Serra killer is back at it.”

“That’s the way it appears.”

Leo clenches his hands into fists at his sides, the muscles strained in his neck. I’m surprised their—our—father didn’t tell them.

“Look, I don’t want to worry you, but someone has been stalking me for the past few weeks. He tampered with my car’s brakes, tried to break in to my house, then sent me a threatening text just after we boarded the plane. After that happened, I changed my mind about finding the two of you. I didn’t want to put you both in danger.”

“That’s why you didn’t come straight to us?” Viviana says, swallowing. “I’m glad we showed up anyway.”

“Not sure if I am,” I say honestly. “Just being near me puts you at risk.”

She waves that aside. “Ridiculous. Being born a Serra is what puts us all at risk. You’re coming to stay with me at Aunt Care’s townhouse. You too, Casper. Don’t even think about saying no.”

“Aunt Care?” I ask, confused.

“Carousel, but we call her Care—her parents were hippies,” Viviana explains. “Anyway, you’ll love her. I’ve already told her you’re coming, and she’s beyond excited. Leo lives in his own flat across town, but he swings by every day for dinner. Poor guy would starve if he had to cook for himself.”

“That’s what I tell Care anyway,” Leo says, snorting. “So she feels sorry and feeds me.”

Viviana grabs him by the arm, steering him to the door. “Come on, let’s wait in the lobby while they get ready. You can stop with all the scowling at Casper, too. He clearly had good intentions.”

“Still doesn’t explain why he was in her bed—with his arms around her.”

“Leave it alone, Leo.” She elbows him in his ribcage. To me, she winks, and says, “He’s got years of overprotective brotherly concern to catch up on. You don’t know how happy I am that it won’t be solely focused on me anymore.”

The second they’re gone, I freak out. “Is this a good idea? Should we ditch them while we have the chance?”

“You heard Viviana,” Casper says. “She said she’s not taking no for an answer.”

She always was sort of bossy, even in high school. I imagine that would’ve been a nightmare had we grown up together.

“I could still leave,” I say, thinking out loud. “Run away somewhere. Hide. This doesn’t have to involve them.”

“It already involves them.” He crosses the room to the adjoining door. “But I’ll support whatever you decide. I’m going to get dressed.”

“About that, why didn’t you clear things up when Leo accused you of taking advantage of me?”

Guilt flashes in Casper’s eyes. “Because he wasn’t wrong.”

Before I have a chance to say anything else, he quietly slips out of the room.