THE SWITCH
“They’re forcing me to go to this school in America, and I don’t want to. You keep saying you want an education. It’s perfect. You become me, I become you. We both get what we want most.”
I shake my head, eyes wide. “No. No way. I couldn’t.”
“You most certainly could. You look enough like me to pull it off. You’re brilliant, you sent that photo to Downing Street and no one was the wiser. You can alter whatever you need to in the databases. Our mothers won’t care—I hate to point it out but Gertie is beyond help.
“I have all the money I’ve been saving, you can have half of it to keep you afloat until I get my inheritance. He’s made this provision about the degree just to piss me off, I know he has. He hates me. Making me get a college degree before I can have the inheritance, it’s completely unfair. But it’s been done, too late to undo it. Though who knows. He might leave you something. He seems to have a soft spot for your mother.”
This is said with an accusatory, inquiring glance—maybe she’s been ferreting out the truth at last. As much as I hate him, I still feel a tiny squirm of pleasure at the thought but I push it aside. I want nothing from Damien Carr that he can give. All I want is what he can’t possibly manage. Acknowledgment is the least of it. Love. The love of a man who punishes my sister because I am not her.
“I can’t, Ashlyn. It’s wrong. I could never pull it off.”
“You can. Think of me as your fairy godmother. You’ll get everything you’ve been dreaming about. An education. A life away from this hellhole. You are Cinderella now.”
I look around the flat. Ashlyn isn’t wrong, it is a dump. I have no prospects. Aside from finding myself a rich husband, I will be stuck in this life. And I don’t want a rich husband. I want to learn things. Create things. I want to go to school so badly it makes my teeth hurt.
And now Ashlyn is offering me my dream.
I have to say, I don’t trust her.
“But to take your identity... What does this do for you, Ashlyn?”
She spins in a ridiculous Mary Poppins–like circle. “Freedom. All the freedom I could ever want. I become Alexandria Pine, anonymous café worker, able to go wherever I please. No more bullshit schooling, no more bullshit attacks from Damien. You become Ashlyn Carr, beloved daughter of a scion, going away to school in America.”
“There’s no way we can pull this off.”
“Yes, we can. My photo hasn’t been in the press since Johnny died. No one will have any idea what I grew up to look like. Mother has done her damnedest to keep me hidden away. Around here, maybe, though he lost it and fired Dorsey, did I tell you? Thought she was stealing from him, though it was me who nicked the silver. But no one in America will have any idea you’re not me.”
My heart is bumping so hard against my ribs I have to put a hand against my chest to calm myself. “Let’s think about this logically, Ashlyn. Physical differences aside, age differences aside, you were the one who did the admission interview. The dean saw you. Heard you.”
“You were there the day I did my interview. You know exactly what I said, I know you remember, with that freaky recall you have.”
I had been there. One of the rare times I agreed to ferry a “package” to Ash, who was stuck on the estate for some sort of vital meeting and couldn’t come to Kevin herself. I was getting off shift, Kevin was there, begged me to run it to her and bring back the money. I never liked visiting Ash in her palace, and I refused to be their drug mule, but Kevin offered me a hundred quid to run the errand for him, and I’d had a bad day in tips. For some bizarre, fated reason, I’d agreed.
Ash had grabbed the package, broke it open, took a bump, then made me wait for Kevin’s money while she was on the computer talking to the dean of the school she was going to attend. I had heard the whole conversation.
“But we don’t sound enough alike, or look enough alike...”
“Yes, we do.” Ash pulls me to the bathroom, the cracked and spotted mirror. “Look. Really look. We could be sisters. The shape of our noses. The same eyes. Your lips are fuller, you cow, and your face is a little thinner. But we’re close enough.”
I have the urge to blurt out the truth—we are sisters, Damien Carr is my father, too. Something holds me back. I can’t believe I’m even giving this ridiculous idea credence.
“I’m taller. And no offense, I’m thinner, too.”
“You’re taller and a beanpole, yes, but no one’s going to be able to tell. I was sitting down. Seriously, thanks to Daddy’s disdain for media, there are very few official pictures of me out in the world. You know everything there is to know about me, Lex, you’ve been around the family since we were children.”
“And the piano? That woman talked about the theater director, who will be teaching you.”
“You took lessons. You know how to play.”
“But not like you. You’re...magical.” I feel ridiculous saying it, but she is really quite good. I can’t even begin to pull off that sort of impersonation. There’s no way. This is mad.
She softens a bit. “Thank you. I’ll teach you everything you need to make it seem like you’re just really out of practice.”
“But we’ll need paperwork...proof. I mean, I’m nineteen, and I look every day of it. How am I supposed to pretend I’m sixteen?”
“No one will know how old you really are. We’ll make fresh IDs, a fresh passport. I know you know how.”
“I said I knew a guy who dabbles, from the café. I don’t know how to do it myself.”
“See? Perfect.”
“And how long am I expected to maintain this charade, Ashlyn?”
My sister, something I can never let her know about, smiles. “Forever. This is your chance, Lex. We switch places. You get out. You have the life you always wanted.”
“And my mother? What about her? You truly think she’ll go along with this?”
Ashlyn whirls away, stomps in those thick-soled boots to the center of the living room. I try not to count, but it takes her a whole five steps.
“Your mother is an addict. Mine is, as well, though her drug of choice is cold hard quid, not heroin. How long do you think your mother is going to be with us, Alex? No, don’t get those tears in your eyes, you have to think clearly. She’s not going to get off the needle anytime soon, and she’ll be dead before anyone even thinks about this. It’s the perfect plan. We’re going to switch places. You’ll have everything you ever wanted, and I, I will disappear.”
She makes it sound so easy. So doable.
“All right. Say I agree. There’s another rather insurmountable issue. How are we going to get around your parents?”
Ashlyn smiles and I feel goose bumps rise on my forearm. My neck prickles with unease.
“You let me take care of that. Leave me alone in this flat for ten minutes and I’ll have everything I need.”