Prologue
August 13, 1964
Dear Mabel,
It’s been three months since I last saw you. We’ve never been separated that long in our lives. Surely you don’t intend to hold this grudge forever. I know you’re angry. I know you thought we would marry brothers or best friends one day and live next door to each other and raise a dozen kids together.
There’s no reason why that can’t still happen. If you would just come to Canyon Springs to visit, you never know, maybe you would meet a man here and find the same happiness I’ve found. Josiah has lots of friends. Even if you don’t meet someone here, at least you and I could catch up. Or you could write me.
Mama says you got a job at the local elementary school teaching first grade. I’m so happy for you. I started my job teaching here in Canyon Springs. Kindergarten. It won’t be the same without you. I had always hoped we would teach in the same school. Share ideas.
Please don’t cut me out of your life. I miss my twin. My other half. Please don’t blame me for falling in love. I’m so happy. I wish you could understand. The only thing that puts a damper on my life is your silence. I miss you.
Love, Marge
Chapter 1
Present day…
Layla glanced around her dingy apartment as she closed her suitcase and yanked it off her bed to land with a thud on the floor. It was a small, one-room, studio apartment in a not-so-great neighborhood in Los Angeles county. She’d been living there two years, ever since graduating from college.
When she’d arrived with her brand-new theater degree, she’d had high aspirations of auditions and casting calls. She’d visualized finding an agent and pimping herself out all over the city until she got her big break.
The idea of being on stage or in a studio dramatically pretending to be whatever the script called for had thrilled Layla from the time she was a young girl. The truth was, however, that she’d barely seen a glimpse of that action. The competition was stiff. It seemed like there were ten thousand people just like her in Los Angeles with the same degree and high hopes. All of them far more accomplished than she.
Sure, she’d been in a few commercials and had some minor roles in the background of a movie or two, but she’d worked her ass off for two years, barely making ends meet and too embarrassed to admit defeat, even to her sister.
Elena wasn’t just a sister. She was her identical twin. The two of them had been inseparable for their entire lives. They’d even gone to the same college. But their lives went in different directions, and though they’d promised to talk on the phone every day, their calls had gotten farther apart over the months.
Elena had run off to Chicago with her degree in journalism, equally eager to take on the world and become the next famous writer. Layla knew her sister had hustled herself all over that city. She’d published a few articles in several local papers, but Layla figured there was a good chance Elena was just as disillusioned about her aspirations as Layla. Neither one of them was willing to verbally admit defeat. Thus the dwindling phone calls.
The last time the two of them had seen each other was a year ago when Grandma Mabel died and they both went to their hometown to attend her funeral and settle her affairs. It had been a brief whirlwind visit, during which they realized, not shockingly, that Grandma Mabel hadn’t had any money to her name. Her estate came out close to even when all her bills were finally paid and everything was sold.
Not only had Layla not been surprised, but she’d been humbled and grateful because Grandma Mabel had paid every cent of Layla’s and Elena’s college education. She and Grandpa George had saved everything they could from the moment the twins were born.
Every time Layla thought about what her grandparents had sacrificed for the two of them, she felt overwhelming gratitude. Part of her felt sad that neither grandparent was living to see her sister and her succeed in life.
Layla reminded herself how unsuccessful she’d been and shuddered, thanking God that neither grandparent was alive wondering where all their hard-earned money had gone.
Layla glanced around at her silent, empty apartment as she grabbed her suitcase and purse and made her way toward the door. In six hours, Layla would once again be reunited with Elena. And once again, it would be for a funeral. This time, however, they wouldn’t be in serious mourning because this funeral was for their Great Aunt Marge whom neither of them had ever met.
The more Layla thought about the circumstances, the more ridiculous it seemed that neither she nor her sister had ever gone to visit Aunt Marge. Granted, there was a reason. Mabel held a grudge against her sister for over fifty years, never forgiving her, and making sure everyone around knew it.
Marge’s crime: meeting a man in a town four hours away in Canyon Springs, Colorado, and staying in that town to marry him. Through Mabel’s eyes, the offense was so much more than that. After all, Canyon Springs was well known as a place with a large population of shifters.
In Mabel’s mind, her sister never should have stopped in that town to get gas in the mid nineteen sixties in the first place. Ironically, although Grandma Mabel never seemed particularly racist or sexist or homophobic, she truly believed so-called “regular humans” should not mix with shifters.
The lore, according to Mabel, was that shifters had some crazy ability to lure humans into their world and somehow use mind control to convince them to stay. Unfortunately, Mabel wasn’t the only person who believed that shit. Even though this was the twenty-first century and nobody cared much who married whom with regard to race or gender, society still had a stigma against shifters.
For that reason, many shifters lived in smaller communities, preferring to stay off the radar as much as possible and not draw attention to themselves. Layla figured half the reason anyone believed all that gibberish about shifters having weird super powers was because they kept to themselves, adding to the mystery.
Needless to say, Grandma Mabel had never forgiven her sister for meeting a man in Canyon Springs, marrying him, and staying there for the rest of her life. As far as Layla knew, the two sisters had never spoken again.
The thought of never speaking to Elena again made Layla’s chest tighten. It was bad enough that they’d started separate lives in different states and had seen each other only once since graduation.
Layla had been feeling nostalgic lately, missing Elena terribly. They were identical twins, just like their grandmother and great aunt. They shouldn’t be separated like this. It was time to make a change. Lord knew Layla was not making any headway in Los Angeles.
In the last few days, Layla had made the rash decision to get out of her lease, put what few things she cared about in storage, and not return to Los Angeles. She hoped Elena wouldn’t mind if Layla headed with her to Chicago. At least then Layla could be broke without being alone.
It wasn’t as if she couldn’t continue trying her luck at acting in Chicago. Maybe she could try out for some off-Broadway performances. Though lately, she’d begun to lose her passion for acting. Rejection would do that to a person.
Layla’s latest real job that paid her rent had been as a waitress at a local pub. The owner barely flinched when Layla gave him three days’ notice. Starving artists were everywhere in Los Angeles. The man probably had a line of other wannabe actors and actresses needing rent money.