Lies in Disguise Read online

  Lies in Disguise

  Bernice Layton

  Genesis Press, Inc.

  INDIGO LOVE STORIES

  An imprint of Genesis Press, Inc.

  Publishing Company

  Genesis Press, Inc.

  P.O. Box 101

  Columbus, MS 39703

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, not known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without written permission of the publisher, Genesis Press, Inc. For information write Genesis Press, Inc., P.O. Box 101, Columbus, MS 39703.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author and all incidents are pure invention.

  Copyright © 2011 Bernice Layton

  ISBN-13: 978-1-58571-471-1

  ISBN-10: 1-58571-471-2

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First Edition

  Visit us at www.genesis-press.com

  or call at 1-888-Indigo-1-4-0

  Dedication

  To my husband, Derrick, and my daughter, NaTiki, thank you for your ever-present love and encouragement. Your constant support and guidance has once again been my strength as I brought another novel into existence. Your steadfast belief continues to inspire me, not just to write, but to believe, to hope, to imagine, and to dream. I’m so fortunate and blessed to have you both in my life.

  To my Sisters—I’m glad for all that we’ve shared and for the special love between us.

  Bernice Layton

  Acknowledgements

  As always, I give thanks to my family and friends. My heart is filled with gratitude for your love, support, and encouragement.

  Special thanks to my mom, Susie. I couldn’t be more blessed in life than to have a mom like you. Thank you, Mom and happy reading!

  To Danise (Lu)…and her cat, August, who walked all over my manuscript pages, thank you both so much. We made another great team to bring Lies in Disguise to life. You have to know I still laugh every time I think about our talks about the character, Charlene. Thank you for bringing Flo to life, and I’m keeping your review pages—gotta love orange. I’m looking forward to your review of the next draft, “Auntie.” Our telepathic thing is awesome. Thank you, my friend, you took the time to review my work and gave your honest, on-target and often-hilarious feedback. I’m honored, and filled with gratitude.

  To Angie and the “Nurses” once again, your support has been so encouraging. Thank you Gladys, Chesapeake, VA is awesome. I am truly honored to call you my fans.

  To Deborah Schumaker, Executive Editor, Diane Blair, and the rest of the staff at Genesis Press, Inc., thank you so much for your guidance and expertise.

  To Mavis Allen, thank you for your review and edits. Hope you like this finished novel also.

  If I’ve forgotten anyone, please know that I thank you for any assistance you may have given me. It is with heartfelt gratitude I say, thank you!

  PROLOGUE

  Three decisions made spontaneously in a single night change the lives of all three decision-makers…and the effects are long lasting.

  The night is March 25.

  A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves—

  a special kind of double.

  ~Toni Morrison

  Chapter 1

  Corinne McDonald Mills searched the contents of her purse.

  “Where is it?” She’d been looking for a slip of paper containing a telephone number. Two days ago, after discovering the danger she could be in, Corinne felt she had only one option.

  Finally finding and unfolding the piece of paper that contained her twin sister, Charlene’s, telephone number, Corinne’s heart wrenched. Running her finger over the tightly squared piece of paper, her breath caught in her throat. Her shame went so deep.

  It was March 25. In a matter of hours they would turn thirty-five years old. Charlene was her only sister, her identical twin, and yet Corinne felt the familiar ache that always hit her when their birthday came around. Truthfully it was more often than that. The ache also hit her on holidays. She had so many regrets since she’d banished Charlene from her life.

  The fact that she’d been born with an identical twin had been the one thing that Corrine couldn’t change.

  Since coming to California almost ten years ago, Corinne McDonald had changed many things about herself. She’d first overcome her Southern accent. Then she’d completely eradicated everything and anything that connected her to her hometown back in Virginia, including changing her name to McDonaldson.

  She’d fabricated a lie, and it grew.

  She’d told everyone she was an only child and that she had no parents. As a bright, pretty, and intelligent young woman with excellent business savvy, Corinne quickly moved up the ladder in every job she held. When she saw a posting for an administrative assistant at the prestigious Mills Shipping Company, she’d studied hard to learn everything she could about the shipping business. When she interviewed for the position, she’d been hired immediately. Within months, she’d set her sights higher…on the man who would one day take over the family business, Tyler Mills. Following a planned and calculated courtship, Corinne had one goal in mind: marriage to the affluent and handsome man. She knew if she married a man like Tyler Mills she’d never have to worry about money again.

  Over the years, Corinne wondered how Charlene was doing but never once did she contact her…not even eight years ago when she’d discovered she was carrying twins.

  Her husband, Tyler Mills, was shocked about having twins. But before Corinne could concoct an explanation for carrying twins, Tyler’s mother, Mona Mills, explained that the twin gene went back several generations in the Mills family. Still, Tyler had insisted on having the babies tested before they left the hospital. When the test confirmed that he was the father, Tyler had been apologetic and contrite. So much so, he’d excused Corinne’s past indiscretions, which he’d suspected but couldn’t prove.

  It was Corinne’s love for her twins that prompted her to unfold the piece of paper and whisper aloud Charlene’s name. She didn’t have to wonder what her sister looked like now. Lifting sad and reddened eyes to the mirror for a split second Corinne saw her twin sister’s face in hers.

  “What have I done? Oh, Charlene, please forgive me,” she whispered, then looked down at the small picture frames containing pictures of her twins, Shane and Shelly. “I love you, my babies,” she said, picking up the telephone and dialing the phone number on the now worn piece of paper.

  ***

  Charlene McDonald snapped her cell phone shut again.

  No, she’d decided she wouldn’t make the call. She’d had enough. That is enough excuses and put offs from her estranged twin sister, Corinne.

  It was their thirty-fifth birthday.

  Charlene McDonald thought her only sister, her own flesh and blood, would have at least a desire to call and wish her happy birthday. But she hadn’t. She hadn’t in many years.

  It had been eight years since the twins had spoken to each other.

  Nursing a second cup of tea, Charlene felt the tears sting her eyes. So I made a stupid error in judgment. Okay, two errors in judgment…but that second one was major to Corinne.

  The first one occurred when they were seventeen years old and Charlene had done a stupid thing. She’d dressed up, put on make-up and her shortest shorts, and gone out on a date with Andre, the
hot saxophone player from the high school band. Charlene had purposely pretended to be Corinne. Her stunt was to prove to Corinne that Andre had only one thing on his mind concerning Corinne. He’d wanted another conquest and not a steady girlfriend. Everyone in their high school knew what Andre was after, but because Corinne wasn’t close to or trusted anyone easily, she refused to believe them...not even her own sister.

  Then things went from bad to worse on that date. Apparently Andre didn’t want to take no for an answer. When his advances became too insistent, Charlene decided she’d had enough of pretending to be coy, prim, and proper, because she wasn’t any of those. She’d succeeded in giving Andre two punches…one to his groin and the second to his nose, which she ended up breaking. The next morning when Andre’s furious parents came to her father’s house, they were not alone. They’d brought along a horribly swollen and bandaged Andre and a deputy to arrest Corinne for assault and battery. The entire neighborhood was in an uproar, made worse by Corinne’s furious denials.

  The gig was up then. Charlene had to come clean because if she didn’t Corinne was surely going to jail.

  “It-it was me,” she said guiltily. After explaining what she’d done and why, Charlene glanced around to see her father standing on the front steps shaking his head in disgust. Corinne on the other hand stomped down the steps, walked over to Charlene and right there on the sidewalk in front of the neighbors, the deputy, the mailman, and Andre and his parents, Corinne and Charlene got into a down-in-the-dirt, knock-down, drag-out, hair-pulling cat-fight.

  Their father, Daniel, waited a full three minutes before stepping in to separate the girls. He told the onlookers that something had been brewing between his girls for quite a while and maybe a tussle would shake them of their ills. Then he’d dragged both into the house as they continued to kick and claw at each other.

  Their punishment lasted a whole month, during which time Corinne didn’t speak to her sister at all. Several months later, Corinne moved out of the house, and within a couple of years she’d moved out of Virginia and settled in California. She’d left no forwarding address.

  Over the years, Corinne maintained brief contact with their father, but rarely did the sisters speak. Several years after that, nine to be exact, a second humiliating incident occurred between them. That incident was unforgivable and Corinne severed all ties with Charlene.

  Sitting alone in her cozy kitchen, Charlene sighed. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to make that impossible first step of making a simple phone call, not yet.

  Taking a deep breath, she flipped the cell phone open again…for the third time. “Okay,” she said out loud. “I’ll call her house and say…what?” What indeed? What does one say to a sister she hasn’t seen or spoken to in nine years? “Hi. How ya doing, sis?” Thinking that sounded silly even to her own ears. Charlene snapped the phone shut.

  “Damn.” She couldn’t do it. What a coward. Squinting through her wire-rimmed reading glasses at the date on the wall calendar, Charlene realized sadly how much she’d missed the sound of her sister’s voice. Leaning back in the chair, she also realized that she had no one but herself to blame for what happened. It was all her fault, no doubt about it.

  Charlene had been the one who’d instigated the second incident nine years ago that led to the big blowout that ended the relationship with her beloved sister. It wasn’t like any other fight they’d had before. The fight occurred just moments before Corinne exchanged wedding vows with Tyler Mills, a wedding that neither Charlene nor their father had been invited to.

  When Corinne called to tell their father of her upcoming marriage, Charlene had been listening on the other extension. When her father asked if she loved the fellow, Corinne’s response had been, “Dad, for real, nobody gets married for love anymore. It’s about security and never having to scrape for food or live on welfare.”

  Hearing the hard edge in Corinne’s voice, Charlene couldn’t remain quiet any longer. “Corinne, please don’t marry that man if you’re not in love with him.” She’d asked her father to hang up so that she could talk to Corinne privately.

  Corinne reacted with venom. “There you go again, still trying to butt into my business. What I do is none of your concern, you got that, Charlene?”

  Hurt, Charlene pressed on. “So that’s why you haven’t even invited Daddy to your wedding? That’s just dumb Corinne and from what I’ve read in the paper about the man you’re gonna marry, Tyler Mills, he’s some kind of a player, anyway,” Charlene had retorted. “It seems to me that neither of you should be gettin’ married, especially if you don’t love each other.”

  “He loves me and he can give me everything I’ve always wanted and dreamed of,” Corinne had said. “I won’t be like you, Charlene, stuck in that town and working in some convenience store, then marrying some idiot with nothing to offer and having a bunch of kids.”

  “Well,” Charlene retorted. “I certainly wouldn’t marry a man I didn’t love.”

  “And that’s where we differ. I’m done talking to you.”

  “No wait,” Charlene wasn’t ready to end the conversation, but Corinne had hung up.

  In an effort to save her sister from making what she thought was basically a dumb mistake, Charlene set out to find as much information as she could on Tyler Mills. It took two weeks, but what Charlene discovered wasn’t pretty. While attending a teacher’s conference in Miami she’d spotted Tyler Mills up close and personal with a beautiful woman who was not his fiancée. Charlene even found herself a little bit jealous. Why wouldn’t she be, she thought. Why wouldn’t any woman? Tyler Mills was considered the most sought-after bachelor in Baldwin Hills, California, and Corinne had latched onto him…for his money.

  Charlene snapped two pictures with her camera and rushed to call Corrine. Of course, Corinne accused Charlene of lying again. She’d said that Tyler had business in Miami and wouldn’t be such a fool to do anything like that. In the heat of that phone conversation, Corinne’s tirade was unrelenting.

  As identical twins, they were never close as one would expect twins to be. Even now, after so many shared birthdays had come and gone, Charlene could still feel the pain of Corinne’s hurtful words all over again.

  Charlene felt she’d done the right thing by going to California to try and talk Corinne out of marrying a man she didn’t love, a virtual stranger, for his money. Charlene had snuck into the back chapel to speak with her sister. Until that day, she had not seen Corinne in many years.

  “Corinne, wh-what are you doing? That man is a liar. Why are you going through with this weddin’?” Charlene had argued in a voice barely above a whisper.

  As the assembled choir members sang several selections, none would have known what was about to take place in the back of the chapel when Corinne turned and came face-to-face with her twin sister, Charlene.

  Upon hearing the once familiar voice, Corinne turned and fixed a glare on the only other person who shared her face…her features, her hair color, her body type, and her blood type.

  The same dark amber-hued eyes stared back at her, wide and timid. “I told you that you were not invited to this wedding. Why are you here?” Corinne slowly narrowed the distance between them, advancing on Charlene. Her intent was to move Charlene back to the wall and out of sight should someone enter the chapel at that moment. “This is my business, sister,” she hissed. “You don’t even know Tyler.” Angrily grabbing at Charlene’s arm, Corinne pushed her sister further against the wall. “How dare you do this to me again, Charlene? How dare you come out here with your false accusations and jealousy and try to ruin things for me? Once wasn’t enough for you?”

  Incapable of speaking, Charlene shook her head in denial of her sister’s allegations. She was shocked and saddened to hear Corinne’s hateful words.

  Corinne’s onslaught continued. “You want me to be as miserable and alone and unhappy as you are, don’t you? Well, you know what? I had enough of that growing up with you. Your constant aches and p
ains and hospital stays and your overall pathetic weaknesses drained the life out of our mother.” Corinne took a step closer. “I’ll be damned if I ever let you do that to me.”

  Corinne’s beautiful face contorted in anger. “I’ve had enough of going without, living off the scraps of others, and depending on welfare, and you remind me of a past that no longer exists for me,” she’d hissed at her twin. “Get out of here right now, or I’ll have you thrown out.”

  Charlene stood her ground, refusing to give up. “Corinne, how can you say such horrible things to me? How could you blame me for being a sick child? That wasn’t my fault. But please listen to me, I didn’t lie. I saw him with my own two eyes, kissin’ that woman.” Charlene let her hands drop to her sides in defeat, but her eyes shone brightly with unshed tears. “And why would I lie about that, huh? Why would I use my hard-earned money to come all the way out here and try to stop you from makin’ a big mistake? But you’re right. I don’t know him or his family, and why is that? Because you refuse to even acknowledge that you have a father or sister, and that’s just stupid. I’m your twin, Corinne! Your identical twin, and that’s a fact whether you choose to acknowledge it or not!”

  Corinne shook her head so hard that her bridal veil slipped and sat awkwardly atop her beautifully coiffed hair. “Maybe you need to change your reading glasses, Charlene. And for your information, it wasn’t important for you to know Tyler or his family.” Inching ever closer Corinne said, “and you never will.”

  Charlene was conflicted. She didn’t recognize this person, or the evilness spewing from her mouth. Her throat tightened with emotion. “Corinne, either you’re insane or you’ve grown more desperate than I could have ever imagined. But you go right ahead and trade your life away like some pathetic, desperate woman!” Charlene hadn’t mistaken the look that crossed her sister’s face, just seconds before she’d watched Corinne step over to the open door in the back of the chapel and crook her finger.