Vincent lifted Natalie’s hand to his mouth as he turned onto their street. “We’re home.”
“Good, that’s good,” she replied. Her eyes were scrunched shut, but she wasn’t as pale as she normally was. Perhaps that a good bout of sex before she got into the car was the answer. He could roll with that if it would help ease her anxiety.
When the house came into view, he slammed on the brakes. “What the hell is going on?”
“What’s wrong?” Natalie opened her eyes and peered through the windshield. “Are those reporters?”
“And Billy—he’s on the front porch.” Vincent pulled out his phone and called his friend. “Hey, man, I’m at the top of the street. What is all this?”
“Didn’t you get my messages?” his friend yelled, waving his arm around wildly.
“No. I don’t have reception out there, you know that.”
“We have a problem. A very serious problem. I’ll see if I can make a hole for you. Just pull straight into the garage. Don’t stop and don’t say a word, either of you. We’ll talk about it once we get you inside.” He hung up, and Vincent handed Natalie his phone.
“Vincent?”
“I’m sure it’s nothing. Billy said he’ll tell us once we get inside.” His hands rubbed on the steering wheel, debating turning around and driving to his mother’s house instead, but this was his home. No reporter was going to chase him away from it. “Whatever you do, don’t talk to them.”
Natalie nodded, her hands shaking as her face paled.
Vincent felt the exact same way. He pressed on the gas, and as carefully as he could, drove through the mass of people in front of his house and opened the garage. Billy rushed over to keep anyone from following them in, and Vincent immediately shut it as Billy ducked inside.
“What happened?” Vincent asked as Billy ushered him and Natalie inside. All the front blinds were shut as well as the ones at the back of the house. “Billy!”
“Ask your damn wife!”
Natalie flinched at the malice of his words. “Me? I’ve been gone all weekend, remember?”
“All I know is someone talked. They have everything. They know about the website, they know you paid a fee to use the website, and they know you married the wrong twin! They know it all, and they are demanding answers about why we lied to cover it up!” Billy threw his arms in the air as he yelled. “They want to know what’s wrong with you and if you really thought this plan would fool anyone into thinking you’re not the bachelor playboy!”
Vincent ran a hand through his hair as he paced around the kitchen. Everything was falling apart. All of it. He turned to Natalie, still shaking her head in disbelief.
“I didn’t do this,” she whispered, tears burning in her eyes. “I swear I didn’t.”
He hurried to her, hugging her. “I know you didn’t. I trust you.”
“Well, I don’t,” Billy snapped. “She could’ve been feeding information to your rivals the whole time!”
Vincent started to yell, but Natalie cut him off, pushing out of his arms. “Here,” she yelled and chucked her phone at Billy’s face, hitting him square on the nose. “Check it. Check the computers in the house, you asshole. I haven’t done anything except marry this man and fall in love with him. Don’t you dare stand there and accuse me of betraying him!”
Billy picked up her phone from where it hit the floor and slammed it onto the kitchen table. “It has to be you. No one else would know.”
“That’s not true and you know it,” Vincent argued.
Billy snorted. “You’re so blinded by love right now, it’s sickening.”
“What happened to you?” Vincent yelled. “You came up with this idea in the first place. We all knew the risks of being found out! You told me you had it covered, so what the hell are you doing, Billy? Maybe you’re trying to sabotage me.”
His friend flinched as if he’d struck him, and Natalie rested a calming hand on his arm. “Vincent, he wouldn’t do that to you.”
Vincent shot her a sideways look and sighed, his shoulders sagging. “You’re right. Sorry, man.”
“No, no…it’s fine, really. Natalie, I’m sorry, too. I just…I have no idea how this happened.”
“Why don’t you go get cleaned up?” Vincent suggested to Natalie. “We’ll figure out a plan of action.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah…yeah, I’m sure.” He kissed her sweetly.
“Don’t you decide to talk to them by yourself. No matter what, we’re in this together,” she reminded him and headed upstairs.
Once she was out of earshot, Vincent cursed and slammed his fist on the kitchen island. “Where the hell is that Hank Butcher? Is he the one doing this to me?”
“His name is on the article. He has several quotes from an anonymous source. I have people working on it, but they’re not getting very far. I know what you’re going to say, but I have to ask, just to be sure. You have absolute faith that it was not Natalie?”
Vincent’s nod was firm. “I do, without a doubt.”
Billy’s twitching lip said he didn’t believe him, but he dropped the subject. “Then for now, you stay inside this house and you do not talk to anyone. Don’t answer the phone or the door, got it? I’ll get them pushed back to the street until we can get a handle on this.”
“What exactly are they saying?”
Billy cringed. “That you paid for a wife, and when you didn’t like the first twin, you switched her out with the second.”
Vincent groaned, his head falling to his hands. “Fuck.”
“Yeah, that about sums it up,” Billy agreed. “Keep your head down and we’ll figure this out.”
“Billy,” he said when his friend walked away, “whatever plan you come up with, just know I am not divorcing Natalie. It’s not going to happen. I love her and she is my wife, understand?”
“Sure, of course. I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Vincent wanted to believe him, but the glint of anger in his eyes said his friend was up to something, and whatever it was, Vincent wouldn’t like it.
The clock on the nightstand read three, but Natalie couldn’t sleep. Vincent snored soundly beside her, his hand on her thigh beneath the sheets. Coming home yesterday had not gone as planned, and she mentally kicked herself for having such high hopes that this would actually work. Not wanting to wake Vincent, she slipped from the bed, grabbed her sweatshirt and shorts from the floor, and tiptoed quietly downstairs. She flipped on the kitchen light and rummaged through the freezer for a carton of chocolate ice cream—anything to ease her anxiety.
A knock at the back door made her scream. The spoon clattered to the floor, and she pressed a hand to her chest as her heart thundered away. The knock came again, and she grabbed a knife from the butcher’s block. They hadn’t tried to come through the back door, had they? Natalie crept towards the back door, the knife in one hand, and with the other, she threw back the curtain on the door.
“Lana? What the hell?”
Her sister stood on the other side of the door, leaves and twigs in her hair and her eyes red and swollen as if she’d been crying. Natalie unlocked the sliding glass door and dragged her twin inside.
“What’s with the knife?” she squealed.
“Why are you knocking on the back door at three in the morning? Are you crazy?”
“Yes,” she mumbled, and without giving Natalie a chance to set the knife down, her sister leapt into her arms, bawling her eyes out and mumbling incoherently. Natalie cursed and tossed the knife gently on the kitchen table and tried to set her sister back on her feet.
“Get ahold of yourself and tell me what’s going on,” Natalie ordered.
“It’s my fault,” she yelped, hiccupping because she was so upset. “I did it. I’m the reason the article came out. Natalie, I’m so sorry. He talked to me and I had no idea who he was and then I hit him and he walked away and I knew…I knew he was up to something—”
Natalie clapped a hand over her sister’s mouth, her mind. “I’m going to take my hand down and you are going to tell me very slowly exactly what happened,” she told her sister. “Understand? Very slowly, all of it.”
Lana nodded frantically, and Natalie removed her hand. “I was meeting Alex at the florist, and this man in a freaking fedora hat comes up to me. He called me Mrs. Cunningham and I laughed it off, telling him I was your twin sister and not you. He told me his name and that he’d been trying to talk to you,” she said, pausing to suck in a loud breath, “and then he asked if we were mistaken for each other all the time.”
Natalie’s stomach plummeted as she realized where this was going. “And you said yes.”
Lana’s head bobbed, sending a few leaves falling to the floor. Natalie reached up and pulled the rest quickly from her sister’s hair. “I told him we did, but there were subtle differences, like our eyes, and your piercings and tattoo help, of course, and a freckle.”
“What did he say next?” Lana cracked her knuckles, a nervous habit they’d both inherited, and bit her lip, shaking her head. “Lana, just tell me, damn it, what did he say!”
“Natalie?” Vincent’s groggy voice called from the doorway. “Lana? How did you get in? What’s going on? It’s three in the morning.”
Lana broke down in hysterics again and hugged her sister. Natalie shushed her and guided her to a chair. Vincent’s half-asleep look of concern turned into straight up confusion until Natalie narrowed her eyes and motioned towards the front of the house.
“Lana, I need you to finish telling me,” Natalie said, crouching in front of her sister in the chair.
She hiccupped again, and hanging her head, she mumbled, “He showed me my profile from the website and asked…asked why, if I was on the website, Vincent married you? Then he mentioned something about an error on the marriage license. I smacked him and yelled at him to go away. Alex showed up and he took off. Natalie…oh, God, Natalie, I’m so sorry!”
“You didn’t know,” Natalie told her, trying to calm her down. “It’s all right. He was pestering us before he talked to you, sis.”
“He was?”
“Yes,” Vincent growled. “Lana, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
She wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Yes, I did! I ruined everything for you two when it was going so perfectly!”
Natalie didn’t know what to tell her sister, so she patted her on the shoulder and looked at Vincent, pissed at that bastard. Hank Butcher. If she’d been there she would have done more than slap the man. She would have punched his damn lights out for harassing her about her sister.
“Natalie?” Vincent nodded towards the doorway.
“We’ll be right back, okay?” she told her sister. “Wait here and blow your nose.”
Natalie followed Vincent into the living room. She waited for him to get angry and rant about her stupid twin sister, but instead, he hugged her, kissing the top of her head.
“I’m really not mad at her,” he whispered. “I can’t believe that man would stoop so low as to trick your sister into saying all that.”
“You don’t think it all came from her then?”
“No. No, I think one of my rivals hired him to start poking around. All he had to do was dig and ask the right questions of the wrong people.” Vincent sighed, and Natalie buried her face against his t-shirt. “On the bright side, I can tell Billy he can really stop worrying about you or your sister.”
“He still thinks it was all us?” she asked incredulously.
Vincent nodded. “Don’t worry. We’ll get it sorted out. I’m going to wake him up. Try and get your sister calmed down. It really wasn’t her fault.” He kissed her again and went upstairs to the guest room to wake Billy. The man had been unable to leave the house yesterday because of all the press.
Natalie steeled herself and went back to the kitchen. Lana lifted her head to stare at her, and she started crying again. “Oh, would you stop already. We’ll figure it out. It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not. He can’t start his political career with a scandal. Who will vote for him?”
“It’s not a scandal, all right? It was a mistake on a marriage license. It happens. And so what if we met online? We love each other and I think that’s pretty clear to everyone around us.” Natalie held her sister’s hand firmly. “It’ll work out, you’ll see.”
Billy and Vincent joined them in the kitchen a few minutes later, and Lana retold her story. Billy’s face turned bright red, but to his credit, he didn’t start yelling as Natalie expected him to.
“Vincent, make a call to your mother. I’m sure she’s up by now,” Billy said, rubbing his forehead. “She might have a better way to go about this than I can think of at the moment. She dealt with your father’s career for so many years.”
Vincent walked off to call Doris. Billy shifted his gaze to Natalie, but when he smiled, it was not friendly. “Can we talk in private?”
“I guess so,” she replied. They walked into Vincent’s study. He closed the door and she crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s this about, Billy? You going to accuse me?”
“Look, I’ll admit I went off the deep end, but right now, I have no way of proving who gave that man information,” Billy snapped. “What I do know is that there is only one surefire way to make this go away and save Vincent’s career.”
“Oh? And what is that? Why don’t you tell him instead of me?”
“Because you, my dear, are the problem,” he told her hotly. “You are the reason the beginnings of a promising career have just gone down the drain. It’s all because of you.”
Natalie ground her teeth, glaring the man down. “Wasn’t it your idea for him to use that website?”
“To marry your sister, not you! You’re not even on it! No, he had to go and marry the wrong damn twin. You lied to his face as you said your vows to him and placed a ring on his finger.”
“I told him that night what happened!” she ranted. “I came clean and he decided to try and make this work. We love each other, Billy, and yes, I made a mistake, but the marriage is real. We’re together and we’re happy. None of what I feel for him is fake. None of it!”
“Either way, I don’t care,” he admitted. “All I care about is saving my friend’s career. You are going to leave with your sister. You’re not going to talk to him first, you’re simply going to leave. In a few days, I’ll send over some paperwork, including a gag order to never speak of this again and papers saying you are filing for divorce.”
Natalie staggered backwards. “What? Why the hell would I do that?”
“Because I’m not giving you a choice. Vincent might think he loves you, but his career means more to him than some fling with you, and I’ll be sure he realizes that. He is going to divorce you and wipe his hands clean of this whole mess.”
“And you’re going to blame the entire situation on me and my sister. We’ll be run out of the damn city!”
“That is not my concern,” he said coldly.
“And if I don’t leave?” she challenged as her heart crumbled.
“Didn’t you swear to Vincent that no matter what, you would be sure not to fuck up his political chances? That you would do everything you could to ensure his victory?”
Natalie wanted to argue, to rant and rave that this was not what she meant, but she had sworn that, had given him her word. “I did.”
“Then this is what you need to do. Understand? It’s you or his chances at Congress. Take your pick.”
She opened her mouth to tell Billy to fuck off but closed her mouth quickly. Several different times, she asked Vincent why he was so set on running if he wasn’t thrilled about doing all the campaigning crap that went with the job. The first few times, he shrugged her questions off, but over the weekend, as they lay beneath the sun, tangled in each other’s arms, he told her exactly why. His father had held that seat for nearly thirty years. He was a good man who did great things for Texas and the rest of the country. He left a legacy behind, and what kind of son would he be if he didn’t try to do as much as his father did? She’d heard the love he had for his father in those words and understood in those few sentences how much winning that seat meant to Vincent.
After everything he did for her—showing her she could be loved and find her adventurous side again—how could she stand in the way of his goals?
Tears burning in her eyes, Natalie stood straight as a board. “You better tell him the truth, Billy,” she warned. “You better tell him this was all your idea. If you don’t, you’ll wish you never pissed me off.”
“I wish I’d never showed him that damn website,” he shot back. “I wish he hadn’t married the wrong damn twin.”
Natalie’s hand itched to slap him, but she resisted. She was bigger than that. Wiping the tears from her eyes before they could fall and give him any sort of satisfaction at hurting her, she left the study. Vincent was upstairs on the phone with Doris. She slipped into her sandals near the garage door and pulled Lana from her chair.
“We’re leaving. Where did you park?”
“Three streets over. What’s going on? Don’t you need to talk to Vincent?”
Her legs nearly carried her upstairs and into the arms of the man she loved, but Billy appeared in the doorway, shaking his head.
“No, not right now. Come on.” She stepped outside, letting her sister lead the way, and listened as the door slammed behind them and Billy flipped the lock. They climbed over fences and ducked through people’s backyards before reaching Lana’s car. Natalie didn’t even hesitate as she opened the door and climbed in, hunkering down low in her seat.
“Natalie, this doesn’t feel right,” Lana whispered as she pulled away from the curb. “Natalie?”
She glared out the window as they passed the top of Vincent’s street with all the press vans parked along the curbs. “Just drive.”
“Are you leaving Vincent?”
Not by choice. “Yes. It’s what’s best for both of us.” She closed her eyes and held onto the edge of the seat with white knuckles. Without Vincent to help calm her down, her panic rose and she had to take short, even breaths to stop herself from losing it completely. “We might need to leave town for a bit until this blows over.”
“And go where?”
“Let’s go visit Mom and Dad. I’m sure by now they’ve seen the news.” She breathed in deeper and longer, but nothing helped. This would be her life again, all anxiety and panic with no Vincent there to pull her up when she needed it.
Another shitty night where she lost everything. How could her life get any worse?
The sun was up when Vincent hung up the phone with his mother. She told him repeatedly not to worry and to do what he felt was right. He wanted to be a Congressman like his father, but Doris said something he hadn’t expected from her. She was proud of him for finding a wife and taking that step in his life. She was happy to see him smile and be happy, something she hadn’t seen in him since Liam died.
“So you don’t care if I actually run?” he’d asked.
“It’s your life, son. Of course I want you to run, but why should you care about what I want? I also want a son who lives his life to the fullest and gives me grandchildren one of these days,” she’d said and laughed.
“I don’t know how to fix this,” he admitted.
“Fix what? It’s the modern age. So you met your wife online, who cares? Big deal,” she chirped. “You did nothing wrong. You were lonely and you found the woman of your dreams. I say talk to your wife and figure out what to do. But no matter what, son, I love you and your father would be very proud of you.”
Vincent puffed out his cheeks as he paced around his bedroom. He should go downstairs and talk to Natalie, but he was scared of the unknown he faced as soon as he left the sanctuary of his room. Both choices would be hard, but he had to talk to one more person before he decided. He tugged on his shoes and found his wallet and keys.
“Billy, where’s Natalie?” he asked, seeing only his friend in the kitchen.
“She snuck out with her sister. She said they would go hide out at her place for a few hours until you called her,” he said but didn’t meet Vincent’s eyes when he said it.
“Why didn’t she tell me that?”
“She didn’t want to bug you, I guess. I don’t know. Where the hell are you going?” he questioned when he spotted the keys in Vincent’s hand.
“I need to talk to my father. Think you can hold down the fort for an hour?”
“And if they follow you?”
“I’d hope they wouldn’t be that disrespectful to follow me to my father’s grave. I’ll be back.”
Vincent ignored his sputtering as he walked to the garage and opened it. He was barely in the truck when he heard questions shouted at him, but he tuned them out, backed down the drive, and drove to the cemetery. No one followed him, at least, and he hoped Billy kept them occupied by selling them some story or other. All he needed was a few minutes to talk to his dad and sort out the last of his concerns.
When he parked at the cemetery, he tried to call Natalie, but she didn’t answer. He left her a voicemail then texted her for good measure, wanting to know what was going on. She hadn’t texted him back by the time he reached his father’s grave and knelt in front of it, kissing his fingers and resting them on the stone.
“Hey, Dad,” he said, glancing up at the early morning sky. “I’m sure you know about what’s happening down here. I’ve been all twisted up lately, and I think you know that too.” He sat down, resting his back against the stone as he usually did. “I…uh, I found the woman I want to spend my life with. No whiskey on a rooftop, but we did have our night on a bridge that ended with us in the water. I really think you’d like her.”
The wind ruffled his hair and he smirked.
“I know you told me you would be proud to have me follow you and take your seat one day, but with everything that’s going on, I’m not sure if that’s the right path for me anymore.”
Leaves broke free from a nearby tree and landed on his lap. He brushed them aside absently, lost in his thoughts.
“I never meant for a scandal to happen, but I never expected to find a love so intense, so pure, I can’t live without it. I want to be with Natalie, and to do that, I don’t think I can run for Congress. In fact…I don’t want to anymore. My heart’s not in it. I want you to understand why I’m turning down the chance to be like you when I feel like I already am.” He smiled softly and patted the grass by his side. “You loved Mom so much and everyone saw that, including me. I feel the same for Natalie. Thank you for teaching me how to see what was right in front of me. I’m not letting this chance go.”
His conscience clear and his heart light, Vincent stood and brushed the grass from his jeans. He left another kiss on his dad’s grave and strode to the truck when the breeze lifted his hair. He spun around and swore he spotted the back of a man in a flannel shirt, jeans, and boots walking away through the cemetery. Vincent smiled, not caring if what he saw was real or not, and ran the rest of the way to his truck.
