The moment Wayne Mercer laid eyes on the twins, it was love at first sight. He and Lori’s mother doted on the girls, and did everything in their power to help Lori get her life back on track. She graduated with honors from both high school and college, and, like Fiona, was near the top of her class in law school. The two of them had even been associates at the same law firm in the Loop, but then Lori had met Paul Guest, a Houston attorney, and was swept off her feet. They were married two months later, and he took Lori and the twins back to Texas with him.
For a couple of years after the move, Lori and Fiona kept in touch with phone calls and letters, but the calls eventually stopped, and gradually, the correspondence dwindled to only Christmas cards.
Then last summer, Lori called Fiona out of the blue. “I need to ask a big favor of you,” she said, after the two had spent a few minutes catching up. “The twins will be starting college in the fall.”
“That’s impossible,” Fiona insisted. “They were in kindergarten just last week.”
“They were already out of kindergarten by the time we started law school, Fiona.”
She groaned. “Stop. You’re making me feel ancient.”
“Now you know how I feel every day.” Lori laughed, but there was some tension in her voice. “Oh, Fiona, you should see them. They’re all grown up and so smart. And so beautiful! I know every mother thinks that about her children, but Alicia and Lexi are special. You wouldn’t believe all the modeling offers they’ve had. But Paul and I have tried to shelter them from all the attention because we don’t want them to get caught up in something they can’t handle.”
Fiona wondered if Lori was thinking about her own trouble as a teenager.
“We always planned on the girls going to school here in Houston,” she continued. “Paul wanted them to go to Rice. It’s a wonderful school, and his father is one of the trustees. And, of course, the best part is that they would be close enough for us to keep an eye on them.”
“I take it the girls have other ideas,” Fiona murmured. She could sympathize with Alicia and Lexi. Growing up with a father and three brothers who were all cops, Fiona had felt pretty smothered herself at times.
Lori sighed. “Evidently they talked to a recruiter from Hillsboro University, and now that’s where they want to go. They’re bound and determined, especially Lexi. Alicia, I think, would still like to go to Rice, but she’d never let her sister go off to Chicago alone. They have that twin thing, Fiona. Where one goes, the other goes. When one is upset, the other is upset. If one gets hurt, well, you get the idea. They’re so attuned to one another, it’s almost scary.”
Fiona frowned, still uncertain where she fit into the equation. “Hillsboro is an excellent school, Lori. My sister-in-law is head of the forensics anthropology lab there.”
“I know it’s a great school, but it’s so far away. And now that my parents are dead, I don’t have any family left in Chicago. No one to look after the girls.” Lori paused and took a deep breath. “That’s why I’m calling you, Fiona. Would it be a terrible imposition if I gave them your phone number? It would make me feel so much better to know there’s someone in the city they could call if they needed to.”
“I don’t mind at all,” Fiona said impulsively. “In fact, I insist. Tell you what, when are you coming up to help them settle in?”
“Next week.”
“Let’s all have dinner together so the girls can meet me. Maybe then they’ll feel less awkward about calling.”
“I’d love that. Oh, Fiona. I can’t tell you what this means to me.” Lori sounded so relieved that Fiona felt a little guilty. She’d readily agreed to the arrangement because it was an easy thing to do. She didn’t think, for one second, that two gorgeous teenage girls, on their own for the first time, would really feel the need to call on a complete stranger.
She didn’t say as much to Lori, however, and the following week, they met for dinner at a restaurant on Michigan Avenue. Lori and Fiona had arranged to arrive early so they could have a chance to chat before the girls joined them. They were exchanging stories about some of their more interesting cases when Lori suddenly touched Fiona’s hand. “There’s Alicia. She just came in.”
Lori’s whole face was suddenly aglow. For one split second, Fiona almost resented the adulation that radiated from her friend’s eyes. Motherhood couldn’t be that grand, could it? Fiona wasn’t missing out on something that spectacular, was she?
Then she turned. And for several long seconds, she could do nothing but stare at the girl making her way through the crowded tables toward them.
She was, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful young women Fiona had ever laid eyes on. “Oh, my God,” she blurted. “No wonder you didn’t want to let them out of your sight.”
Lori’s smile turned wistful. “She is lovely, isn’t she?”
Lovely was an understatement. In spite of the sedate way she dressed, Alicia Mercer turned heads as she walked through the crowded restaurant. But when she sat down at the table, she seemed oblivious to the stares and admiration. Fiona was instantly charmed. The girl was as modest and unassuming as she was gorgeous. She was almost too good to be true.
And then her sister walked in.
Lexi Mercer was tall like Alicia, with the same pale blond hair and blue eyes, but there was nothing understated about her appearance. She had on low-rider jeans and a cropped shirt that showed off a very flat, tanned stomach and a belly button ring that sparkled in the lighting.
If admiring eyes had noticed Alicia, men literally drooled over Lexi. It was more than just her physical beauty. She had a kind of magnetism that would make even the most principled man have some very dark thoughts.
Fiona tore her gaze away long enough to glance at Alicia. She was staring at her sister, too, and there was something in her eyes. Not jealousy. Not envy. Not even resentment, but...something.
It made Fiona wonder instantly what it must have been like, growing up in Lexi’s shadow. In any other family, Alicia would have been the golden child, and even now, she would still be the most desirable woman in any room—until her sister arrived.
And Lori? What had it been like raising such a child? Lori was still a young, beautiful woman in her own right, but in her daughter’s presence—
Let’s face it, Fiona thought grimly. With Lexi Mercer around, we all look like hags.
But in spite of any latent rivalry, it was obvious the three women were close and had such a wonderful relationship that Fiona again felt twinges of jealousy. It was at that moment that she suddenly became aware of the ominous ticking of her own biological clock.
After that day, Fiona didn’t see the girls again until just before Christmas, when Alicia called to set up a dinner. Fiona had been so pleasantly surprised at how much she enjoyed the girls’ company that she’d honestly meant to keep in touch. But work became extremely hectic. Cases piled up. Every once in a while, if she thought about the Mercer twins, Fiona would promise herself she’d call them when she had a spare moment, just to say hello.
But that spare moment never came. Not even to return Alicia’s call last week.
And now it was too late.
Soon, it would be Lori who received a phone call, one that would turn her perfect little world into a nightmare.
CHAPTER FIVE
“WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO WALK up with you?” Milo asked as he pulled to the curb in front of Fiona’s building. In spite of the earlier tension between them, he’d been very solicitous since they’d left Lexi’s apartment, and Fiona appreciated his effort to return