Two Truths and a Lie: A Lying Game Novel. Sara Shepard

      TWO

      TRUTHS

      AND

      A LIE

      A LYING GAME NOVEL

      BY

      SARA SHEPARD

       Copyright

      Harper

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      Copyright © 2012 by Alloy Entertainment and Sara Shepard

      Sara Shepard asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780007433001

      Ebook Edition © APRIL 2012 ISBN: 9780007461448 Version: 2016-11-16

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

      Epigraph

      PROLOGUE : AN UNWANTED VISITOR

      CHAPTER 1 : SHE’S SEEN HIM

      CHAPTER 2 : A BOY NAMED TROUBLE

      CHAPTER 3 : EVERYONE LOVES A POET

      CHAPTER 4 : HOMECOMING HANGOVER

      CHAPTER 5 : GAME, SET, OUTMATCHED

      CHAPTER 6 : LITTLE EMMA IN THE BIG WOODS

      CHAPTER 7 : NIGHT HIKING

      CHAPTER 8 : WHAT NOW?

      CHAPTER 9 : STARSTRUCK

      CHAPTER 10 : GONNA GETCHA

      CHAPTER 11 : PARTY OF FOUR

      CHAPTER 12 : I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR

      CHAPTER 13 : LOVE, S.

      CHAPTER 14 : IF THE KEY FITS

      CHAPTER 15 : PROJECT: RUN AWAY

      CHAPTER 16 : THE MAKEUP

      CHAPTER 17 : THE FALSE BOTTOM

      CHAPTER 18 : VISITOR FOR VEGA

      CHAPTER 19 : CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

      CHAPTER 20 : BLOOD DOESN’T LIE

      CHAPTER 21 : MOTHER KNOWS BEST

      CHAPTER 22 : SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND

      CHAPTER 23 : THE PSYCHOPATH TEST

      CHAPTER 24 : WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

      CHAPTER 25 : SOUND THE AL ARM

      CHAPTER 26 : FORECLOSED BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

      CHAPTER 27 : ONE FLEW THE COOP

      CHAPTER 28 : WE ALL FALL DOWN

      CHAPTER 29 : LIKE POISON

      CHAPTER 30 : CHEESE, MILK, AND EX-CONS

      CHAPTER 31 : MEET THE MERCERS

      EPILOGUE

       Keep Reading

      Acknowledgements

      Also by Sara Shepard

       About the Publisher

       Epigraph

      A half-truth is a whole lie.

      —YIDDISH PROVERB

      PROLOGUE

      AN UNWANTED VISITOR

      If anyone had peeked through my window, they would have thought it was just a normal slumber party, a festive night that involved popcorn, manicures, and six gorgeous girls from the most exclusive clique at Hollier High giving each other makeovers, sharing juicy gossip, and plotting their next prank for the Lying Game. My iPhone had dozens of photos of past sleepovers that looked exactly like it: a shot of my best friend, Madeline, holding up a picture of a model with fringe bangs and asking if the look would flatter her heart-shaped face; one of my other besties, Charlotte, sucking in her cheeks to apply the new shade of blush she’d bought at Sephora; one of my adoptive sister, Laurel, snickering at a D-list celeb in Us Weekly; and plenty of photos of me, Sutton Mercer, looking like the glamorous, powerful “It girl” I was.

      But on this particular night, something was different . . . and five out of the six girls didn’t even know it. The girl my best friends were laughing with, the girl they thought was me . . . wasn’t. Because I was dead. My BFFs were talking to my long-lost twin, Emma, who’d taken my place.

      I’d died a month ago and was now perched somewhere between the land of the living and the great beyond, watching my life continue, but with Emma as the star. Everywhere she went, I went, like we were still sharing the same womb. Bizarre, right? I didn’t think the afterlife would be like this either.

      That night, I watched as my twin sister sat among my friends. Her legs were curled beneath her on the plush white sofa in the exact same way I used to sit. Her heavy-lidded eyes sparkled with my favorite silver MAC shadow. She even laughed the same way I did—loud, staccato, and a bit sarcastic. Over the past month she had perfected my mannerisms, answered to my name, and worn my clothes, all with the aim of being me until my murderer was exposed.

      The worst part? I didn’t even remember who killed me. There were whole chunks of my life that had been wiped clean from my mind, and I was left wondering who I’d been, what I’d done, and who I’d pissed off so much that they’d murdered me and then tricked my sister into assuming my identity. Every once in a while I would get a sudden flash of lucidity and a whole scene would snap into brilliant clarity, but the moments before and after it? Complete blanks. It was like getting a few random screen-grabs from a ninety-minute movie and trying to make sense of the entire plot. If I wanted to find out what had happened to me, I would have to rely on Emma . . . and hope that she caught my killer before my killer caught her.

      There were some things Emma and I had figured out: My friends all had alibis for the night I died. As did Laurel, meaning they were all cleared. But there were so many suspects left. A particular one lingered in both our minds: Thayer Vega, Madeline’s estranged brother, who’d skipped town last spring. His name kept popping up, and rumors swirled that he and I were somehow involved. Naturally, I couldn’t remember a thing about