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Twin Tides - Hardcover

Nguyen, Hien

 
9798217023936: Twin Tides
Hardcover
ISBN 13: 9798217023936
Verlag: Delacorte Press, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

Long-lost twin sisters unravel the mystery behind their mother's disappearance and face the family betrayal that ultimately separated them in this breathtaking speculative young adult thriller.

Heiress and influencer Caliste Ha lives a glamorous life in an LA high rise, her perfectly curated social media feed hiding the cracks in her family. Across the country, Aria Nguyen is barely surviving as a freshman and academic scammer at Georgetown University. They have never met.

That changes with one unexpected and grim phone call. Their long-missing mother has been found dead in Les Eaux, Minnesota. Upon arrival in the sleepy town, Caliste and Aria discover another shocker—they are identical twins.

Ready to unearth the secrets that led to their mother’s death and their separation, they start looking for answers. But a vengeful ghost is haunting the waters, and an unknown enemy is watching their every move. 

Can Aria and Caliste unravel all the sinister mysteries of Les Eaux, or will the town’s deadly secrets ultimately drag them under?

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Hien Nguyen is a speculative fiction writer who hails from the Midwest. By day she is a social science researcher and by night she writes about Vietnamese ghosts, monsters, and mythology. She is interested in the uplifting and haunting forms of human connection, and how SFF writing can lay those bare. Twin Tides is her debut novel.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter One

Aria

“Hello, miss. This is Officer Gordon Badiou calling from the Les Eaux Police Department. I would like to discuss information regarding the disappearance of Xuân Giang Nguyen. Please call me back at your earliest convenience. It’s okay if it’s after hours—­ I under­stand you are busy. This number should forward any new messages to me directly.”

The officer’s voice plays in Aria’s mind, and she shakes off the gnawing anxiety caused by ignoring his voicemail. It’s the kind of call Aria’s been waiting and praying into existence for the past fourteen years. But when she heard his voice, Aria could process the information only matter-­of-­factly, like she was learning about some politician on TV or a stranger she’d read about online.

In this moment, Aria wants to pretend the news this officer has is innocuous, like he’s somehow found the ID card she lost in middle school. She tells herself all she needs to do is survive the day. So she hasn’t called Officer Badiou back. Instead, she continues her walk toward Kim’s Laundry and Dry Cleaning in disbelief that it’s already that time of year again.

Every year, around December especially, a bone-­deep yearning returns. It’s a missing that no words can explain. It usually crushes Aria, but she can’t afford to let that happen anymore. Between school, taking care of Aunt Thu, and barely holding it together, there isn’t time to wallow. Inside the organized box in Aria’s head, she tucks away Officer Badiou’s message into the missing mom folder. Aria becomes fully numb, as she always does on the anniversary of her mother’s disappearance.

“Hey, Ari. Your dress is ready,” a voice calls from beyond the drying machines. Aria’s sitting on an orange plastic chair in a neat laundromat, looking toward the back hallway that snakes behind the stacked white coin dryers. The room is monochromatic, with white laminate floors and white painted walls. Mrs. Kim says it’s easier to keep everything clean when she can see every spot. But with the sun shining through the plastic blinds and reflecting off the colorless surfaces, everything is too bright, too pure, and too clean. Aria’s eyes hurt today.

She stands, letting her backpack fall into the plastic chair’s seat with a thud before following the voice coming from the back room. She rubs her eyes, the gritty sensation of two-­day-­old eyeliner smearing under her fingertips, as she turns the hallway’s corner. On the other side of the ajar red door to Mrs. Kim’s office, Philip stands with a wry smile on his face and a garment on a hanger draped over his skinny arms. He’s uncharacteristically dressed-­up today, wearing black slacks with a waffle-­knit white button-­up.

“What’s the occasion?” Aria asks, moving to take the sheathed dress hanging from his arms and lightly jabbing him with her elbow. “Do you have another blind date to go on?”

Philip smiles, the edges of his lips curling. He pauses for a second, clinging to the dress before letting it go.

“You think I’d go on a date looking like I sell insurance?”

Aria chokes out a laugh, the tension of the day and the unanswered voicemail dissolving the tiniest bit. Philip’s face finally breaks into a genuine smile, his front teeth fully exposed in the goofy way Aria adores. He leans back onto Mrs. Kim’s desk and crosses his arms.

Philip is about a head taller than Aria, making him both taller than the average Korean kid and short enough that Aria knows he still lies on his dating-­app profiles. His black hair is lightly styled, ear length and falling away from his face to expose a tanned forehead. Staring at his pouting lips and hooded dark brown eyes, Aria can’t help thinking of the girls in high school who’d squeal about how much he looked like their favorite drama actor. Suddenly it dawns on her that all the ramen bags in her house have this specific actor’s face on them, and the realization makes her cheeks heat up. Is she subconsciously surrounding herself with different iterations of Philip?

“No? Then dare I inquire if you have a job interview? Or a college interview?” Aria says, averting her eyes and pretending to scan the length of the dress in her arms.

“Aria, stop with that,” Philip says.

“Stop what? Encouraging my terribly talented but devastatingly unambitious best friend to quit being afraid of success?”

Aria silently applauds herself for diverting Philip’s attention away from her blushing face. The second allows her to get her bearings, and she sneaks a glance back up at him. His gaze is fixed at a spot on the wall, his eyes downcast and lips held taut.

“I mean it, Philip. I don’t get it.” Seriously. Aria doesn’t get it, but she has a suspicion of where he’s coming from.

Philip’s dad abandoned his family when Philip was barely standing on two wobbly legs. On occasion, Aria catches Philip searching for news about Gabriel Kim’s latest Silicon Valley successes (she does her part by pretending not to notice).

Aria knows that Mrs. Kim keeps her brother—­Philip’s father—­abreast of Philip’s life through sporadic voicemails. As far as Aria knows, Philip’s father has never returned a call.

She wondered what Mr. Kim would think if he heard that Philip and his childhood best friend both got into Georgetown. Though Aria was currently the only one at first-­year orientation because Philip declined his spot, claiming he had to keep handling things for his aunt Mrs. Kim (both the business of the laundromat and the business of keeping her company). Philip had told his aunt he didn’t get accepted and begged Aria to maintain the lie.

A lifetime of friendship, and Aria has never been able to say no to his pleading face.

“I know you’re not talking. I thought you said you were going to stop your little side hustle,” Philip says, his tone clipped. His voice drops to a whisper as he gestures at the dress in Aria’s hands. “I shouldn’t be enabling this. You’re going to get caught, Ari.”

“I’m not,” Aria says, unsure if she’s mustered enough confidence to convince Philip she’s right. She glances down at the garment in her arms. The clear plastic bag encases a silky asymmetrical cocktail dress, pastel blue with a slit edging precariously high. There is a gold pin near the collar—­a delicate enamel tulip. It’s a dress that costs more than a three-­credit class at Georgetown and all the required textbooks. A knot of jealousy mixed with awe grinds inside Aria, so she shoos it away.

“What does the tulip mean?” Philip asks, pointing to the pin on the dress. It’s an abrupt question that catches Aria off guard.

“Fortune. Notoriety, even. You know, you don’t have to ask me that every time you see a flower.”

“But I enjoy asking you about flowers.” Philip smiles at her. She doesn’t know when his goofy grin changed, but now it makes her feel twenty emotions at once.

“I know you don’t care about flowers . . . You’re lulling me into a false sense of security so you can lecture me some more,” Aria says, pretending she’s unaffected, before returning her attention to the dress. It has pockets, discretely sewn so as not to interrupt the structure of the dress, and in one is an envelope. Aria pulls it out, the thick weight of the cash in her...

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Verlag
Delacorte Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2025
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 13 
9798217023936
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
352
Kontakt zum Hersteller
preigu GmbH & Co. KG
mail@preigu.de

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