Every Camera in This House Is Mine

I'm the fake one.

The real daughter came home today. By midnight a Category 1 hurricane has closed the bridges between Sagaponack and the city, and she and I are stuck inside the same compound on the dune line.

My fiancé is here too.

The family thread has been buzzing for an hour. My father: *Tessa, be the bigger person tonight, Mira's had a brutal week.* My mother: *Don't pick today to make a scene, sweetheart.* My brother Yates, blunt as ever: *Tess. One ugly move and you can sleep somewhere else tomorrow.*

My fiancé has Mira tucked under his arm on the linen sofa. He looks up at me with the same gray eyes he used to propose with and says, in a voice flat enough to write down: *You're a copy, Tessa. Try to remember that.*

Everyone in this room thinks I'm about to cry. Beg. Apologize for existing.

I prop my phone on the marble end table. I open TikTok Live. I type a title: **TRAPPED IN THE HAMPTONS — LIVESTREAMING THE REAL AND FAKE HADLEY HEIRESSES (AND THE FIANCÉ WE SHARE)**.

The camera light comes on. Mira's tender, trembling face freezes.

Because she doesn't know yet.

Every camera in this compound. I installed them.