Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Twist of Fate
    A Twist of Fate
    A Twist of Fate
    Ebook112 pages1 hour

    A Twist of Fate

    By Shasta Kearns Moore

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    What if the personal flaws that so often lead you to trouble in your own life could catapult you to success in another’s?
    What if they could get you killed?
    When a cosmic error suddenly rotates three women — a Manhattan stripper, an Orange County gold merchant’s daughter, and a slumdog in Mumbai — into each others’ lives, they find their personalities and skills remarkably better suited to their counterpart’s life. But a second rotation shows how those same traits can lead to them straight to death’s door.
    “A Twist of Fate,” is a story about how aspects of your character, your upbringing — and even your clothes — that are liabilities in certain situations can be incredible assets in others.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherShasta Kearns Moore
    Release dateNov 22, 2011
    ISBN9781465745842
    A Twist of Fate
    Author

    Shasta Kearns Moore

    Shasta Kearns Moore is a lifelong writer, a former newspaper reporter and a new mom to identical twin boys, Jaden and Malachi. Malachi's diagnosis of cerebral palsy is the main subject on her personal blog, OutrageousFortune.net. She resides in Portland, Oregon.

    Related to A Twist of Fate

    Related ebooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      ‘Want’: Featured Fiction from Lynn Steger Strong

      Jul 8, 2020

      The novel won praise from Kirkus, which called it "wise, unflinching, and compelling," and Vulture, which hailed it as "a defining novel of our age of left-behind families." The post ‘Want’: Featured Fiction from Lynn Steger Strong appeared first on

      7 min read

    • Article

      Sienna’s Monster

      Mar 10, 2021

      Sienna lived with a monster, but no one else knew it. The first time Sienna realized that her monster wasn’t like the rest was in 4th grade. The whole grade assembled in the auditorium. A police officer watched them enter from his place on the stage.

      26 min read

    • Article

      Too Much Seinfeld

      Nov 30, 2017

      Too Much Seinfeld
      8 min read

    • Article

      Sienna’s Monster

      Sep 10, 2023

      Sienna lived with a monster, but no one else knew it. The first time Sienna realized her monster wasn’t like the rest was in fourth grade. The whole grade assembled in the auditorium. A police officer watched them enter from his place on the stage. H

      27 min read

    • Article

      A Temporary Arrangement

      Oct 2, 2023

      A Temporary Arrangement
      19 min read

    • Article

      Benjamin Nugent

      Jun 15, 2018

      Claire’s roommates threw her out on November third, for falling behind on rent and hogging the Xbox. During the next three weeks, she lived in other people’s houses. She missed the Xbox, but couch surfing was like a game. She had to not smell like co

      20 min read

    • Article

      The Inventions of Witches

      Oct 30, 2017

      The Inventions of Witches
      7 min read

    • Article

      My Best Friend

      Oct 1, 2020

      My Best Friend
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Care-Giver

      Mar 1, 2020

      The Care-Giver
      13 min read

    • Article

      How to Write a #MeToo Story

      Jan 19, 2018

      How to Write a #MeToo Story
      7 min read

    • Article

      When Naming Isn’t Enough

      Aug 31, 2018

      When Naming Isn’t Enough
      16 min read

    • Article

      Book Extract

      Jan 20, 2020

      My year off was also interesting, in that I didn’t feel any less loved, or cherished, or wanted. Why? Because my life is already rich with soulmates, and I got the chance to behold that. You don’t have to shag someone for them to be a soulmate. We do

      7 min read

    • Article

      Blonde BOMBSHELLS

      Feb 15, 2024

      Blonde BOMBSHELLS
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Bridle

      Oct 10, 2021

      Saliva pooled on her tongue beneath the rusty depressor. She endured a constant urge to swallow, afraid of choking on her own fluids. The taste of metal and blood are so akin, it is easy to mistake one for the other. This early in the day, blood was

      11 min read

    • Article

      A Slide Into Swinging...

      Nov 12, 2021

      A Slide Into Swinging...
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Slide Into Swinging...

      Nov 12, 2021

      A Slide Into Swinging...
      9 min read

    • Article

      How Deep This Grief

      Aug 16, 2017

      IAN STANSEL is the author of the novel The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) and the short story collection Everybody’s Irish (FiveChapters, 2013), a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. He teac

      9 min read

    • Article

      A Slide Into Swinging…

      Nov 12, 2021

      A Slide Into Swinging…
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Slide Into Swinging…

      Nov 12, 2021

      A Slide Into Swinging…
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Wolf

      Nov 6, 2018

      The Wolf
      12 min read

    • Article

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips

      Jun 10, 2020

      Ashleigh Bryant Phillips
      6 min read

    • Article

      My Secret Sex Diary

      Feb 25, 2022

      My Secret Sex Diary
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Twist of Fate

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Twist of Fate - Shasta Kearns Moore

      A TWIST OF FATE

      Shasta Kearns Moore

      Published by:

      Shasta Kearns Moore at Smashwords

      Copyright (c) 2011 by Shasta Kearns Moore

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

      Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      To my husband, Matt,

      the solid ground that allows me to fly.

      PART ONE:

      Before The Shift

      CHAPTER ONE

      New York: 8 a.m.

      It’s been three days.

      It’s been three whole days.

      Three whole, freaking days.

      Kali opened her crusty eyes and pulled the gray, woolen blanket closer around her shoulders. The movement jostled her ribs and she winced at the pain.

      Three days.

      Somewhere nearby a car honked and another sounded off in return. Kali tried to close her eyes against the pain and the noise and the sunlight filtering down between the buildings. But the honking grew more insistent and her awakening digestive system made her feel as though she had swallowed a popsicle stick. She knew she ought to get up, find food, get out of the pile of trash she had gathered around herself to keep warm in the night. She ought to do a lot of things.

      Three goddamn days.

      Like, she ought to go to Chico and beg for her job back. She ought to go to Spencer and tell him what an ass he is, or, maybe, tell him how sorry she is so he’d give her another bump. Maybe she ought to go to Candy and see if she would put her up for a while. But in her sorry state, Kali couldn’t imagine how she could possibly ask for her help.

      Three endless days.

      As another thought struck her, Kali snorted with derisive laughter — ignoring the sharp pain it caused in her ribs. Yeah, that’s what she oughta do. She ought to go home to Maa and tell her she was right. That all of her incessant nagging and warnings that she’d grow up to be just another slumdog came true. Oh, how happy she would be then. Her darling beti, broken down, destitute, living on the streets.

      Kali glanced around.

      Well, this wasn’t the streets of Bombay, like Maa always wailed about, but it would do.

      Three… motherfucking….

      Kali stood up stiffly and hobbled towards the main road. She put her conscious thoughts on simmer and wandered without paying attention to where her feet took her.

      She knew she should just hook for the money. Lord knows, she was wearing the right uniform under that blanket. But Spencer didn’t like her to; he’d be upset if he found out.

      He always was so jealous. Chico tolerated him because of his cut of the drug money, but Kali knew he hated it when Spencer got into one of his moods. Kali tried her best to dance well without being too sexy. She wanted to make money, but she didn’t want the guys to come up to her after. Spencer hated that.

      She braced her arm tighter against her ribcage. Maybe if she told Chico she wasn’t with Spencer anymore, he’d let her have her job back….

      She’d worked hard to get that job, too. She’d showed up almost every day for two weeks before Chico let her dance. It was a high-class club, filled with those 90-pound girls with baby-doll T-shirts cut off just below the nipple line to make it look as though they had any. Chico said they couldn’t use a husky girl like her, even though at 5-foot-7 she was only 135 pounds. Her Central Asian curves eventually won him over though and before he knew it, she had her own niche of customers aching for that Indian body and every way she could twist it.

      That’s where she’d met Spencer. He had his own little racket set up by the bar or, if he was feeling generous or had a particularly big client group, he’d stake out the big, round table near the platform.

      Kali noticed him first and began asking around about him. Yes, he has a lot of money, the girls said, but watch that temper and besides, Chico doesn’t let talent date the customers.

      Kali didn’t care. She thought he was gorgeous and she knew she could be persuasive when she needed to be.

      She began lingering around his barstool, loitering longer than was technically necessary, giggling at his jokes and waving her chest back and forth under his nose while they talked. Kali thought she was being coy, but it didn’t take long for Chico and the rest of the girls to know what was up. Chico threatened both of them, and Spencer appeared to be willing to let it slide. He ignored her for weeks, but she wasn’t one to give up that easily. Kali began to do research and gleaned the dressing room gossip for any scrap of information about Spencer. She watched him come and go and learned his habits. She began to mold herself into the perfect girlfriend for him, predicting his desires before he knew them, knowing more about his habits than indeed even he was aware. It didn’t take too many times of showing up at one of his friend’s parties for them to find a back room to themselves.

      No man could resist such utter devotion, and Spencer was far from an extraordinary man. Before long, she had moved in with him, even though they had to take great pains to keep Chico in the dark.

      Spencer showed her the time of her life. A seemingly limitless supply of cocaine flowed out of his pockets as they took limo rides to the best clubs, drank with the hottest rappers and ordered room service in hotels they didn’t, technically, need to stay in.

      But as the months passed, Kali was increasingly suspicious of Spencer’s unexplained absences. She began tracking the women she saw posting to his Facebook wall, but when that wasn’t enough, she figured out the password to his e-mail accounts and pored through the documents on his hard drive. She examined each piece of evidence with the intense and thorough scrutiny of an archaeologist: the time he said he was with Rodney when she knew he wasn’t; the note from m3so40rny@aol.com asking what he was up to Friday night; the surprising lack of pornography on his computer with the exception of a picture of a busty Southeast Asian girl looking down at the camera with familiarity. Kali thought she recognized the ceiling in the background as the same one in their apartment, but she couldn’t be sure. And even if it was, what did that prove? The creation date on the photo was after they started dating, but maybe he had just moved the file from somewhere else. That wasn’t proof right? She still couldn’t be sure, could she?

      Whenever she playfully worked into conversations the accusation of him seeing someone on the side, he taunted back that he didn’t have time for anyone else. She was a handful already, he said.

      Besides, how could she doubt his love when he got so angry about the guys at the club who tried to grope her? Surely, he loved her if he got so passionate. Yet still… something kept nagging at her as she spent hours picking apart his every action, word and tone of voice.

      That last

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1