Her Life, A Conspiracy

"Geo, tell me this isn't happening! You love me to the moon and back, what happened?" Chloe asked.

George was now in his trousers as he stood up to his feet and walked towards her, his eyes ridden with guilt.

When he was close enough, he grazed his palm gently against her right cheek as he wiped out the tears on it.

For a moment, it looked like he really regretted what he had done and Chloe was going to fall for it until he spoke up, "I– I…loved you to the moon and back " He burst into a contagious laughter and Jamie couldn't resist but join him. "Past tense, Chloe! Past tense!" He repeated.

Chloe felt her whole world crumble before her eyes. Every sound of their laughter made her heart thump widely in her chest as if it was going to fall into her stomach.

"You asked what happened," George finally caught his breath. "Love happened, Chloe! I fell in love all over again, this time, with Jamie!"

"To be honest you were the sexiest person alive back in college! So sexy that even Blake fell for you at first sight—"

"What?" Chloe mouthed in disbelief.

"Oh, maybe it's time you know the truth, Love. Blake was your mysterious pen pal! He was the one that sent all those love notes back in college, not me. How he wished you'd call him by his name for once, but you never did. I only befriended you because our shy prince ordered me to but at some point, I fell for you. Unfortunately for you, you only had eyes for me. Blake desperately wanted you back then but I doubt he still does now that you look like a mess trying to have a child." He body-shamed her.

Chloe lost a chunk of weight over the years as a result of the severe Depression and Anorexia she suffered after her third miscarriage. She barely took care of herself as her sand skin tone became tanned and her red wavy hair was mostly tangled and unkempt.

Sorrowful tears streamed down her eyes as she sobbed uncontrollably, her shoulders trembling with the force of her emotions, "Everything I did– I did for you."

"He never asked you to! Why are we even having this discussion? Geo, I thought she was poisoned, what happened?" Jamie lashed angrily at George who just scratched his head in confusion.

"How long? How long have you been doing this?" Chloe asked as she tried to fight back her tears.

"Our first night together was on the night of your second wedding anniversary. It was splendid! I loved how you sounded on the phone when you called, crying to me not knowing the man you were crying over was in the bathroom of my hotel room, warming up to take me all night." Jamie giggled maliciously.

Chloe was mortified hearing her confession because that day, George had called in sick when he went out on a business trip. She never imagined the two people that meant the world to her would ruin her life in a single night.

She thought even if Geo lost his way, Jamie who was her blood and should have had her back like she always did growing up. "Why Jamie? Why? When did it all go wrong?"

The malicious smile on Jamie's face quickly disappeared upon hearing this question as she stood up from the bed and walked up to her, standing just beside her lover.

"It was never right between us, Chloe! For the past twenty years of my life, I had to pretend to love you when to me you're nothing but one of my father's several collections! You are nothing but an over-glorified antique in the family's museum, Chloe!" Jamie spoke her mind, her heart burning with rage. Her veins were throbbing and one could tell she had been concealing this hatred in her heart for years.

She finally got the chance to pour it all out and she wasn't going to hold even the slightest of it in tonight.

"No! I am not an antique. I am a Knightley. I am Chloe Knightley, your younger sister!" Chloe affirmed viciously. "Jamie, it is me! Your little pumpkin!"

"No! I have and will never accept that. Your presence ruined my picture-perfect life. My mom died grieving over Dad's betrayal but even after she died, the only thing that old fool cared about was you. He didn't only love you but he also forced me to love you. Growing up he never hid his favoritism towards you. You always got everything I ever wanted, Including Geo. So even though it took so many years, I succeeded in taking everything you ever cherish away from you." Jamie admitted, proudly.

Chloe felt sick to her stomach, "I never knew you harbored so much hatred for me–"

"Well, now you do!" Jamie interrupted.

Chloe tried to fight back her tears. She sniffed hard as she viciously wiped off the tears that were already decorating her face. Chloe was lost she didn't know who was better between the two of them. They had both betrayed her in the worst way possible

"But why all this, Geo? You could have easily divorced me when you fell out of love with me. Why did you keep me here to break my heart like this? Why does it have to be my sis– my sister?" She sucked in a quick breath.

George sighed as he rolled his eyes, "My family needed your company and YOU. FYI, you are a walking billion of dollars and we needed all of your wealth to overthrow the Royal family. You know Dad loves power and being the second most powerful person in the country as just the prime minister isn't enough for him. I love his ideas too. Once Dad becomes the most powerful man in their country, all I have to do to succeed him would be to overthrow my elder brother, and bringing you to the family already makes me Dad's choice. All I need is an heir, which you obviously would never be able to produce."

"What are you talking about?" Chloe asked, raising an eyebrow. "So you did all this for my family's company?" She asked in disbelief. "And you supported him?" She asked her sister. "I stopped working completely because you promised to take care of the company. Your plan was to ruin and betray me all along? No wonder Dad didn't trust you enough to hand over the company to you." She lashed at them but the forbidden couple burst into unrestrained laughter, making her feel more dejected.

Deep down, Jamie was angry because she hated Chloe being right. Their Dad never trusted Jamie with any of the family’s valuables.

"Dear, your family's company is just the tip of the iceberg. It's worth more than the eyes can see but despite that, it is still not worth even a quarter of that beautiful tattoo on your back." George snickered.

Chloe looked over her shoulder to glance at the ouroboro dragon tattoo that she grew up to know as a part of her. She has tried to find out from her father how she got it but he always finds a reason to dismiss the topic.

"Chloe, they are a lot of things Father never told us and that includes who the f*ck your mother is as well as your tattoo. Your tattoo isn't just a tattoo but a map of one of the three biggest gold mines. The company wasn't doing so well until Dad took over it but now it is the best art organization in the world, you know why that is?" Jamie asked but clueless Chloe never got to see the face of her mother and her father would never talk about it no matter how much she pestered him.

"That's because he has been exploiting the gold from that map to make the company better. It took us three years to finally decipher the map and find the exact location of the land and another two years to extort the gold. Stupid you signed over the ownership of the land as well as the deeds of the company to Me and the Marlowes!" Jamie explained. "You lived this long even though they already took several pictures of your tattoo because they weren't prepared for any form of loss in case of a mistake in the pictures." She explained further.

"Do you think Uncle Chris is really my uncle?" George asked, "Remove his beard and mustache and guess who he actually is?" He added.

Chloe thought about it long and hard.

She has always thought Uncle Chris as everyone in the family called him was George's Uncle because that was what he told her.

He lived in this house long before she married him but now that she thought of it, she realized he was actually Mr. James Harvey, a Cartographer.

"What?" Chloe scoffed in disbelief. Her whole marriage was nothing but a conspiracy.

The biggest conspiracy of her life.

"Now you're just an empty shell with no use to this family so it would be easier to discard you. But I will birth the future heir and become the most important person in this family." She added while proudly rubbing her tiny baby bump which Chloe is just noticing.

"No! I never signed any papers! I will never give anything to you. Not after cheating me like this." Chloe protested but they only laughed at her.

George squeaked, "You already did, sweetheart."

"Why did you think I needed your signature in the buying and selling of my apartment?" Jamie asked and Chloe finally realized how much she had been scammed all her life. “Stupid you! I never bought any apartment in the company’s name. Unfortunately, you trusted me too much not to read the paper.” She added proudly.

"Sweetheart, don't you know Art dealing is one of the best ways to launder illegal money? Your Dad knew this well and he did a good job while he lasted. We had to take care of him when he was becoming–"

"Take care of Dad? What do you mean by that? My Dad went on a world–"

"Tour!" Jamie sharply interrupted before turning to give George a knowing glare and they both laughed again.

Another episode of Chloe’s stomach ache was setting in again and her body was slowly flooded with sweat but she tried to hide it so as not to show defeat.

"Dear, Father is never coming back. He's gone to a world of no return. He never loved me so there was nothing to feel sad watching him die." Jamie revealed.

"The old man was tough and knowing we needed him, held out for so long– I think about three after his Kidnap. That letter you received a week before your wedding was forged. The Marlowes were already on your case long before I got involved but I'm glad Geo introduced me to their world. I was quite shocked when I saw Dad who was supposed to be on a world tour tied up, looking old and haggard in some underground basement but on second thought, I realized that was what he deserved for neglecting me." She added proudly.

"You know at first I was hesitant in involving Jamie. I thought, this was her family and she might love them so much but after I realized we had a lot in common I quickly showed her a world where she could have her revenge on you. We decided to make his death special by killing him on our third anniversary, by that time, we already had the gold mine in our full grasp." George explained further.

"You…" Chloe started to talk but a lump formed in her throat, forcing her to hold back. Hot tears streamed down her face as she asked, "How dare you?”

Chloe attempted to strike her but her stomach ache became impossible to hide. She held onto her stomach as she fell to the ground, groaning in pain.

“Seems like her the poison is slowly taking effect.” George sighed as he gently dropped the wine bottle he had grabbed to protect Jamie from Chloe’s strike.

Chloe felt dizzy as she slowly turned to see the man whom she loved with all her heart.

"You are going to pay for this. I will ruin your family." She threatened with all the power left in her.

She attempted to trudge out of the room but George grabbed her hair and pushed her to the wall just as she managed to open the door, causing a slight cut on her forehead.

"I'm sorry, but you won't get the chance." He smirked as he held her to the wall.

He placed his hand around her neck, tightening his grip as he spoke, "The Marlowes have always been known to love their women to death…only then can they remarry. No hard feelings but this is where our relationship ends."

Chloe stared into the eyes of the man she once thought was her world. Those eyes that once looked at her with so much love and care now hold nothing but hatred and disgust for her.

She struggled to catch her breath as his grip tightened around her neck. She'd hit his hands with all the power she had, hoping he would release his grip but George was a well-built young man and Chloe's light punches had no effect on him.

Eventually, she gathered all her power and kicked his groin and he finally released his grip on her. This was the only chance she had to escape from the room and she quickly took it, taking to her heels as she ran down the hallway, still breathing heavily.

It took George several minutes to finally regain his balance and run after her but her blood was dripping down the hallway, giving away her hideout.

Chloe ran to the nearest room she could reach. It was Sebastian, George's elder brother's room.

She banged the door of the room severally seeking help and when he finally opened it, he wasn't so surprised to see Chloe's face covered in blood.

"Help me, please." She begged, her gaze was unstable as she was finding it hard to remain conscious.