A wedding anniversary gift

Seraphina’s P.O.V

Pain twisted in my heart, my legs turning jelly as I almost stumbled backward. Tears rushed into my eyes, blurring my vision while I clenched my fist, anger slowly seeping through my veins.

Jason was Mason and Lucia’s real son and these two have been playing me for years?

A tear tracked down my face, then another and another till my shoulders sagged and sobs racked through my body.

How could my twin sister who had the same face as mine, how could she do this to me? Mason as well…

The memory of her playing peacemaker between Mason and me set off alarms in my mind. They must have thought I was a fool—there’s no other way they would’ve dared to betray me like this.

My heart shattered into pieces, their laughter intensifying the fury that surged within me so much that my fingers squeezed into folds and in the next minute, I kicked the door open.

Mason and Lucia jolted apart, the door slamming open as Lucia’s eyes widened in shock and Mason began to scamper around.

“Ermmm…make sure that you use your drugs” Mason’s voice trembled while acting like he was dusting the bed.

Lucia's eyes fluttered continuously. “Yeah, I am sorry for calling you out by this time and…”

The pretense before me suffocated me so much that a scream tore from my mouth. “Can you two just stop? I have heard everything that you two talked about…how could you do this to me.” I choked a whisper, clenching my heart that twisted with pain.

“I trusted you, Lucia!” My voice cracked in disbelief as my chest constricted so tightly that I could barely breathe.

“You have been lying to me” I screamed at the top of my lungs, tears pricking the back of my eyelids as my legs became wobbly and slowly, I crumbled to the ground.

“Mason is the real father of Jason? I hate you Lucia, I hate the two of you” I broke down, staring deep into her unreadable eyes.

Was this a prank?

All of a sudden, Lucia took me aback by bursting into a peal of hysterical laughter, and on darting my eyes to Mason, his darkened and emotionless eyes shattered my heart into pieces.

Lucia clicked her tongue in her mouth. “You are the biggest fool. How could you not know that he is Mason’s son? Jason…Mason…how could you be that clueless?”

Mason chuckled while I stared at him horrified. “Sign the divorce papers because, in the next two minutes, your life will be taking a different turn” He muttered while I stared at him in confusion and disbelief.

How could he be so cold towards me? Why wasn’t he remorseful?

Mason walked towards Lucia, slapping her on the bum as he walked past her to make way for her drawer, and brought out an envelope. He towered over me, dropping them on the floor before me. “These are the divorce papers!”

“I recommended the divorce lawyer just in case” A smirk crept at the corner of her mouth while I stared at her horrified and in shock.

This wasn’t the Lucia that I knew. This wasn’t my twin sister. This had to be a clone or a nightmare.

If it were a nightmare, then why wasn’t I waking up from it?

I sat frozen on the floor, totally numb and it felt like the whole world was spinning around me. Tears pressed the back of my eyelids, totally blurring my vision as I mumbled. “Why? For how long has this been going on…” I paused, glancing up at her frail self. “How many lies have you even told me? Do you even have cancer?”

A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Nope!” She said blatantly.

My breath got stuck in my throat as the words that slipped out of her mouth hit me like a rock and at that moment, memories of me paying all those enormous hospital bills flashed across my mind, memories of me staying with her all through the night!

“Y-You never had any cancer” My voice trembled.

“Yes, and the reason why I look frail was because I am on a diet” Her words were like daggers that pierced through my heart as I laughed bitterly.

I slowly stood up, wiping off my tears with the back of my hands, darting my eyes between Lucia and Mason, hoping that one of them would tell me that this was a prank but no! The deadly look in their eyes told me the answer that I needed to know.

“I will expose the two of you” My voice cracked. “I promise…”

I had hardly completed my words when the butler rushed inside. “Sir, the cops are here”

Mason smirked, bobbing his head. “Let them in”

Confusion swirled my mind, wondering what the cops were doing here by this odd hour. What was going on?

Lucia clicked her tongue in her mouth. “It seems more like before you can expose us, you are the one who will be exposed first”

I raised a brow in confusion. “What the fuck are you talking about?” I almost yelled.

The cops came in while I turned as they exchanged pleasantries with Mason and showed their ID before they fixed their gaze directly on me. “Are you Ms. Seraphina Thompson?”

My heart pounded violently against my chest as I glanced at Mason, his eyes blazing with a murderous glare. I quickly shifted my gaze back to the cops, struggling to understand why they were there.

If anyone should be getting arrested, then it was supposed to be Lucia and Mason!

“Yes, I am Seraphina Thompson” My lips wobbled, fear clawing at my throat as I watched how the officer glanced at his partner before turning to me. “Ms. Thompson, you are under arrest for the murder of Sophia Thompson”

For a second, it felt like my hearing was impaired as the name echoed through my mind. Sophia Thompson was Mason’s younger sister who died years ago and since they didn’t find a lead to what caused her death, it was ruled as suicide.

Sophia was my best friend and she was confined to a wheelchair because of an accident that happened. Sophia and I were in the same vacation house when she died but…

I was vindicated then. So what was going on now?

“She committed suicide…how can I be arrested for her murder?”

“We have found new evidence that links you to her death”

Panic bled through my veins as I swung my head at Mason, shaking my head profusely. “No, no, Mason. I think there is a mistake somewhere, you know that I will never do this to you”

Mason scoffed, staring daggers at me. “For years, I have lived with my sister’s murderer in the hopes of exposing you one day. Now, I am glad that I did” His eyes were bloodshot as they shone with tears.

“You fucking poisoned that poor girl, why…” Lucia broke down. “Mason married you just to expose you and I have been helping him with that from the very start plus the one he truly loves is me!”

The world around me seemed like it was closing in on me. It didn’t make any sense. I never killed Sophia. What was going on?

“I didn’t kill Sophia…I didn’t” My voice was barely above a whisper as tears streamed down my face.

While I struggled with my inner turmoil, the officers approached me, taking me aback as they put the cuffs around my wrist. “No…no…there is a mistake”

Lucia sobbed while Mason held her in his arms, telling the cops to take me away. I watched as he consoled Lucia telling her that it was all over and at that moment, Lucia turned, fixing her gaze on me and slowly, a smile crept at the corner of her mouth.

That smile.

It was familiar, deadly, and a smile I had forgotten for years.

It was the same eerie smile that Lucia always had on her face every time she did something and would make me suffer for it in her stead. It was the same smile she had every time I got punished for her lies.

That taunting smile she always had on her face when we were young.

A scream left my mouth when the reality of what was going on dawned on me. History was repeating itself again and right now, Lucia was making me take the fall for what she had done.