4: Karma is an asshole

"Not only is there often a right and wrong, but what goes around does come around. Karma exists."

~Donald Van de Mark

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My eyes are wide my mouth is ajar, gasping for air. The jogging took my breath away, but the lady in my room whoever she is has just knocked the air out.

Startled and confused I place my hand on my chest trying to calm my racing heart and a million question flies through my head in that very moment.

Like how she got to my room? Because there is only one key to my apartment and I have it with me.

Why she looks exactly like me?

What the hell she wants?

And how the hell did I not see her when I walked in?

She looks like me and though her hair is in a treated and slightly curled blonde hair with fringe. Her eyes are light brown with close-set eye shape while mine are dark brown with a deep-set shape. Aside from that, we seem to have the same pointed nose and our lips are both full. Our cheekbones are both high and defined and our round jawline.

She's wearing a black jacket and a pair of white gloves that reach her elbow over both of her hand and the fingers of her left hand are twirling her dark glasses on the table. There is blue a file beside her on the table and I know it's hers since I don't own such a thing in this apartment.

She looks so much like me even with the blonde hair and difference in class, (because she looks rich and acts entitled and even though I just met her a minutes ago and she has only said only a few words I can already tell). I would have considered the possibility of a twin sister, but I knew how my parents were and if they had a baby, I would have known.

There has to be another explanation for the striking resemblance we share, it can't be because we are related.

But what if you are though? What if your parents had two baby girls and sold one to a rich family because they couldn't afford two? You know how greedy they were when it came down to money?

No, this lady must be one of the seven people in the world that looks exactly like me.

She appears rich and sophisticated. Yes, and that means that all has been well with her, so why is she here now? What is she looking for with me because deep down I know she didn't come here to see me from the goodness of her heart or she wouldn't have barged into my apartment like she has.

"Are you going to stand there and look at me or are you going to sit and let us talk?" the lady in my apartment speak again and this time the words come out in the most authoritative and yet annoying manner.

I raise my brow, for someone who is not in her place, she does lack the right manners of approach. "How did you get into my apartment?" I ask.

I'm being a lot careful than I normally would have because I have no idea who she is.

"Questions, irrelevant question," she rudely replies, stretching her engaged hands on my dining table, she dips her hand into her purse and pulls out a lighter but as she takes it to her mouth I speak up.

"Can you please not smoke in my apartment?"

She ignores my request and light it up anyway.

Lucifer's younger sister! I inwardly curse as a frown settles between my brows.

Whoever said patience is a virtue certainly didn't get pushed to the wall then have their head beat in with a baseball bat before.

And just like that my patience is out.

I storm out of the kitchen and towards the table where the lady that has managed to make herself annoying in the last five minutes, and I begin to speak through gritted teeth. "That was not an irrelevant question because you owe me answers, " I reach for the cigarette between her lips and quench the light with the dining table, "you're in my house and you do as I say so when I ask questions, you answer them. I don't care who the hell you think you are, you better start talking or I'm going to have to throw you out of my house." I finish and step back to toss the already quenched cigar into the dustbin beside the kitchen door.

She says nothing for the first thirty seconds, just silent, stewing with annoyance and my patience again runs thin, but just as I'm about to march towards her and grab her by her fake blonde hair, she speaks "If you as much as touch the hair on my head, Justin will have your head."

I don't know who Justin is but she sounds quite serious. So serious that I press pause on my action. "Then leave."

She doesn't leave, in fact, she made herself feel more at home and continues speaking in a relaxed tone. "Twenty four years ago, a couple welcomed a baby girl into their young lives. A baby, I heard is supposed to change the lives of parents, but no one said if it is meant to change it for better or the worse, however in the case of the day Hudsons, it was for the worse."

The anger within me subsides and coldness takes its seat within me. I chew my lips quietly as I know the story she's saying quite well, hell I heard it almost every day while growing up.

It was the story of my parents.

They both died while trying to rob a bank eighteen years ago.

"I know how that story went, lady, you don't have to tell me!" I snap, cutting her short and from the look on her face, she doesn't seem to like that very much.

"Your parents died when you were barely seven years old," she continues like I didn't just say she didn't have to tell me, "and because of the record they left behind, no foster home would take you in."

This lady, whoever she is, seem to have done her homework on me and I wonder why, but whatever reason it is, I don't think it's a good one.

"And so you had to live on the street until you were twelve and that was when you met Ade Paulson."

The hairs on my body stand at alert at the mention of his name, I haven't thought of my good-for-nothing ex-boyfriend for months and I was going to leave it that way, but she just ruined that.

And despite wondering what lies Ade fed her about me, I know I do not want to even hear it. My past is my past for a reason and the last thing I want is to be reminded of it.

She has to leave, I have to send her away, and before I properly process it, I begin to head away from the dining and towards the door, "Whatever it is you're looking for, you came to the wrong place and you better leave before I call the police."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"And why the hell not?"

"Because if the police were to come here, you will be the one they'll arrest."

I pause and turn around to stare at her still unmoved in her spot.

I would have said she was joking if she didn't hold a very serious tone when she said those words. I've watched those movies before and the only way someone is this serious and confident, especially after saying such words, is if they have something solid. I admit I'm not very smart, but I think that's what's happening here.

She knows something! That must be it then, she knows that I took Ade's money while leaving him six months ago and that's why she's here.

As good for nothing as Ade was, what I did to him could get me into real trouble if it's brought to broad daylight.

A war begins in my head. But are quickly silenced as the Lucifer's younger sister gets up from the table but doesn't take a step forward.

"A month ago, I saw a girl on the news, she was involved in a fatal accident that claimed a few lives, but somehow she survived and a few others survived and I began my search for her because somehow she fit perfectly into my plans." She explains proudly.

"Whatever it is you think I'm going to help you with, I won't."

"I think you need to learn how to shut up and get to the end of the story before saying what you think you can or can't do."

I snap my mouth close even though I boil furiously from within.

She leans down, and pick a lighter and a cigar from her purse, "I started my investigation immediately after seeing you on TV, to know who you were and why you looked so much like me. I wanted to know if my parents had another child they gave away or if I was adopted and after I found out the resemblances completely coincidental, I dug deeper because I wanted to know everything about you."

I press my lips together, "There must be a reason why you put yourself through all this trouble right?"

She seems furious that I keep interrupting her now and then but this time she ignores me lits the cigar and takes a long drag of it before puffing it into the air, this time I don't object to her disrespectful action, "An apple doesn't fall far from its tree and just like your parents were thieves, so are you."

Her words slap me right in the face, and my anger rises, "Excuse me stranger but you can't walk into my house and call me names, I do not care what you know or think you know, you need to get out now or I'll drag you out myself."

"You stole your ex's thirty-five thousand dollars the day you went over to get the rest of your things. You took the last money that the poor man had and sent him to an early grave."

Oh, she knows, that's why she has so much boldness, yes I'm a thief and a bad person. I never was perfect and never will-

Wait what early grave is she talking about?

"I didn't kill him," I say, laughing at myself for letting this woman fool me with her act.

"Sharon your best friend would beg to differ, she said she came home and met Ade yelling and smashing things and he told her all his money was gone, she didn't take it so there was only one other person who could have. Your name was the last thing he said before he collapsed. When he got to the hospital, it was revealed he died as a result of a heart attack."

I remain silent, wondering over what she just said and watching her carefully she wasn't lying, "All Sharon wants is justice for the death of Ade and my detective promised to help her get it."

She places the cigar between her lips and digs her hand into her purse, bringing out a picture before stretching her hand out to me.

I walk to her slowly and take the picture from her hand to examine it, and discover that it is a picture of a tombstone with both withered and fresh flowers on it and it was engraved with:

  Ade Paulson

April 3rd 1977

To  

   April 14th, 2002.

Survived by his girlfriend, Sharon Payne

The information on the tombstone are accurate, but seeing Sharon's names on his gravestone causes my heart to tighten up. 16th January was the day I went for the last of my things, last time I saw him and it was the day I took the 35 thousand dollars and that date is going to hunt me for the rest of my life.

I feel weakness all over my body as I come to the realisation that Ade is truly dead, "I didn't mean to kill him."

Guilty, pain and sorrow grip my heart and I am torn between emotions, how fast my day has turned.

"You took the last money a man had, what did you expect to happen."

Insanity maybe, but not death!

"I will return the money, I will save up and return every last cent of the thirty-five thousand."

Her brows rise and her eyes darken "You really think the thirty thousand is what Sharon would take if she ever sees you will? She's going to want life for the life you took and you know how much she loved him."

She did love him, and that was the reason for my heartache six months ago and the reason I don't try to remember that day. I know she would want nothing more than to lay her hand on me just to revenge the love of her life. This lady here knows exactly that and is going to take advantage of that.

I know my back is against the wall here, so I ask, "What do you want from me?"

The corner of her mouth lift in a victorious smirk, "First off I will need you to sit and be quiet."