The next day at breakfast, I couldn't contain my giggles when I saw a groggy looking and I'm-going-to-fall-asleep-any-second-now-so-don't-piss-me-off Ethan.
He still hadn't noticed me sitting silently at the table when he walked in rubbing circles under his eyes. He looked tired and as if he hadn't slept at all. That was pretty obvious from the bags under his eyes and him yawning twice every minute.
His eyes fell on me a minute later and he jabbed an accusing finger in my direction.
"You little-"
"What?" I quickly cut him off before he could call me something unpleasant, widening my eyes innocently. "What did I do?"
"You very well know what you did," he growled, lowering his finger.<
"Ethan called, he said he wouldn't be able to make it to the dinner tonight," Charlotte announced at the dinner table, just as I took my seat."Poor boy, he works himself so hard. He should take a break every now and then," Mr. Jenson commented.Ohplease,I thought.Ifonlyyou'd knowthereasonofhisabsence, then you'dliketoretractyourstatementofhimworkinghard.HemustprobablybesnoggingHeatheror
"I see you had a good start to your morning," Ethan commented when I entered the kitchen. He was sat at the breakfast bar, sipping on a cup of coffee. The steam from the cup swirled above in beautiful patterns before disappearing into thin air. It made me crave for a nice hot chocolate or coffee."That was a lame thing to do to get back at me, you have to admit," I replied as I poured myself a glass of water instead.Ethan shrugged. "That's all I could think of when I walked into your room and found you sleeping soundly. Mess with my sleep and I'll mess with yours."I shook my head at him. "How did you even get into my room?""The door was ajar. I couldn't help myself. You were basically calling for it."
No sooner had she said it that the door burst open and in walked a teary eyed, what I assumed to be was, Rachael Jenson. A handsome man walked in tow which I was positive, was Antonio Jenson.I got up from the couch and hesitantly took a step forward but unfortunately ended up getting my toe stubbed into the coffee table.I hissed in pain and crouched down to hold my throbbing toe."A-are you okay?" Rachael asked as she reached me."Yes, I am," I answered quietly."Oh Juliet, I missed you so much." She croaked, pulling me to her as she crushed the life out of me."Why did you run away like that?!" She shook with incessant tears as s
"I want to show you something today," Rachael stated, barging into my room and catching me off guard as I was slipping into a shirt."What?" I asked, pushing the shirt down and looking at her."You'll get to know. Just dress up as soon as you can and we'll get going in a few minutes. There's probably going to be some media out there where I'm taking you because some idiot accidentally leaked out the information that I'm going to be present there today," Rachael huffed, rolling her eyes."Um...I don't think that's a good idea. I mean...I'm not used to getting exposed to the media...I-I..." I trailed off for lack of words to explain my situation.Rachael rose a perfect eyebrow at me. "What? What do you mean you're not used to it?"Realizing my slip up, I bit down on my tongue harshly and quickly amended my statement. "I-I mean after such a long gap...I'm not ready to face them."Rachael looked sympathetically at me. "I understand but don't wor
Ten more minutes and that was all it took for me to get bored easily. I thought back to yesterday morning and how Ethan had woken us up with that horrendous music as a way to get back at me.This was a perfect opportunity for a revenge. I was sure Ethan would still be in the shower and I hoped he would be in there for a while."I'm just going to go to the bathroom." I announced but seeing as no one had paid any attention to me and were still busy playing in the pool, I slipped out of there quickly.I sprinted upstairs to where Ethan's room was, unfortunately opposite to mine. Once I got there, I pressed an ear to the door so I could hear sounds that would tell me he had already finished showering. There were none so I knew he was still in the shower.I grabbed the door handle and slowly turned it to unlock, silently thanking that it wasn't locked or else I would've had to go to the kitchen and search what key it was to Ethan's room in the key rack and by
"A-are you okay?" Olivia asked me, waving her hand in front of my face as I sat staring off into space."Huh? What?" I asked, not entirely hearing or comprehending what she said."I asked if you were you okay? You look pretty shaken up," She observed.I was brought back to the real world. Holy crap. What had I done? That wasn't supposed to happen. I didn't mean to expose Ethan like that in front of about a dozen people.I was so stupid. I shouldn't have done anything in the first place. I had taken it too far. Granted the towel slipped by mistake and it was probably Ethan's fault that he didn't tie it tight enough.But I felt like I was largely at fault here. If I wouldn't have done what I did, it probably wouldn't have happened and my eyes would've still being innocent and not exposed to a heart attack triggering sight so precipitously."Julie!" Olivia suddenly yelled."What?" I asked with widened eyes, not expecting her sudden outbu
Next morning I woke up bright and early for which I was quite happy. These past few days had left me feeling lazy and lethargic from doing absolutely nothing.It was about five thirty in the morning when my eyes opened and then I couldn't sleep afterwards. So I grabbed a blanket from my bed and sat in the balcony to watch the sunrise. It was a little chilly that morning and so I tightened the blanket around me, trying my best to ignore the cold tiled floor of the balcony.There were birds chirping on the trees planted strategically in rows on both sides of the road which led to the heavy iron gate manned by about two guards.The water fountain which I never paid much attention to stood like a beautiful art. It was a stone carved mermaid with a mop of wild curls on her head. Her hair spewed out water into the fountain and it looked very beautiful. It was brightly lit with the small bulbs fixed on the ground.The sunrise was beautiful. It felt like I had se
It all started when I sat down with Rebecca, helping her paint and color her coloring book. Everything was going fine but the moment I found my hand reaching to scratch my back again, I knew something was wrong.Then the torture started.I probably looked like a demented monkey with the way I couldn't stop scratching my body. It felt like my body was on fire. Every part of my body that was covered by the clothes I had put on itched intensely.The worst part, I wasn't able to do anything about it. Rebecca had me engaged in a grueling coloring session of her book which she wanted to complete today. Every time I attempted to leave and soothe myself of the torture, she would start crying hysterically and that would force me to stay put.When I had finally managed to slip out of Rebecca's clutches, Rachael got hold of me and ordered me to call for Antonio immediately because it was supposed to be sibling time and he was still not present.There were no
♡five years later♡I bent down to examine it through the glass. It was beautiful but so were all the others. I nudged Olivia next to me."What do you think about this one?" I asked, hoping she could help me out with choosing something.She examined it closely. "Like I said about everything you showed me, it's really pretty.""That isn't helping me to choose only one!""Julie, how am I supposed to know which one is perfect? Everyone has different tastes and what I like isn't necessarily something that Ethan might like. You know him the best so you choose one."I sighed. "Fine, fine." I looked at her hand to stare at her wedding ring glinting on her finger under the fluorescent lights."Hurry, we've been here for an hour now. I'm going to go sit down somewhere.""God, I'm sorry. Yeah, sit somewhere. I'll make it quic
"I assume she must've retaliated?"He grimaced. "Yeah, she dumped an entire pack of flour over me and it was okay because it was powder until she started chasing me around with the hose turning me into a man dough."I chuckled. "Don't hate her too much. She's still my sister." It felt weird to think of her as my sister. "Oh and is it still true that you used to envy her because she did whatever she wanted and didn't give a shit?"He grumbled under his breath. "Don't you ever tell her that.""So thatistrue.""I'm serious. You're not allowed to tell her. She'd bring it up every time we bicker.""Okay, I won't." I said, thoroughly amused."Good. So now that we've got all problems out of the way, I think you should tell me about yourself, Julie Jenson.""Well that's a hard thing to do. What do you want to know?""Just tell me everything about your life from as long as you can remember. I want to get to k
It had now being a week since I visited my aunt. I was settling comfortably into my college schedule like before and there was no difference even in my routine with the exception that I no longer woke up at five in the morning to get ready and go for a jog. I now woke up at eight for classes at nine like a sane normal college student and Olivia was proud of that. She was just happy that I'd no longer knock on her door at the crack of dawn demanding for her company while I jogged. I had to admit it felt pretty good to get three hours of extra sleep everyday.It had been a week but Ethan still did not come to meet me. I wondered if I should just lose hope and move on but it was too soon to take that decision but it would certainly be considered late if he showed up now. But I missed him. I missed him too much to the point where every brown haired guy made me think it was him, only to be disappointed.Olivia and I had been getting along pretty well. Amelia had called the
"He had already called and demanded the ransom money from your parents when his criminal friend told him about a child trafficking group who was willing to give him twice the amount he had asked for. He didn't want to risk getting traced if he asked again for a raise in the money from your parents so he managed to get two dead girl bodies who had recently died in a house fire and were burnt to the point where they couldn't be recognized and just exchanged your baby clothes with them. He staged a fake accident and the couple was informed. They thought that both of you had died and didn't want a DNA test to verify it. They couldn't bear it." I could see her hands shaking as she spoke but she clasped them tightly together."Was there no mention of all this anywhere in the news?" I was exasperated."He had kidnapped you two before others could be informed that your mother had given birth to triplets. After the couple found the two babies dead, they didn't want anybody to k
I had borrowed Olivia's car for the day. Today was important. It was something I had promised myself to check after I left the mansion.It had taken nearly three hours to arrive. It was a nice sunny Sunday afternoon with birds chirping in the afternoon sun and a pleasant atmosphere. The breeze and the faint smell of the salty sea in the air brought back fun childhood memories spent with my parents and my uncle and aunt.Today was Sunday which reminded me that Ethan was supposed to move out on this day. He hadn't tracked me down and came to talk like he said he was going to on the phone and I wondered if he was just giving me time and space or that he genuinely didn't want anything to do with me anymore. I tried remaining optimistic. There was no way he wouldn't come. On top of that he knew about me from the very beginning and still fell for me so I found no reason as to why he wouldn't find me.We called Heather the next day after returning because we were curio
"Who?" Even I thought Heather's attempts at playing dumb were pathetic."Are you done pretending you don't know anything when I know you've been helping the girl?"Heather sighed, annoyed. "Not yet, no," She grumbled."I just want to see her. Now where did you hide her?""She's not here."There was a pause and I imagined her raising an eyebrow. It annoyed me that I didn't even get a glimpse of her face. Sure, I'd seen her in pictures but I was sure it didn't do her full justice. So I had to imagine myself raising an eyebrow."She ran away." Juliet realized. She was pretty quick at catching on things."She did, just now. Let's leave her alone. Now that you're here, just blend into your role. And how the hell did you know I helped her?""Just when are you going to stop thinking that I have no brain? It's you who's sounding stupid right now by asking that question."I wondered where Ethan was. I already missed him.
I froze. For a full minute I couldn't do anything but gawk at a confused Samara."Are you okay?""Uh," I snapped out of my daze. "What did you say?""I said that a woman is waiting in the living room. She's asking for you and she looks like you. It's unbelievable. I thought you were just messing around but you two really are different people.""I-I'll be right there." My voice came out shaky. I was expecting Juliet to return but nothing had prepared me for this moment.I knew I should immediately find Heather because if Juliet was here then that meant Heather must've known that she was coming. Why didn't she warn me before?But my feet seemed to have a mind of their own as they approached the stairs. I couldn't deny that part of me which wanted to see the woman I had been pretending to be for so many months.I could see the back of her head. She was a redhead but I knew she was a natural brunette and she had just dyed her hair and cho
"That's...strange.""Very much so. Hopefully, there aren't any more clones. I've had enough with you as it is. Once I'm sure everything is under control here, I'll go in search of Juliet.""Will that be necessary? I'm all over the news. Even if Juliet doesn't keep up with the latest news she's bound to hear it from someone, especially when it's about her."Heather seemed to think it over. "Now that I have no idea where she is, that's highly possible.""And before that happens shouldn't I just disappear?""No. At least not yet. Even if she does hear about it, she'll contact me first. I don't think she'd want to come back when she's unintentionally the hot topic right now."I sighed. "What am I to say to the parents?""They're pissed. If you keep being holed up in your room, they'd probably be mad at you for being a coward and that is unlike Juliet."Taking her words into account, I promptly approached them just before lunch.
JULIE'SPOVI shot up into a sitting position once my eyes opened. I immediately regretted sitting up so abruptly because the room spun at great speeds. I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my fingers into my temples. It took some time for me to recall the last thing I could remember which was the argument with Heather.I sighed. I was again torn between what was the right thing to do and what I was forced to do.I noticed an Advil on my nightstand. I immediately chased it down with water, grateful to whoever put it there for me because my headache had just started to set in.The atmosphere at the breakfast table was tense. I had woken up late and everyone had already had their breakfast. Ethan had left for work and I regretted not being able to catch him before he left.I didn't remember much from last night after my argument with Heather. I just hoped I hadn't done anything stupid but if looking at my parents