Entering the living room, we saw that Charlotte and Alistair were already seated at the couch, waiting for us. Charlotte was in an elegant maroon gown which suited her and Alistair was in a tuxedo with a tie which matched Charlotte's gown.
Charlotte looked up as soon as we entered and rose up with a smile. "You girls look lovely!"
She stepped forward and gave me a hug. "So do you, Mrs. Jenson."
"Thank you, Olivia."
"Are you all ready? We need to leave right now or we'll be late for our launch party," Alistair said impatiently. "Oh, and you three look amazing."
I giggled. "Thanks, dad."
"Is Ethan going?" Olivia asked.
"Yes, of course. He left a while ago to pick Heather up."
Charlotte and Alistair gave some instructions to the guards and servants and then we proceeded towards our cars.
As I slid into the car's backseat with Olivia, my nerves bubbled up to the surface again. I refrained from biting down on my nails but I w
Well, I felt bad for Charlotte and Alistair. Their launch party just got spoiled when they entered. Not because of Heather because she looked resplendent in her shimmery golden one shoulder gown, no but because of Ethan. He had an arm wrapped around her waist as they posed for the cameras.The paparazzi threw endless questions at them about their relationship. They stuck to short and vague answers. After they had been clicked a few dozen times, they finally moved on and began mingling with people around. They hadn't noticed us.We continued with our conversation about pointless things till they finally joined us after about twenty minutes or so.Alistair excused himself to attend to his guests. People were crowding around the newly launched car and clicking pictures of it, or posing with it.Ethan and Heather both greeted our small group. When Heather's eyes fell on me, she instantly went rigid. Her smile dropped but she still somehow managed to twitch he
"Oh, yeah. I do remember that doll. Uh, I forgot her name, sorry."She smiled again. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately and it now didn't seem nice at all. "It's okay, I remember. We named her Heliet. Heather and Juliet. Heliet. Stupid girls we were back then."I remained silent. "Why are talking about that doll now?""Nothing. Just reminiscing memories, you know. I slept everyday with that doll right next to me to make up for your absence.""Oh, too bad I didn't have anything that would remind me of you.""What about that bracelet we gave each other?"Doubleshit."Oh...that bracelet. Right. I left it in my dresser. I didn't want to...lose it." I gave her a smile which I hoped didn't look nervous.She didn't smile back. Instead she just walked towards me until she was right in front of me. "Okay," she said, taking her phone out of her purse. "I have to call avery
I almost forgot that I had to meet up with Heather at her house. It dawned on me when I was eating breakfast and replaying the previous night's happenings in my head.I looked at the clock hanging on the wall and it read ten-twenty three. I remembered her asking, no, more like ordering me to be present in her room at sharp eleven. That meant I had a little over thirty minutes to get to her house, wherever it was.I asked Samara to check if Heather had sent a car here to pick me up while I gobbled up as many waffles as my mouth could possibly manage. Leaving half of it uneaten, I gulped down some juice in less than fifteen seconds.I didn't have time to go upstairs and change and my outfit was not bad anyway. Samara then came to inform me that the driver had been waiting for me for about twenty minutes already.I quickly ran to my room to see if I at least looked presentable. I brushed my hair a little and slipped into a pair of wedges because I couldn't f
I was too afraid to speak. I was still coming to terms with hearing Juliet's real voice . The girl I'd been pretending to be for some time now, was alive.Now everything was over. Heather knew I wasn't Juliet. She would tell everyone. The Jenson family would throw me out. They'd curse me out and say nasty things about me. They'd call me a gold digger, an opportunist. The whole world would get to know about me. People would talk unpleasant things about me. No one would trust me again. My reputation would even prevent anyone from hiring me. I'd die young.All because of one stupid mistake."Juliet-um, whatever your name is, are you okay?" Heather asked and she almost sounded genuinely concerned. Only she wasn't. Why would she care now? She knew I wasn't her best friend. "What's your name?""Julie," I whispered."What?""My name is Julie James, and I'm not your best friend.""Julie? Juliet? Don't tell me that even your names are similar.
I burst into thunderous laughter as Ethan's face contorted in what looked like pain and it looked like he was going to throw up. He quickly ran to the bathroom to spit it all out while I still couldn't control my giggles.After I had somewhat calmed myself down, I grabbed a glass of water and drank it. All that laughing made me so thirsty. I quickly sat the glass back down in its place and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.There was a morning newspaper lying on the coffee table and I quickly lunged for it to see if there was any news about a certain runaway daughter who had been found.There was front page news about the car launch party. I quickly skimmed through the article which mainly described the features of the car and what Mr. Jenson had said. Then it mentioned the celebrities and socialites who made an appearance at the party. Nowhere was it mentioned about Mr. Jenson's daughter. There were pictures of the guests on the second page with one of th
"You both want to show each other that you're the best. You both want a face off with each other. So that you both would be satisfied. These stupid pranks would get you nowhere," Tristan said."What's your point?""My point is that you two should meet me out near the pool exactly after one hour. I'll need Olivia's help in this though," he said happily.I shrugged. "Whatever you have in mind is not going to work. We'll still be at each other's throats after this.""Trust me. After this you both would be in each other's arms."I rolled my eyes. "Right.""Okay, not exactly in each other's arms but you two might actually be friends.""Okay, that's bullshit.""Just wait and watch."Tristan disappeared off into the mansion, probably to Olivia's room. I doubted she would even want to see his stupid face but I was shocked out of my mind when the two came out of the library together, sporting mischievous smiles.The two th
"One. Two. Three. Go!" Olivia said enthusiastically as she watched us jump into the pool. I resurfaced quickly before taking a long breath and going under water. Ethan was already there and searching for his key. I looked around on the pool floor but couldn't find anything. The tiles were blue and the pool was big. It could be anywhere.I couldn't hold my breath any longer so I resurfaced out of the water. Olivia and Tristan were standing on the edge of the pool. Olivia was cheering for me and Tristan was supporting Ethan."Go, Juliet! You can do this." Olivia yelled as she bit down on her nails. Taking a huge breath, I dove inside the water until I reached the floor and started searching for the key again. My hands tapped around to feel for a key but I couldn't find it anywhere.I couldn't hold my breath underwater for too long. I had last swam about four years ago for a competition which I lost in the end. So I was out of practice and couldn't hold my breath f
I ran after him, hoping I would catch up with him. I almost lost him but I forced my legs to run faster until they were aching.He must have sensed me behind him because he turned his head for a split second and grinned at me. He chuckled and that drove me mad. I knew what he was thinking. He was probably thinking that I wouldn't be able to catch him and he could win this easily. I would love to see his face when I would prove him wrong.He was fast and I was struggling to keep up. He stopped for a mere second and took a sharp turn to the left even though his room was on the right. He probably expected me to follow him but I didn't feel like that was what I should do.I walked down the hallway and stopped in front of Ethan's room. He arrived after a few minutes with an annoyed look on his face."I thought you were going to follow me."I smirked. "Not everyone is stupid like you. What did you have in mind?"He shrugged. "Just thought I could
♡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