I went back and buried myself under the covers for the third time and fell asleep well until nine in the morning. Everyone had had their breakfasts by then and when I came down for my own breakfast I was greeted by an excited unison of 'happy birthday's. Again.
Everyone seemed to give me special attention today and I was surrounded by everyone, all of them talking to me at once and telling me about their plans for me. I smiled at everyone and before I knew it, all of my favorites were doled out in front of me. Keith stood quietly in the corner, watching me with an amused smile. I grinned back at him.
I could sense he wanted to say something to me, probably wish me on my birthday but he held himself back for some reason.
After I was finished with breakfast, I walked into the kitchen to talk to Keith. When he looked up and saw me there, he about jumped down from the counter he was sitting on and rushed to me. But before he could say anything to me, he was cut off
I must have gone deep and it took me a long time to resurface. I gasped for air."That was so fun!" Amelia screeched in the distance."Yeah, I missed this last year," Heather added, both of them swimming towards me.I didn't even know when the girls jumped. They must have immediately jumped after me.Strangely, I felt really good. I think it was the thrill and adrenaline and I wanted to do it again but I wouldn't because at the sight of the water, I was sure I'd chicken out again."You guys shouldn't have pushed me. I was going to jump in," I said."It was Heather, not me," Amelia said."You were taking too long and I didn't have all the time in the world.""Took you long enough. I though you weren't going to jump in anytime today," Ethan said, swimming closely."Whatever. Can we go now?""What's the hurry, birthday girl. Can't squeeze in some time for a little water fight?"Just as Ethan said that, my face
I could describe Juliet's birthday party as overwhelming and extra. A lot extra.The dinner was hosted at a five star hotel,SereneSerenade'sballroom. The whole place was decorated from top to bottom. It looked like a palace.If this was Charlotte's 'simple' dinner party, then I never wanted to see what her extravagant ones were like.Getting into the ballroom had posed a great challenge. When our cars arrived at the hotel, the entrance was crowded with the paparazzi. They were going crazy over what the celebration was about. I knew they had a slight inkling about it. Today was Juliet's birthday. The Jenson's are hosting a secret dinner party. What could be the reason?It was too obvious. Only a fool would not be able to guess that this was their daughter's birthday party.With that, rumors would spread. The paparazzi would speculate and try to find more information. Not everything would be in our control. Somehow
I didn't know what to say. I kind of expected that but I didn't know how to respond. But I didn't need to because Heather continued."My biological parents are dead. I don't even remember them.""I'm sorry.""You need not be. So Justin and Patricia took me in as their own. Patricia doesn't like me much. I knew that from the start. So don't mind her when she behaves rudely with you. She hates both mine and Juliet's guts.""Yes, according to her Juliet and Heather are very vulgar girls. And since I hung out with them, she started to see me as a vulgar girl too. She used to like me at first," Amelia added."Don't they have any children of their own?" I asked. We were stood in a quiet corner and currently no one was coming over to meet us."No, Patricia can't have children so they chose to adopt." Amelia answered."Justin and Patricia are so...different. I don't know them for long but Justin seems very pleasant to be around. Patricia, not
We both froze in our places when we heard the clear click-clack of heels against the marble floor.I held my breath in anticipation."Juliet, there's someone here to meet you!" Amelia's enthusiastic voice made my heart clench in fear.We didn't turn around and Amelia called for me again and grabbed my arm to turn me around.As soon as I turned around, I was met with the nightmare next to Amelia.She was smiling at me. Anytime now she would recognize me and then spill my secret in this room full of hundred people, and more were pouring in.She stepped forward and I thought she was going to hit me but instead, she hugged me. To say I was shocked would be an understatement.When she pulled back, she was grinning at me. "Happy birthday, Juliet.""Ashley," I breathed out."Glad to you know you still remember me." She giggled."What're you doing here?"She blinked at me, clearly looking confused. "What do you mea
The cake cutting happened soon enough and again I was embarrassed as the people sang the birthday song like I was a freaking kid.After that, we had a scrumptious dinner with the guests. I was really happy the way the day had gone. I thought my real birthday would not be celebrated at all but it was such a coincidence that Juliet and I shared the same birth date.It was well until midnight when we finally reached home. I was extremely tired, my cheeks hurt from all the smiling that I had been doing all evening, my feet ached because of dancing for the majority of the evening in heels. At least the dress fit me perfectly, it was so comfortable. Ethan chose the right size for me. I didn't get a chance to thank him for all the gifts or even talk to him for a proper five minutes for that matter. I decided to thank him tomorrow when I'd be feeling less like death."Juliet," a quiet voice in the empty mansion scared me out of my wits. I turned towards the source and s
Rachael's show was in a few days. Needless to say, she was a bundle of nerves. I couldn't imagine a beautiful, confident woman like her who carried herself with grace and elegance be this nervous for her first show. I knew that she was brilliant in her art and I knew everyone would love it but no matter how much I tried to convince her of it, she still considered herself a terrible designer.We were all scheduled to fly to Paris the next day. The Jenson family invited Olivia too and if they wouldn't have, I would've definitely requested them to bring her along. No way was I going to go to Paris with them for an entire week without my best friend.Everyone I knew here was going to be present for the show. Olivia, Mr. and Mrs. Jenson, Antonio and I were going to take Mr. Jenson's private plane to Paris. Rachael insisted she and Rebecca would come with us because she was too nervous for the show to fly alone. Another reason for that she claimed was that I made her feel co
We had to leave at nine so that we could at least reach Paris till seven to make it in time for a late dinner in some swanky restaurant where we had reservations.We reached the private jet a little past ten and settled inside on comfortable seats whereas it took a little time until we took off. Once high up in the air, I couldn't help but marvel at the world down there. Everything look so small yet the world looked so gigantic.I would've never dreamed that I would be sitting in someone's luxurious and spacious private jet with all that I would ever need presented to me on a silver platter. It felt so surreal that I wanted to pinch myself every now and then just to make sure I wasn't in some kind of a dreamland.A few flight attendants were present to tend to our needs and I ordered some juice as I was feeling extremely thirsty. There were books and magazines on the table right in front of me and with Olivia sitting on its other side. I picked up a book randoml
"You guys street shop?" I whisper asked Heather.She turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "We can't?""I just thought it wasn't really your style.""You couldn't be more wrong. We all love to street shop. We just don't do it quite often because we get mobbed a lot. But when we're in other countries, we need not worry because not a lot of people recognize us. It's also because we disguise ourselves.""Wow. I never could have imagined people like you street shopping.""That's what is annoying about people. They just assume that if someone has money then they look down upon poor people, see things that aren't designer as trash and generally are rude. Okay, they aren't totally wrong because all these things basically describe mymother.But still, just because of a few people they shouldn't think that all of them are like that.""Okay." Some things just really get to Heather. I didn't know why she said all of that as i
♡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