Chapter 6: A Favor

“Are you eating well? I think you’re skinnier than the last time you visited.” A frail woman asked as she is brushing her daughter’s long raven hair. She is apologetic how her daughter is overworking for her sake. She had done everything she could to help and every form of help she offers to her daughter was turned down. She is used to the stubbornness of her daughter and she never won against her, not even once.

“I’m not starving myself, there’s that.” Alicia replied to her mother. Elise, the mother, is not the nagging type because she knows that Alicia is capable of knowing what is right from wrong thus the silence that follows is actually her waiting for her daughter to tell her reasons or excuses which she predicts that it will end with a sincere apology. “I will try to watch for my diet, I promise you that.” Elise just nodded at her daughter with a hum. Alicia was fidgeting her fingers since she arrived. She brought an enveloped with her, she placed it on the table when she came in but she keeps glancing on it back and forth for a while. Elise is just waiting for her daughter speak her intentions all this time.

“Actually, mom, there’s something that I need to tell you. Sooo… Last month, I met this girl that looks a lot like me and she was really curious to know if we were related so she paid me to agree to do a DNA test and just this morning, I received the results. I haven’t checked it because I want to let you know that no matter what the result is, your opinion about all of this is what matters to me the most.” Alicia said as she hands over the envelope to her mother. Elise decided to leave the questions for later, she opened the envelope and read it.

“The probability of paternity is 99.9999998%” Elise read a line from the DNA test result. “Looks like you found your father, Alicia. This is actually very unexpected. Because you’ve never shown interest about his identity, I just never assumed that a moment like this would ever happen.” She said with a monotone voice, she was too shocked to react.

“The girl… well… my half sister promised to compensate me greatly. She invited me to have dinner with her tonight, I predict that she will ask me what I will do next with this information.”

”What do you want to do with this information, Alicia?” Elise asked with the same monotone voice. Alicia’s eyes widened, her heart started racing because deep down, she honestly do not know what she will do.

“Mom, tell me your opinion.”

“I’ve never told you anything about your father and it is not because I have strong conflicted feelings towards him but because I am waiting for you to ask questions. It might not be the most logical thing to do and I do sometimes contemplate if I should have tell you about him even though you’ve already expressed your disinterest towards him. But now that something like this happened, I will still want you to make the decision on your own.”

“If I can’t really let you decide for myself then can I at least know something about my father before I meet him?”

“Your father… He is not a good person.” Alicia frowned at Elise’s response and she just patted her head before speaking again. “I will tell you more after you meet him. I don’t want to entirely cloud your judgment. Don’t worry, he is not bad enough to commit a felony after a single meeting.”

“That sounds so worrying, mom. Are you sure that I should meet him?”

“I think you should meet him at least once then I will tell you about our history. Depending on your opinion about him, I will tell you every detail or I will just give you the summary of it.”

Time passed and the rays of the sunset shone through the window, tinting that hospital room with orange. Alicia pulled out her phone to check the time and a text message notification from Bianca. She agreed to the invitation for dinner earlier and Bianca immediately sent her the location of a fancy restaurant. The notification this time is Bianca reminding her of the approaching time. Alicia just sent a thumbs up emoji before kissing her mother on the cheek to say goodbye.

After Alicia agreed to give samples for the DNA test, Bianca paid twenty times what Alicia makes in a year upfront. This made her busy in paying bills, including the debts she had to be to pay for her mother’s hospital bills and medications. Bianca told her that she will pay Alicia compensation for trouble if the test came back negative, if it did came back negative, Alicia was planning to use the money to buy a small house for two but because the test turned out to be positive, maybe she could demand a lot more for a bigger house.

As Alicia was traveling via a taxi to the restaurant, she day dreamed about houses she wants to buy. A decent house in a peaceful neighborhood but not too far from the city would be perfect. She could perhaps adopt a cat to accompany her mother in the house while she goes to work and speaking of work, she will try her best to find a well paying job but she do not expect that it is going be easy cause she is only a high school graduate. She will try to ask Bianca through this dinner if she can help her find one.

Entering the restaurant, a receptionist greeted Alicia, seemingly expecting her to arrive. A waiter lead her to a table in a quiet corner where Bianca is waiting, as she was walking towards the table, she noticed how much more fancy the costumers wear, especially Bianca, now Alicia feels under-dressed to the occasion. When Bianca finally noticed her arrival, it was her outfit that caught Bianca’s attention.

“You should have told me you don’t have a dress to wear, I could have sent you some.” Bianca whispered to her while shaking her hand as a greeting before they sat.

“I just came from visiting my mother in the hospital, I forgot to go home and change clothes. Sorry.” A white sleeves and black slacks, she can easily blend with the waiters in the restaurant. It feels wrong to sit down with Bianca. Thankfully, the surrounding tables are cleared and there are no costumers near that could hear their conversation.

“No worries, I am at fault too cause I invited you so abruptly. Next time I will take you shopping before dinner.” Bianca said with a sweet smile plastered on her face.

“Next time? I thought this dinner will have us talking about my compensation.”

“That is still true but before your compensation, I would like to ask you for a favor.”

“A favor?” Alicia question and Bianca commanded an attendant and he handed her a folder which Bianca gave Alicia. Inside, it contains a contract which offers Alicia to get paid 200,000 per month outside of the compensation that Bianca promised which Alicia can demand whatever she wishes. “What is this for?”

“You can decline my favor and you will still get your compensation but if you accept, all I ask for you is to pretend to be me in parties and other public occasions that requires my presence. I will not ask you to attend every single party, just a few selected ones. All you got to do is sit still and wait for a few hours and you can go home. Seems simple enough I believe?” Bianca’s sweet smile never left her face.

“What’s the catch?” Alicia’s skeptical attitude kicks in.

“The DNA result, father already knows about it. There will be a family dinner next month and he requested to invite you and I know that he has the intention of introducing you to the family. You see, my father is not a good person.” That was the second time Alicia heard of this sentence today and she shifted her seating position to give Bianca all of her attention. “A daughter is really profitable for him and if he introduces you to the family, he will marry you off to some rich family. If you become my double, it will force you to hide your existence from the public thus, this can disable father from introducing you as his daughter.”

“Are you saying that you are doing this for my sake?”

“Well, that but also because I need a double. To be honest, I really am hoping for the test to come out as negative, that way, father would have not to be involve so I am really sorry. I was ecstatic when I found a look a like but I did not really anticipate for them to be my flesh and blood.”

“So why asked for a DNA test in the first place?”

“I was being cautious, there was a possibility and if I did use you without asking for a test, it would still happen later on. I thought it was best to let the information be known now rather than later.”

“So why do you need a double?”

“I just need time to be away from anyone’s eye.”

“Why is that?”

“Could that be a story for another time?” Bianca held both of her hands together to plea and Alicia nodded with a sigh.

“I will let this slide but I will milk your bank account dry for my compensation and will it be possible for 500,000 per month?”

“Thank you so much.”