Annie

Jas POV

She looks down at the statue cuddled against her chest then up at me. "Annie." I just keep looking at her. This is something she has to tell me about. I can sense that she needs to get this off her chest. "She was my twin sister." She looks between us with a small grin on her face. "Yeah, we were identical twins too." She looks back at the angel in her hands and continues, "I can't help but believe that this is where everything took a turn for the worst. Annie was my best friend. She was my everything."

Jordan grunts as he puts a hand on my shoulder. "I know the feeling."

Jenny nods and starts to pace around the room. "We were only six when it happened." I don't ask her what happened I just listen. "I was walking in the park with her, just the two of us with momma sitting on the bench ignoring us as she always did." She takes in an unamused breath. "Yeah, that was our whole life. We were ignored and left to the side." She tilts her head, saying, "Anyway, we made it to the end of the trail at the park and I got into my runners stance and dared her to race me back. She smiled and said, 'Game on.' I started to run and never looked back. The trail was a full six minutes of running. When I reached the end and did my celabratory dance, she was nowhere to be seen."

I look at her confused. "Didn't they look for her?"

She sighs. "No, they didn't. I ran right to my mom, who was painting her nails completely unaware of even having kids. When I shouted at here that Annie was gone she just shrugged and took my hand. She walked away like she never even existed." She looks at us determination filling her sails. "You know what? Now that I have you two here I need to ask my parents about all this."

I smile, loving the way she is toughening up with each word. "We are right behind you."

When we get to the bottom of the stairs, the old man still has blood dripping down his face. Maybe he is on blood thinners. Too bad, so sad. I watch as Jenny goes up to her mother holding the tiny angel.

"Mom, what happened to Annie?"

Her mom just looks at the statue then shurgs. "I have no idea what you mean..."

Her dad on the other hand tenses up. "Vega, you slut you, just leave the room."

Ever the dutiful wife, she gets up and leaves the room. Jenny looks at her dad and pushes the angel towards him. "What the fuck happened to my sister Annie?"

He takes a deep breath and leads us to the couch. "You are gonna have to sit down for this." He looks at us all expentantly as he takes a seat on the recliner. We sit down one of us on either side of Jenny, just in case. "So, the thing is... I really don't know what happened to your sister. Your mom came home with just you one day and acted like nothing was missing."

Jenny interrupts him, "And so the fuck did you, dad."

He nods, looking like it was a phisical blow. "Yeah, I did. Your mom seemed to have forgetten that Annie even existed. I didn't, but I couldn't send out a search party for her."

I look at him, not sure what to think of his last statement. "What do you mean you 'couldn't'?"

He takes a breath in through his teeth and looks at Jenny. "You aren't our kids."

I can tell that Jenny is taken aback by this. "Wait... What do you mean she's not your kid?"

He back tracks a bit, saying, "Well, as far as I know they aren't our kids. Vega left me for a good six to nine months. She came back with these two girls, identical, claiming that they were mine. I never believed her, but I wanted kids so bad. By the time I realized she may just have been lying, it was too late to take it all back." He looks down at his hands as his nose finally starts to stop bleeding. "I couldn't have lost you too."

Jenny looks at him, anger rolling from her eyes. "So, mom's dipshit attitued isn't just an act? Is she really that dumb? Did she really just steal identical twins from someone?"

He shrugs. "I honestly have no idea. All that I know is that you are not my child, not genetically, and not Vega's either."