"A-A t-twin?" My head was becoming very heavy. "How can you guys not tell me that I have a twin? HAD a twin?"
I want to sympathize with them and not blow up in their face, so I'll hear them out. After all they lost a son who they CAN remember.
I took a deep breath. "Can you please tell me what happened? I promise I won't judge or even interrupt before you're through." I said, sitting on the floor in front of them.
"Before we even finished college, your dad and I were engaged. Our parents didn't have a problem with it, in fact, they made this huge, lavish engagement party, inviting almost every business mogul in the state. Everyone knew that sooner or later our companies would be merged and that we would be the heirs of these companies.
As soon as we graduated, we were married in the most highly publicized wedding. Honestly it was annoying to have journalists at your wedding, but it's not like we had a say in it. Anyways, we started working at our parents' companies right after that, and we sort of became the official spokespeople for the companies; people recognized who were were." My mom stopped, her eyes shut in contemplation.
"It's ok sweetheart, I'll continue." Said my dad, stroking her hair lovingly.
"3 years in to our marriage, your mom suffered 2 miscarriages that left her devastated and depressed for a whole year. Finally, we were told that we would be having twins, and we thought that fate is finally giving us the 2 jewels that were cruelly taken from us. Just like almost every aspect of our lives, the birth was also highly publicized. They even found out the names, just HOW in the world do you get that? Your names were Alexis Raven Pierce and Francis Daniel Pierce. Francis was 10 minutes older than you were. We never put you in the spotlight, but somehow your pictures always made headlines to the point where everyone knew who you were.
By the time you were 1, my electronics company had this minor setback. One of the highly bought video consoles had a glitch that literally made it catch fire. We recalled all the products, but of course some people still had it. We later found out that the glitch was that the console poorly reacts to some things I can't quite remember now. One of the people who didn't really care about the recall was a man called Alexander Boyce. He said that his son died due to the console catching fire and setting the whole house on fire. Luckily, the parents weren't home and his siblings were in school. He blamed the company for his house being burned down, but most of all he blamed me for killing his son; who was only 12 at the time. He called for a lawsuit against our company but didn't win because we did indeed recall all affected products.
He held a grudge for such a long time. Then, one night there was a break in to our house, but we weren't home. The next time, our car breaks didn't work. After that there was an assassination attempt. We knew it was him but the police didn't have any physical evidence tying him to the crimes. That was when we decided to move a country away, but still close to the U.S. which is why we went to Canada.
We thought that that was the end of Alexander Boyce, but what we didn't realize is that it was just the beginning. We lived in Toronto without anyone finding out who we really were. No one, except our parents, knew the location. And your uncle."
"The same uncle you said died in a car accident??" I said, remembering what they told me ages ago.
"The same uncle. He just didn't die in a car accident. We found that out a month ago when you were hospitalized."
"What? How do you mean?" I asked, feeling my heart skip a beat.
"We'll get to that. We realized that pictures of you and your brother were being leaked to the press. Intimate family photos that were taken inside our house, with our knowledge. We asked the maids and butler and driver but they all denied ever taking them. That's when we realized that your uncle is the only one who might've taken them. When we confronted him, he said he needed the money. I lent him some but of course he blew the whole thing over ridiculous things; that's the main reason your grandpa didn't include him as heir to the company.
When he learned that he won't be inheriting his father's company; he lost it and vowed to take away something from us like we did him. Although it wasn't really our fault, he wouldn't listen to us. One day, your mother and I went out for a company party, and when we came back, your nanny was lying unconscious on the floor, you were sleeping, but Francis was nowhere to be found. We searched everywhere for him that night. One night turned into a week, which turned into a month, which then turned into a year. There was absolutely no sign of him anywhere. We couldn't blame your uncle because he was with us that night.
A year after the disappearance, and a year after we involved the FBI, we got a letter in the mail with no return address. It said "I hope that now you know what it feels like to lose a son.'" My dad stopped, trying to recollect his thoughts.
He took a deep breath, ran his hand through his hair and finally continued.
"Everyone knew that it was Alexander Boyce, but no one knew how to reach him. He sold his house and his cars and disappeared from the face of the earth; with our son. No one knew how to get to him, not even the PI we hired. So we lost hope, until one day we heard your uncle Denis talking to him on the phone. HE was the one who sold us out and he was the one who told that man where we were. He knew where your brother was at that time and didn't even bother telling anyone of us. We confronted him, but like the coward he was, he disappeared. We never heard anything from him. Alexander Boyce died in a hit and run, but what he did to Francis, we'll never know. We only heard that he was seen with an infant around Detroit, Michigan.
As for your uncle, he was still in hiding. That is until we got a phone call from the police 4 years ago telling us that he died in a car accident, along with another unidentified man. Although his body was burnt beyond recognition, he had his IDs with him intact. That's when we decided that since the man with a grudge died, we were free to come back home."
That was a lot to process. A lot to think about. That 'a lot' had a lot of questions that needed answering.
"You said that you thought he died in a car crash. What do you mean?"
"Our PI reached out to us, saying that he saw a guy with the EXACT description as Denis visiting his parents' grave. Following him, he recognized the places he visited as our last whereabouts before we traveled. He was looking for us."
"So the person who's been trying to kill me, is my own uncle?!" I asked, not realizing that they don't know anything about that.
"No one's trying to kill you sweetheart. All that happened was that you fell down the stairs." Said my dad, clearly thinking that I'm paranoid.
So, I decided to tell them about everything; the spider, the incident with Jaycee's car, and the killing of my teacher.
My dad was shocked and my mom started crying, tears filling her eyes.
"That sounds like something my sick brother would do." She said, her eyes becoming red and puffy. "He has a dual degree in Chemical and Mechanical engineering, plus a minor in computer science. So hacking would definitely be something he does; but killing someone? An innocent teacher?? And his own niece?! I don't think he's capable of such an act."
This conversation made me admire my parents even more. They went through a lot yet they still held it all together for me. I wasn't mad at them. Hurt, yes, but definitely not mad. If anything, I love them more.
"Um do you guys have a picture of him?" I asked.
"Of course we do." My mom got up, went to their safe and got me 3 mini albums.
Looking through them, I felt my tears burning paths on my face. I'm looking at my flesh and blood. My brother. My twin. I didn't know how to react, but I wanted to finish the album. Flipping to the final page, there was a picture of me and Francis, and mom wearing a beautiful necklace.
Wait.
Not just any necklace.
It was a sparkly star necklace with a tear like ornament in the middle.
AN: Sooooo whataya guys think of the story so far??! If you do love it, don't forget to vote and comment❤️
Til next time.
#FrenchFriesAndPopsicleSkies