Hell of a plan

ERICA:

I had expected a lot of things after running away: endless calls from home, news about my missing, maybe even a scandal. But it’s been almost two days of silence. Nothing about me has been publicised. And out of all the scenarios I imagined, sitting beside my doppelganger and waiting for a result that could declare us siblings? That wasn’t on the list.

If I’m being honest, I already believe Eric is my brother. It’s not just the eerie resemblance. For what it’s, I have never seen a boy-girl twin pair look this identical, proving that Eric may be a version of me from another planet. My belief is rooted in how I’ve always been treated in my so-called family.

A near-mute mother, God rest her soul, an uncaring father, and a stepmother with her perfect son. None of them ever cared. Maybe I really was adopted.

It makes sense now! No real father, no matter how power-thirsty he is, would willingly ruin his daughter’s life for riches. My father? He’s happy to hand me over to Leonard without flinching.

To my family, I am a pawn, nothing more.

But if I were adopted into the Gerux family, and Manuel Gerux isn’t my biological father, that makes Eric’s mother my real mother. Who then is my real father?

“Erica Gerux?”

The nurse’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I looked up.

“This way, please,” she said, pointing to the right.

Eric before I could move.

Together, we walked into the doctor’s office. The doctor handed over the envelope. Eric and I leaned in together, both holding our breath as we read the result.

We turned to each other, faces reflecting the same mix of disbelief and relief.

Disbelief, because...how on earth are we twins?

Relief, because we are twins…and not just the victims of some cosmic joke.

“What now?” I asked as we stepped out to find Lucas.

“Now,” Eric said, “you tell me everything. Especially why you were wearing a wedding dress.”

For a moment, I had completely forgotten about Leonard. And for the fact he hasn’t called or texted, not even to ask how I handled his bailing out on our wedding at the last minute, speaks volumes.

Leonard is rich. Handsome. Successful. But his attitude is hideous. He treats people like dirt and acts like the world owes him worship.

Marrying Leonard would’ve been my doom. My stepmother knows that, which is exactly why she convinced my father to force it.

Well, Leonard is now the least of my problems.

After this discovery of having a twin brother, my crushed world feels less hopeless. I don’t know why, but seeing myself in Eric has calmed me in a strange way. Like I’ve known him longer than a single day.

I told Eric everything…about my father, Manuel Gerux. Juana, the mistress turned stepmother. About Pedro, the fake prince who parades as my loving brother. And of course, about my billionaire fiancé, Leonard Hays, who suffocates me with his arrogance.

“You ran away from your wedding?” Eric asked, stunned. We were sitting in Lucas’s living room now.

“To Leonard Hays?” he added, as if the name itself was sacred.

Everyone knows Leonard Hays. But they only know the media-made version, the charming, successful prodigy. Telling Eric and Lucas that Leonard isn’t all that the media portrays was like telling kids Santa was a fraud.

Eric told me about his mom, Catherine Beltz. A widowed retired nurse. Her husband died two years ago.

Stories about Catherine Beltz are quite commendable. She seems like a good person. And the possibility of being my biological mother makes me excited to meet her. However, Eric and I have decided to dig to the root of our existence without involving anyone else except Lucas.

Eric, who’s currently jobless and technically homeless, was extremely elated that there is something worthy to do with his life now. To him, getting to the bottom of our identities is the misery that has made him unwhole all these years.

“I always knew something was missing,” he said, with a smile. “Every dâmn puzzle piece is finally clicking into place.”

His excitement, however, dimmed when Lucas reminded us we had only a few days left until the new wedding date.

“That is a hell of a time,” Eric agreed. “To discover a truth hidden for twenty-three years in five days? That’s pressure.”

“That’s not just pressure,” Lucas said. “That’s Professor’s level pressure. We need a smarter plan.”

Lucas is sharp, way more calculating than Eric. It’s easy to see why they’ve remained friends for so long. Eric is chaos. Lucas is control. Together, they’re balanced.

“What is the plan?” Eric asked.

They both turned to me.

I didn’t have one. But I knew two things: I’d play a crucial role in whatever plan we made. Secondly, I had to return home and play the role of Leonard’s perfect fiancée, at least for a while. Because, as Lucas pointed out, the answers lie within my father’s mansion. Not Eric's mother's crib. The rich always have secrets, and my father… he looks like a man with the darkest of them.

The Gerux mansion is where it all started, and where it needs to end. I won’t access anything if I continue my escape trip. I have to go back home.

But I hate the idea of still being Leonard’s bride. I can face my father, Juana, and Pedro, but Leonard?

“Then don’t go back to him,” Lucas said. “Just focus on getting any document that proves your adoption. Anything.”

My adoption. You heard right. Eric and Lucas both believe I am the adopted one.

Honestly? I believe so, too.

Still isn’t it biased to assume Eric isn’t the one adopted?

“I should return to him,” I said. “Remaining Leonard’s fiancée will help us."

Otherwise, this plan won’t move. Not only that, Leonard won’t let me be. He will lock me up if he has to. To be in charge.

"And the unfunny part?" I added. "I’ve moved in with him."

“Oh…” Lucas exhaled sharply.

And just when it seemed like our plan had hit a wall, an idea flashed into my head.

I turned to Eric, grinning.

“What?” he asked, holding his chest like I’d just flirted with him.

“No way,” Lucas said, catching on instantly.

“Yes way,” I chirped, my excitement growing.

“What?!” The impatient Eric yelled this time.

I gripped his arm. “How about playing Leonard’s fiancée?”

“Ha. Ha.” He scoffed, unclamping my hand.

“I keep searching for documents. You go live with Leonard and keep him distracted.”

“You are not serious.”

“I am dead serious.”

Eric looked from me to Lucas, then back at me…his face a blend of panic, disbelief, and dawning horror. “You want me to wear heels for how long, pretending to be you? In the home of the insufferable man you ran away from?” Eric’s sweat increased. “Does this plan involve blood sacrifice? Because I don’t know why you both want to make me the lamb!”

“You have always been wearing heels,” Lucas reminded him.

I smiled sweetly. “It won’t be for long, Eric. Just long enough to make Leonard too confused to notice what we’re up to.”

Eric’s eyes widened, then narrowed as if a hundred bad ideas just marched through his brain. Before he could protest again, my phone buzzed on the table.

I picked it up.

Then froze.

“What is it?” Lucas asked.

My face drained of colour. “Leonard. He’s outside.”