Início / The Twin Missing From the Family Photo / Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 10

Todos os capítulos de The Twin Missing From the Family Photo: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 10

10 Capítulos

Chapter 1

After Ethan deleted the photo, he handed Emma’s phone back to her.“Go through the rest and delete any you don’t want.”Before Emma could open the album, an email notification appeared across the screen.Thank you for your interest. After careful consideration...She had not gotten the job.Emma’s eyes filled instantly.“Maybe I’m just not good enough,” she whispered. “I’ve applied everywhere, and nobody wants me.”Mom pulled her into her arms.“That’s not true. You did everything right. The job market is terrible right now.”Then she glanced at me.“Natalie chose such a specialized degree that we expected her job search to be difficult. But you? You have the personality companies are looking for. That recruiter clearly didn’t know what he was doing.”I stood a few feet away, still wearing my graduation gown.I had said nothing.Yet somehow, I had once again become the example they used to make Emma feel better.For years, I had wondered whether Emma was their biological daughter, and

Chapter 2

The next morning, Mom took all of us to the mall.“Emma is about to start at a major company,” she said. “She needs a professional wardrobe.”Dad’s friend had only arranged an interview at Westbridge, but my family was already treating the job as hers.Emma tried on a navy suit that cost three hundred dollars, a six-hundred-dollar leather tote, and a pair of heels for a hundred and eighty.Every time she checked a price tag, Mom waved her off.“Don’t worry about that. You need to look polished in a corporate office.”Dad paid without hesitation.Ryan carried her shopping bags and asked if she needed a new perfume.Ethan crouched in front of Emma and pressed his thumb against the back of one heel.“This leather is stiff,” he said. “Try another pair. You don’t want blisters on your first day.”I stood a few feet away, watching my boyfriend fuss over her.That tenderness had once belonged to me.During our freshman year, I had worn a pair of cheap heels on a date because I wanted to look

Chapter 3

When we got home, Mom stopped me before I could enter my bedroom.“Start packing your things tonight. The contractor is coming tomorrow.”I looked at her. “What contractor?”“We’re knocking through the wall between your room and Emma’s. She needs a walk-in closet for all her new work clothes.”For a moment, I thought she was joking.Emma already had the largest bedroom in the house. Mine was barely big enough for a bed and a desk.“Where am I supposed to sleep?”Mom pointed toward the storage room beside the laundry area.“We’ll clear it out and put a twin bed in there. It’s only temporary.”I opened the door.Old furniture and cardboard boxes filled most of the room. A tall cabinet blocked half the window, and dark stains spread across one corner of the ceiling.“Your father and I are thinking about buying a bigger house next year. When we move, you can choose your bedroom first. You can decorate it however you want.”Next year. The words sounded painfully familiar.When Emma broke th

Chapter 4

I crouched and gathered the shattered pieces of the cameo.A jagged edge sliced my fingertip. Blood seeped into the delicate carving.You give up too much just to keep the peace,” she had told me. “When I’m gone, don’t let people take everything from you. Keep something for yourself.”After Grandma died, there was no one left who saw me the way she had.To everyone else, I was the daughter who could take care of herself.The one who never got hurt, never felt lonely, and never needed to be chosen first.The moment the pendant shattered, I knew.The only love in this house that had ever belonged entirely to me had been taken without permission and broken at my feet.“Natalie, I swear I didn’t mean to,” Emma sobbed.Mom immediately pulled her into her arms.“Don’t cry. It wasn’t your fault.”Then Mom turned on me.“Why did you have to come at her like that? Of course she panicked.”“I didn’t. I was still two steps away when she let go.”Ryan had followed Emma inside. He glanced at the br

Chapter 5

For the entire month after I left, no one tried to find me.I later learned what Mom told our relatives whenever they asked about me.“Natalie’s being dramatic. We asked her to switch rooms, and she ran off to scare us. She’ll come home when she gets tired of it.”Dad didn’t take my absence seriously either.“She doesn’t have a job. Let her struggle on her own for a while. She’ll come back when she realizes how hard the real world is.”Ryan said I had always been like this.“Just ignore her. She’ll come back and apologize once she realizes no one’s chasing her.”Even Ethan said I had changed.I used to be mature and understanding, he told them. Now I had upset everyone over an old necklace.Not one of them asked where I had gone.They were certain I would eventually come home, apologize to Emma, and take my place in the storage room.A month after I left, Emma started her first day at Westbridge Technologies.Mom, Dad, Ryan, and Ethan all went with her.In the lobby, Mom straightened t

Chapter 6

Dad’s fingers trembled as he took Mark’s phone.The official project directory listed my photograph, university, and field of study.There was no mistake.It was me.The truth hit them all like a slap.Mom leaned over to look, and the color drained from her face.“That’s impossible.”The words slipped out before she could stop them.“How did Natalie land a job at Cascadia? I thought she hadn’t found anything.”Mark’s expression changed.“She did find a job. You just never bothered to ask her, did you?”The question left them speechless.Minutes earlier, they had stood in the Westbridge lobby praising Emma for landing such a respectable first job while dismissing their other daughter as a failure.Now the daughter they believed should be grateful for any job at all was one of Westbridge’s key contacts at Cascadia.Dad pulled out his phone first.He called me. The call went straight to voicemail.Then he sent a text. It never showed delivered.Mom immediately tried calling me.“Natalie,

Chapter 7

After leaving Westbridge, they didn’t go home right away.Ethan stood outside the building and calling my number again and again.Every call went straight to voicemail.Mom stood nearby, her hands trembling as she typed one message after another.Natalie, I just found out about Cascadia.Why didn’t you tell us about it?Call me back. This has gone far enough.None of the messages showed Delivered.Finally, her tone changed.Where are you, Natalie?I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things. Please call me. You’re scaring me.The message still didn’t go through.Desperate to find out where I was, Dad called my university’s career services office.The woman who answered refused to give him any information.Dad called my academic advisor next.His response was cold.“Natalie completed the hiring process and started at Cascadia a month ago.”He paused.“You’re her parents, and you’re only finding out now?”Dad had no answer.Ryan contacted everyone he knew, but none of them knew my exac

Chapter 8

The project review meeting was two days away.Ethan took the earliest flight to Seattle.By the time he reached my apartment building, it was already dark.The cold wind cut across his face as he stood beneath the streetlight outside Cascadia’s employee housing.For the first time, he understood what nearly three thousand miles really meant.He had always believed I could never leave him.That whenever he finally turned around, I would still be waiting exactly where he had left me.This time, I hadn’t waited.Now he had crossed the country just to see me.I spotted him when I came home from work. He looked thinner than I remembered.The moment he saw me, his eyes reddened.“Natalie.”The first thing he said was, “I’m sorry.”I stopped but said nothing.As if afraid I would walk away, he began speaking quickly.“I shouldn’t have deleted that photo at graduation.”He swallowed.“And when you called me because you needed to go to the ER, I should have come. I shouldn’t have stayed with Em

Chapter 9

The next morning, Mom, Dad, and Ryan caught the first flight to Seattle.Mom had been airsick most of the way. By the time they reached Cascadia, her face was pale and drawn.But the first thing she asked Ethan was, “Did you see Natalie? Will she help Emma?”Ethan’s silence told her everything.Still, Mom clung to one last shred of hope.“We came all this way. Surely she’ll at least talk to us.”They tried to enter the building, but Cascadia was a secure research facility. Security stopped them and asked for the name of the employee they were visiting.“We’re Natalie Bennett’s family,” Dad said.The security officer checked the visitor system, then looked up.“Ms. Bennett hasn’t authorized any visitors.”Dad blinked.“I’m her father. I need permission to see my own daughter?”“This is a restricted facility, sir. No one gets inside without prior authorization.”They all fell silent.Before, whenever they wanted to see me, they only had to call. I would drop everything and come to them.

Chapter 10

On the morning of the review, I woke before my alarm.Dawn broke clear over Seattle, washing the sky outside my window in pale blue.I clipped on my badge and went through the evaluation report one last time.At exactly nine, I joined the video conference.The screens came to life one by one.Westbridge’s conference room was packed. The aerospace program director sat at the head of the table, his expression tense. Mark sat off to one side.Emma wore the navy suit Mom had chosen for her, but her eyes were swollen and red.The rest of the project team sat beside her.In the back of the room were Mom, Dad, Ryan, and Ethan.Mark must have pulled strings to let them observe.I glanced at them once, then looked away.“Good morning, everyone.”“I’m Natalie Bennett, lead reviewer for the preliminary evaluation of the joint aerospace materials project.”The room on the other side of the screen went silent.Dad’s face stiffened.He had spent years telling me I would never amount to much.Now the

ESCANEIE O CÓDIGO PARA LER NO APP

DMCA.com Protection Status