Chapter 36
The air in the room didn’t just turn cold; it turned lethal. Amira pulled back from the hug, her smile twisting into something jagged and cruel.
“Half-sisters, Mother,” Amira whispered, the word dripping like venom. “We might share the same face, but you and I both know the truth p>
Madam Pedro froze. The color drained from her cheeks, leaving her looking fragile and aged. Without a word, she grabbed Amira’s arm and hauled her away from the main hall, dragging her into the heavy silence of the mahogany-lined study. She slammed the door shut.
“Amira, what are you talking about?” Madam Pedro gasped, her chest heaving. “How… how could you say such a thing p>
Amira let out a sharp, jagged laugh. She began pacing the room, her fingers trailing over the expensive books she wasn’t supposed to own. “Mother? I don’t even know why I call you that. You aren’t my mother. Isn’t it twisted, Auntie p>
“Amira, stop this p>
“No! I know everything. I wish I didn’t, but I found out the truth when we were fifteen.” Amira spun around, her eyes burning with fifteen years of buried rage. “Our father… he was sleeping with you and your twin sister at the same time. He got you both pregnant in the same month. And as if the heavens wanted to punish us, my real mother didn’t survive the birth. You just happened to have twins of your own, didn’t you? One was yours… and one was the ’mistake’ left behind by your sister p>
Madam Pedro crumbled into a chair, her hands covering her face as the secret she had buried for decades was dragged into the light.
“I have always loved you just the way I love Amara!” Madam Pedro sobbed, her voice trembling with raw desperation. “I never separated you two in my heart. I raised you as my own. I love you both equally p>
The air in the study was suffocating, heavy with the stench of old betrayals. Amira’s eyes were like shards of broken glass, cold and sharp.
“That is the problem, don’t you see it?” Amira hissed, her voice dropping to a terrifying whisper. “Amara is the ’perfect’ one. I’m the ugly one, the shadow. Just like my mother. She saw you had the good man, the happy life, the respect… and she wanted it all. I can’t help but want the same things. It’s in my blood, Auntie p>
Madam Pedro flinched as if she’d been slapped.
“I used to pretend to be Amara just to spend time with Seb,” Amira confessed, a sick, twisted smile spreading across her lips. “He couldn’t even tell the difference. You should have told me the truth. I deserved to know who my real mother was! You may look like her, you may have her face, but you are not
“Amira, darling, please Madam Pedro reached out with a trembling hand, her heart shattering into a million pieces. The lie she had guarded like a sacred treasure had been rotting in her daughter’s heart for years. “Your father loved you. He really did. You don’t have to live like this. You can have your own life, your own things. You don’t have to fight Amara for her crumbs p>
“Too late.” Amira stood up straight, smoothing out the silk dress that belonged to her sister. “I want nothing that isn’t hers. Taking what belongs to Amara is the only thing that gives me satisfaction. The only thing that makes me feel alive p>
She turned toward the door, her hand hovering over the golden knob. She looked back over her shoulder, the resemblance to her dead mother so striking it made Madam Pedro gasp.
“So, Auntie… you will have to deal with me just like you dealt with my mother. And let’s see if your precious Amara is as generous as you were. Let’s see if she’s willing to share her man with me p>
“Amira, please!” Madam Pedro cried out, her voice breaking. “Don’t ruin your life like… like p>
She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t bring herself to utter her twin sister’s name. The name of the woman who had nearly destroyed her life once before.
The silence that followed Amira’s exit was deafening.
Madam Pedro Arabella collapsed against the mahogany desk, her legs finally giving out. The name Amabel hung in the air like a curse, a ghost that had finally stopped haunting the attic and moved into the living room.
“Like Amabel?” Amira had mocked, her eyes glinting with a dangerous intelligence. “Don’t worry, Aunt Arabella. I’m much smarter than she was p>
Arabella’s breath hitched. She watched her daughter, no, her niece or step-daughter, strut toward the door with the same predatory grace Amabel once had.
“She was your twin sister, yet you can’t even say her name,” Amira said, pausing at the threshold. She adjusted the silk strap of Amara’s dress on her shoulder, a chilling smirk playing on her lips. “Apparently, you didn’t forgive her after all. Bye, ’Mother.’ It’s boring here anyway. In this world, there can only be one person with this face p>
With a sharp click of her heels, Amira vanished into the hallway, leaving the mansion behind.
The cemetery was silent, save for the rustle of dry leaves against the headstones. Amara knelt in the grass, the hem of her coat soaking up the damp earth. The name carved into the cold marble stared back at her: Don Pedro Piers.
Her mind drifted back to their childhood, to the way their father used to lift her into the air while Amira watched from the shadows. He had showered Amara with pearls, private tutors, and affection, while Amira received only stiff nods and cold discipline.
Amara had always felt a crushing guilt for being the favorite. She had tried to share everything: her toys, her clothes, her heart. But the one thing she couldn’t share was Seb.
The memory of that final night burned in her mind. She had walked into the garden and found “herself” draped over Seb’s lap, whispering in his ear. But it wasn’t her. It was Amira, wearing Amara’s signature perfume, perfectly mimicking her laugh. When Amara confronted her, the mask had slipped. The argument that followed had been a bloodbath of words, ending with Amira being shipped off to boarding school the very next morning.
She had never come back. Until now.
“Oh, Dad,” Amara whispered, her voice trembling as she touched the cold stone. “I wish I had the strength to deal with her. I don’t know why she keeps doing things to hurt me when I’ve done nothing but love her p>
She closed her eyes, a single tear escaping. “She’s back, Dad. And she’s already weaving her web. I feel like I’m fighting a ghost that has my own face p>
The wind picked up, swirling dead leaves around the two women who shared the exact same face. Amara jumped, her heart hammering against her ribs as she turned to see her reflection, no, her sister standing just a few feet away.
“Hey, sis,” Amira said, her voice smooth and devoid of the grief that weighed Amara down.
“Amira,” Amara breathed, rising to her feet and brushing the dirt from her knees. “I didn’t think… I didn’t know you will come see p>
“Don’t worry, I won’t stay long,” Amira said, stepping closer to the headstone. She looked down at Don Pedro’s name with a cold, unreadable expression. “I came to say hello and goodbye to him. I didn’t know I’d find you here. After all these years, you still come to him to complain about me p>
“I never complained about you, and you know it,” Amara said, her voice thick with emotion. She reached out, wanting to touch her sister’s arm, to bridge the gap that had grown into a canyon. “I love you, Amira. We’re twins. There is enough room in this world for both of us. We don’t have to p>
“Ahhh, enough!” Amira cut her off with a sharp wave of her hand. “Don’t lecture me. I don’t want to hear your ’perfect sister’ speech. It’s exhausting p>
Amira turned on her heel, her eyes scanning the horizon as if she were already miles away. “Take care of yourself, Amara p>
“Are you leaving Mother again?” Amara asked, her voice small. She thought of Madam Pedro’s broken heart back at the mansion.
Amira paused, looking back over her shoulder with a smirk that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Well, there can only be one Pedro Piers, darling,” Amira said.
Amara watched her walk away, thinking it was just another one of Amira’s dramatic, bitter exits.
She didn’t realize the darkness behind those words. To Amira, they weren’t two halves of a whole; they were a mistake that needed to be corrected.
In Amira’s mind, Amara was the sun, and she was the shadow, and the only way for the shadow to exist was to swallow the sun whole.