The Evil Twin? (23 page)

“Having things in common is not unique. Annie and I have more things in common than I probably would have with my twin. No one can take Annie’s place in my heart and no one can take my mom’s or dad’s place,” I declared.

“I understand baby, and I am not asking you to replace people. I am saying there is more room in your big heart.”

“Not funny,” I snubbed.

“What is holding you back to embrace your new family?”

“Well, it’s just her and not really a huge family,” I shrugged.

“Vinnie, Preethi aunty may be the only person here for you, but you have a huge family back in India that is currently looking you up online,” he grinned.

“I don’t care, I really don’t.”

“What’s bothering you baby?”

“Nothing, it’s just too much to handle,” I whined.

Reyan put his palm on my cheek and asked, “You need to tell me what is bothering you.”

“I…Why is it that people I am associated with or related to die in car accidents? Was there a reason why a father would choose one baby over another to give away? Am I the unlucky one? The evil twin?” I sobbed.

Reyan shushed me gently and sat up pulling me up into his arms.

“I need you to stop thinking about such things. All these incidents were independent and nothing to do with you.”

“How can I not put them together, and I am shit scared about…” my words dove back into my mouth as I broke into sobs.

“Vinnie,
don’t please. It kills me to see you like this,” he said kissing my forehead.

“I’m scared that you will…”

“Hey, I already had my accident and you know who rescued me?”

I buried my face in the softness of his t-shirt and took deep breaths taking in his sweet scent.

“I want you to spend the week with her, Vinnie, and at the end of he week if you still feel the same way as you do today, then nothing needs to change,” Reyan said firmly.

“What can happen in a week that would change my opinion?”

“You never know baby, it may not bring you closer to your...Aunt Preethi, but you may get closure on a few things.”

“What do you mean by closure?”

“Well I don’t know, but you told me once that you would give up an entire year to spend a day with your mom and dad. Look at the week as an opportunity to know a mother, the mother that gave birth to you.”

“I will think about it, Reyan. I don’t know what I want from all of this
.”

Chapter 23

         “Reyan, I can’t do this, let’s go back,” I pleaded looking at Reyan from the passenger seat as he held the door open for me. He had pulled up into a massive circular driveway of a behemoth house where I was going to spend a week with my favorite author.

              “Vinnie, you can’t back out now, and it’s only for a week.” Reyan’s voice was soothing, but I could not get myself to step out of the car.

“I don’t know what I was thinking when she showed up at the bar. I should have stayed strong.”

“She didn’t go to the bar to corner you. Now get your tight ass out of the car,” he chuckled.

“I can’t deal with all those people who travelled from India,” I said shaking my head.

“Sweetheart, those people are your family who took the first flight they could find to see you. You don’t need to be best friends with them, be polite and smile at them.”

I complied and grabbed my tote and stepped out of the car.

“Why can’t you stay here with me?”

“I had to give up my room for my girlfriend,” he said brushing his lips on mine.

“This is your house?”

“My parents’ house,” he corrected, nuzzling my ear.

“Oh shit…I can’t do this,” I said turning around to walk in the opposite direction.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Reyan was too fast for me and grabbed me by my waist from behind.

              I wiggled to get out of his hold and quit fighting when he started to speak in a soothing tone, “Baby, listen to me. It’s three days at the house, and we all go to Santa Cruz for the wedding. You and I can have connecting rooms just like at Neel’s brother’s wedding.”

              “Oh shit...Neel’s parents will be at the wedding, and I have to go back to being his girlfriend?” I asked in horror.

              “Good point, but we have time to deal with that. I need you to get into that house now.” His voice was firm.

              “Reyan, please don’t leave me.”

              “I will see you on Thursday morning,” he said softly.

              “Three full days before I see you?” I whined.

              “I need to take Rahul to Vegas for his bachelor party, and you will have all the events the women folk have before the wedding, and I am told it’s a lot of fun.”

              “I won’t make it Reyan, I know I won’t,”

              “Give it two days, and I will have Annie come stay with you.”

“Okay fine. Please call me and don’t kiss strange women with that mouth, its mine,” I said bringing his lips to me.

“You do own me baby,” he said against my lips.

*****

“Chloe won’t stop texting me,” Annie grumbled looking at her phone.

I was changing into my third outfit of the day for one of the gazillion pre-wedding events taking place that week.

“Why?”

“Eddie is in Vegas for the boys’ thing, and she is running high on all hormones.” She rolled her eyes.

“Poor thing, you should have brought her here with you.”

“Oh no, you do not want her here. She is bloated and she would not want to be around so many people showing off their beach board mid-sections,” she giggled pointing at me.

“Aargh, don’t even get me started. I blame Reyan for this.”

“What? Why?”

“Well he talked me into coming here, and then Mrs. Singhal talked me into wearing all these outfits and on day three, I am shamelessly showing off my belly button.”

Annie laughed and said, “You’ve got the body for it girl so it’s not too bad.”

“Whatever, I can’t wait for the week to be over.”

“Wait…you feel nothing for your biological mother?” Annie asked curiously.

“I feel overwhelmed, Annie. This whole family thing is not for me.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I felt suffocated when all the so-called relatives gathered around me and just stood staring at me in disbelief. I probably shook hands with a hundred people and every single person wants to check out my left hand when I am stretching out my right hand.”

“What the heck? That’s so weird.”

“It is weird, and the couple that met me at Starbucks months ago did the exact same thing?” I scrunched my nose.

“I think your twin had a questionable choice of ink art,” Annie winked.

“I doubt if she was into tattoos,” I said shaking my head.

“You never know.”

“Well, I don’t know who to ask.”

“Would Reyan know?”

“I don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter. I am sure it was some kind of a birthmark.”

“Oh...Oh…I know, were you conjoined twins joined at the hand and separated at birth?”

“That’s a ridiculously horrible theory Annie!!” I mocked her laughing.

“I have a theory, do you have an alternate theory?” she retorted.

“I am so glad you were able to make it, Annie. I went nuts the past couple of days.”

“Why? How bad can it be?”

“Well for starters, I felt lonely without you and Reyan around and all these people…”

“It’s very sweet that you missed me too but what’s up with the people?” Annie was curious.

“The people. It’s just odd that they were so happy to see me, a complete stranger they never met and know nothing about. It’s not just ‘my’ aunts and uncles, it’s their kids too.”

“It probably reminded them of your twin. Reyan told me once that she was very sweet.”

“I know but c’mon, they just have to look at me once and know I am not sweet.”

Annie laughed and said putting her arms around me, “You are a very sweet person. I would argue with anyone who said you aren’t.”

“Very sweet, but I had an overdose of their sweetness. I had people bring me coffee or water, just like that.”

“What?”

“So it was weird that I was at the poker table the other day, and I told myself I should take a drink of water after that round and whola…a minute later Mrs. Singhal is handing me a glass of ice-cold water.”

“Okay, that’s not weird…well it’s weird but it’s not weird when moms do it.”

“Exactly my point, these are the things that have been making me all suffocated and irritated.”

“What else happened?” Annie asked as if she was intrigued by the water episode.

“Well, there was this table card episode.”

“Details, Vinnie,” Annie urged.

“So, apparently Mrs. Singhal…” I paused when Annie raised her hand and stopped me and said, “Stop calling her that. Can you please call her mom or at least mother. It’s wrong to call her like she is your teacher.”

“Fine,” I said rolling my eyes and added, “So, the mother…err...she has very good handwriting and Rahul had asked her to write about two hundred table cards for the reception.”

“What? Two hundred handwritten cards?”

“I know.”

“So when…the mother told me she had to start working on the cards, I offered to help not knowing that Rahul had wanted it specifically in her handwriting,” I said shaking my head.

“The grooms can be so needy sometimes, “ Annie snorted and added, “So what happened?”

“Well, I just started writing in my cursive writing that I used to write with on the Starbucks blackboard and the one in the bar at the entrance.”

“Okay and?”

“Reyan’s mom shows up and stands behind me watching me write those cards.”

“What were you doodling, Vinnie?” Annie giggled.

“Nothing!!”

“So what was she shocked about?”

“Turns out the mother and I have the exact same handwriting, and the mother knew about it.”

“How did she know?”

“Reyan told her it was my handwriting on the blackboard when she had come to see me at the bar last week.”

“You have the same handwriting as her, you write like her, you look like her.”

“I don’t look like her.”

“Oh my god, Vinnie, you do. You and the mother are the only ones I know with eyes that dark that glow.”

“You make me sound ominous now,” I teased.

“Vinnie, this is awesome. This should help you build a connection with her.”

“Annie, we don’t have to build connections, they happen, just like how you and I connected. All you had to do was walk up to the bar counter and tell me your name.”

Annie laughed throwing her head back and said wiping off the moisture at the corner of her eyes, “You are darn right!!!”

“You see what I mean…just too much for me to handle and to top that off, the mother said she has a surprise for me today.”

“What kind of surprise?” Annie asked adjusting her outfit.

“I have no idea. All I know is that this house is going to be taken over by a hundred women tonight for a ladies’ night out.”

“It’s not a made up event, Vinnie, it’s one of the pre-wedding events.”

“I can’t wait for Reyan to be back tomorrow.”

“I doubt if you’ll see him anytime before noon tomorrow.” Annie winked.

“What? He told me he’ll come get me in the morning.”

“After a night of partying? Not happenin sista!!”

“He is a dead man if he doesn’t show up at six in the morning.”

“God help him,” Annie teased getting up from the bed to grab her clutch.

“I’ve kinda gotten used to carrying these outfits.” I observed looking at myself in the all black fitted cropped blouse, a full length skirt in black and red abstract pattern, and a sheer red and black bordered scarf.

“That outfit makes you look so hot. Reyan would have ripped your clothes apart just like he did with the other blouse.” She giggled holding on to the doorknob ready to leave and join the party downstairs.

“You promised to never talk about it.” I fumed and added, “It’s too bad I couldn’t make up another story. I thought about it but nothing stuck.”

“You two are so cute.”

“Hey, you just said I looked hot, don’t insult me by calling me cute,” I taunted.

Ten minutes later, Annie and I made our way downstairs to join the group of women of all age ranges. There were a group of tween girls huddled around a table gossiping and giggling, and one of the girls looked up at me and her face went pale.

“Oh that’s right, another thing I didn’t mention to you is half the people that don’t know I am the twin, think they see my dead twin and have those expressions,” I whispered leaning towards Annie.

“That’s just hilarious and stop talking about your sister like that,” Annie warned.

“Annie, I really don’t feel a thing for anyone except empathy about losing people you love to an accident.”

“I don’t know what to say, Vinnie. I want you to be happy and you know I will support you blindly.”

“I know you will and…” My voice died when I saw a familiar woman dressed in a beautiful saree walk through the double doors of the main entrance. I watched in shock when the mother approached the woman and hugged her warmly.

“And what?” Annie prompted looking at me.

“Annie, that’s my aunt…what is she doing here and oh my god, she looks so pretty,” I managed to utter.

“And it looks like the mother knows her. How do they know each other?”

Meg entered the room a minute later wearing the exact same outfit that I had on that night.

What the fuck? Is this my surprise?

“What the fuck? Is this your surprise?” Annie whispered echoing my thoughts.

“I have no fucking idea, let’s go find out.”

I walked towards my aunt and Meg with Annie struggling to keep up with me. Meg saw me as I approached them, and her face burst into the brightest smile I had ever seen on her face.

“Vinnie, I love it!!! Thank you Preethi Mami (aunt) for the matching outfits.”

Meg is calling her Mami?

“You’re welcome, Meghan!! I am glad you like it. I wanted you and Vinnie to have matching outfits for tonight.”

“How do you guys know each other?” I asked putting on a fake smile.

“We met last week at home. Reyan’s mom and Preethi had come over to invite Meg and me for the wedding and all the other parties.”

“Why didn’t you guys tell me?”

“I wanted this to be a surprise for you, Vinnie,” the mother said softly.

“I’ve never seen you in a saree Mami, you look beautiful,” I cheered putting my arms around her. I had seen my aunt as a ravishing call girl when she was in the escort business but never realized what a classical beauty she was until I saw her in a saree.

“Thank you baby. Did you hear that Meg?”

“You look weird in that saree mom,” Meg retorted.

“Did Reyan take you to Mami’s place?” I asked for confirmation even through I know he was the only link and both women nodded smiling.

He is a dead man even if she shows up at six in the morning.