“Nathaniel. He wants us to have dinner at his place,” replied Anthony as he stared into space.
I knew that man would make a move sooner or later, but he still caught me off guard.
After taking a deep breath, Anthony gestured at my phone. “This can’t be a coincidence. I think you should read your text message.”
Hurriedly, I unlocked my phone and did as Anthony said. The message I received read: Mommy, we’re at Uncle Nathaniel’s house. Come pick us up. Gregory.
Even though the message came from Gregory, it was not sent from his phone, so I assumed he figured out a different way to reach me.
We were not out of the woods yet then, but still, I was relieved to hear from Gregory.
“Go change. We’re going to save our son.”
“What about our daughter?”
“All of them! We’re going to save all of them.” Somehow, I was confident that I would get my children back, and I could not help but smirk at the thought of it.
Anthony, too, smirked at me and said nothing else.
As a parent, I thought it was quite normal to have a favorite among my children as long as I remembered to love all of them.
Ever since I found out about Nora, I worried that she would try to replace me someday and fool Gregory and Audrey into thinking that she was their mother.
All the woman needed to do was spend some time with my children and show them her motherly love, and she could have easily taken my place.
Gregory’s message was a candle in the dark to me. Whether he deliberately sent it to me or not, I was just glad that he trusted me enough to do that, and that was all that mattered to me.
It was not my first time arriving at Nathaniel’s villa, but I never went there for the same reason.
When a maid led us into the living room, Nora was trying to gain Audrey’s trust by offering the girl the cake Nathaniel bought at Black Angle. However, Audrey remained fiddling with her doll’s arm uneasily while sitting beside her brother.
Seeing how Audrey was reluctant to try the cake, I could not help but feel proud of my girl. Good girl!
“Hey, Audrey,” called out Anthony in his deep voice.
The second the little girl heard the familiar voice, she leaped to her feet and rushed over to her father. “Daddy!”
Gregory and Shaun followed closely behind.
“Mommy.” Gregory tilted his head upward and smiled brightly at me.
I reveled in the warmth that spread through my body at his loving address. Stroking his head fondly, I cooed, “Good boy, Gregory.”
Audrey’s gaze darted between Nora and me as a frown appeared on her face. “Two mommies?”
“No, this is Mommy,” Gregory insisted softly. “Didn’t you tell me that Mommy smelled weird? Why don’t you smell her now?”
A light bulb seemed to go off in Audrey’s head as she immediately stretched her arms out toward me and cried, “I want a hug!”
I carried her with a smile on my face. Audrey wrapped her arms around my neck, and I giggled at the ticklish sensation.
“Do you smell it now?” I asked good-naturedly.
Audrey nodded vigorously and exclaimed, “Yeah!” She turned her head to face me and continued, “This is Mommy’s smell! You’re Mommy!”
I could not help but chuckle at her innocence, and I pinched her cheek fondly as I teased, “Could you tell me how I smell different compared to Ms. Nora?”
“Hmm.” My daughter pouted her lips in deep thought before shaking her head. “I don’t know how to explain it.”
“We wanted to play a prank on you two, but it looks like you knew everything from the start,” Nora interrupted as she set the cake in her hands aside. “Audrey, won’t you tell me how you knew we were different? I even used the same perfume as your mommy.”
Audrey raised her volume and replied, “It’s not the perfume! I-I- It’s just different! I know it’s different.”
As if fearful that we would continue interrogating her, she buried her head in my chest and avoided our gazes.
I could empathize with her display of obstinance; I had seen many children bottling up out of frustration at being unable to express themselves.
At the same time, I thought I understood what Audrey meant about my unique smell. Call it a mother’s instinct, I suppose.
I thought of Anthony then and the scent of his pheromones, which could not be overshadowed by the faint smell of his expensive colognes and cigars.
“Okay, she won’t ask you any more questions about that. Come on, Mommy will take you home. Daddy made a cake for you all. Don’t you want to eat it?” I subtly shifted the conversation topic to encourage Audrey to open up again.
My tactic worked, and Audrey exclaimed in glee, “Yes! I want cake!” She probably had forgotten all about Nora’s questions at that point.
As expected, food typically took center stage in a glutton’s mind.
Except when it came to Shaun. Is it possible to forge a bond so quickly with a kid to whom she isn’t related?
However, this was not the time for me to dwell on this issue.
We should leave this wretched place ASAP.
“Why are you in such a rush to leave, Sienna? Aren’t you going to introduce me to your kids? We look so much alike, after all.” Nora looked at me with an indecipherable smile on her face, looking like she had no intention to let us leave uneventfully.
Anthony spoke up coldly, “You think you can keep me here?” The authority in his tone had Gregory and Shaun glancing at him subconsciously.
“You’re always so impatient, Anthony,” Nathaniel drawled lazily. He had picked up on the tense situation and sauntered over with his hands in his pockets. “I’ve always been helping Gregory with any problems he’s facing in his computer science studies. So much time has passed; I’m sure he must be brimming with questions. Plus, Nora and Letty are finally reunited after being separated for years. Why must we cut short the sisters’ reunion? Stay a while longer and let them have a chat.”
He had walked up to Nora by then. Standing side-by-side, I thought they made a fine pair with their matching smiles of faux kindness even if one of them happened to look exactly like me.
Nathaniel’s words brought a smug smile to Nora’s face. “Of course. I’m Nora Stanhope. Don’t tell me you forgot about your older sister? We’re twins, for goodness sake.”
It seemed that Nora Stanhope was the new identity Nathaniel had arranged for the former Ms. Oberick. I realized that Nora was determined to conjure a relationship with me.
Outwardly, Anthony and I appeared unaffected by her announcement, treating it as a terrible joke.
Audrey, however, took Nora’s words seriously. “You’re twins with Mommy? Is it like Greg and me? Greg is a boy, and I’m a girl, so we look different. Do you look the same because you’re both girls?”
Before I could clear things up, Nora cut me off. “That’s right! You’re such a smart girl, Audrey!” She smiled so brightly that her eyes had narrowed into slits. Nora added, “You and your brother can call me Aunt Nora from now on!”
I could not explain why, but Nora’s face that so perfectly mirrored mine suddenly became a glaring sight.
I would not have minded the children calling her Aunt Nora in the past when she was still a kind person. Now that she was notorious for her greed and ambition, I could not find it in me to allow my children to acknowledge such a relative.
How should I explain this to the kids, though?
Thankfully, Anthony spoke up and freed me from my dilemma.
Quietly and somewhat sternly, he said, “Gregory.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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