Chapter 3.

"I do not believe this!" Mom's voice shattered the stillness that fall upon the room as she paced from one end to the other, hands on her hips.

Kareen ran away from her wedding, Realization sunk deep into my system. Why would she do that?!

Mom sharply reeled to dad. "Philip, call Kareen immediately!" She ordered and Dad didn't hesitate as he pulled out his phone and dialed Kareen's number but it immediately went into voicemail. "Keep trying till you get through!" She rasped, racking her hands through her hair, aggravated.

"Now listen..." The woman got up on her feet, arranging her glasses. "Today's rite is not about wedding two people together, Billions of dollars are involved, contracts are at risk, and believe me, I won't lose any of those because of some foolish girl who makes preposterous decisions!"

"We will have to postpone the wedding, something must have happened to Kareen!" Dad suggested and a peal of demeaning laughter erupted from the woman's throat.

"This wedding will not be postponed for whatever reasons. While you find your dumb daughter, she can take her place,"

I recoiled as the woman averted her gaze to where I stood.

"No!" Mom instantly declined, terror in her voice and I couldn't agree more. There was no way was I taking my sister's place in the aisle.

"Your choice. However, I expect to see one of your daughters at the altar within 30 minutes, If not, I will make your lives a living hell till you beg for death!"

Her tone was arcadian yet, her words were gutsy and fierce, crammed with malignancy. Taking a last glance at us, she roamed out, the girl immediately following after her as she slammed the door shut, leaving me and my family to pounder.

Seconds turned into minutes and 10 minutes had already passed since we remained tight-lipped and unmoving in that room. Mom pounding on the bed, dad pacing from one corner to the other, trying to get through Kareen's phone, Eloise beside mom, trying to comfort her while I occupied a chair at the corner, equally hushed up in thoughts.

The piercing silence went on till Mom stood up, picked up the wedding dress on the bed, and threw it at me. "Put it on, you are taking Kareen's place,"

"What!" I bolted to my feet.

"You heard what Mrs. Evans said, your sister has to be at the altar in 20 minutes,"

I shook my head. "I'm not doing it, am not marrying a stranger!" I declined.

Mom sharply glared at me, taking a threatening step forward. "You are not doing this for yourself, Kim. You are doing this for Kareen and our family! "

"That's wrong Mom!"

"Our lives are going to turn out wrong if you don't freaking show up at the altar as your twin sister!" Mom suddenly shouted, stymied veins socking on her forehead while her eyes blazed with wrath, drilling holes through my face. She stepped closer. "The Rodriguez are the most powerful and influential people in the US, do you want to get on their bad side?"

Everyone was cognizant and knew of the Rodriguez. That name made people spineless just at the mention of it. Getting on the Rodriguez's bad side was like a death wish you didn't want to have however, that didn't mean I would get married to some stranger, for my sister's or family's sake. I had my dreams and I refused to ruin them like this.

"We can still talk this out with Mrs. Evans or the groom, " I suggested.

"This issue is not going out from this room, it's going to be settled here, you are going in as Kareen till we find her!"

"You saw the note she left, Kareen ran away from her wedding, she doesn't wish to be married, what makes you think she is going to want her place back!" My voice rose higher than I intended, coming out a bit maddened.

"Then you remained married till we get to the bottom of this!"

I shook my head. "I refuse, I won't be part of this. If you are so afraid of the Rodriguez's, you can show up at the altar as Kareen because I won't!" I stood my ground, my green eyes blazing with equal anger till my cheek was struck. My face swiveled to the side at the sudden and unexpected impact. My hand slowly reached up to brush my burning cheek while my gaze locked with the harsh ones of mom, who breathed heavily in anger.

I scoffed. "I'm still not getting married to a stranger mom,"

"What have you done for our family Kim, you have been nothing but a disappointment!" Mom screeched, "We've never asked anything from you up till now and when we do, you become an ungrateful bitch!" She spat and pointed her index finger at me. "You are going to get married to Mr. Rodriguez, if you do not, you can forget that I'm your mother, you can forget you ever had a family!" She screamed at my face.

Staring at her, I felt a teardrop slip down my face as her words cut through my heart. My hand went up to my chest, squeezing it while tears stream down my face.

"You are so useless, if it had been Kareen, she wouldn't have hesitated to put her family first but look at you, so ungrateful and stupid!"

Where was Kareen now?! I nearly yelled out the words but left them hanging in my throat.

Mom grabbed the wedding dress and held it to my face. "Put on the dress, Kim. If Kareen never comes back, you will remain as Mrs. Rodriguez till they wish to get rid of you!"

I gaped. Was I that worthless in their eyes? Pretend to be Kareen till they wished to get rid of me...? A little laugh broke out of my throat as I slowly took the dress from her hand.

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath, calming my raging heartbeats. I opened my eyes and stared directly at my mom, then at my dad who had remained silent.

"I will do it and remember this, I'm your daughter too,"

As payback for putting up with my disappointment and failure for 23years.