Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.

Leilani.

I do not know how Jarek managed to stay my hands or calm my rage, but a few minutes after my earlier outburst, I no longer felt like I needed to hit my parents anymore.

However, I still wanted to see them. I still wanted to have a conversation with them... and most of all, I wanted to know why I was different.

I had almost begun to think that they weren’t my biological parents until I remembered that Chalice and I were twins— almost identical twins, save for the colors of our hair and eyes.

So why the fuck was I cursed and she wasn’t?

Why am I the one with so many defects and she doesn’t have one?

We had just arrived at my house when suddenly, Jarek’s phone began to ring. He muttered some words of apology to me as he fished it out of his pocket and pressed it against his ear.

He growled; "Hello?" Then with a harder voice, asked; "What the fuck did you say happened?"

My brows furrowed as I turned to him in confusion, whilst lacing my fingers in his as I watched him listen to whoever it was on the other end of the phone.

He took my hands in his, despite his obvious rage and then peppered kisses to the back of my knuckles before he turned away and drawled; "I’ll be there in a few minutes."

And with that, he dropped the phone and turned to me with pleading eyes."I’m sorry, I can’t come in." He whispered, "...something happened at the company; And before you think that you can convince me to allow you to come with me, just know that my answer is no. So go in now, rest, and I’ll call you later."

I wanted to protest. Goddess, I wanted to press even harder, hoping that he would take me with him, but when I took in the seriousness on his face and the way his jaw was set into a hard line, I instinctively nodded my head and murmured; "Okay."

"Thank you."

"Make sure you call me!" I screamed at him as I stepped out of the car.

"Sure!" He replied, and I watched quietly as his driver did a smooth U-turn and drove away, leaving me standing there and wondering what the emergency must’ve been.

I soon began to feel tired so I shrugged and turned to go back into the house but just as I did, I froze.

—Because from where I stood, I could notice the body laying behind my parked car.

My heart raced in my chest as I slowly walked towards it and when I arrived behind the car, a startled scream tore through the back of my throat when I realized who it was:

Jack.

My security!

I frantically dipped my hands into my pockets, looking for my phone, but then froze again when I realized something even more horrifying: It wasn’t with me!

I must’ve left it in Jarek’s car.

But deciding that this was the absolute worst time to panic, I scooted forward slowly, crouched in front of the guy and placed my fingers under his nose to check if he was still breathing.

"Thank goddess! He is!" I whisper-yelled.

However, I was just about to help him to his feet when I felt something sharp pierce the back of my neck, and in pain, I screamed out, letting go of him abruptly to slap my hand over the spot.

My eyes widened when I pulled out a tranquilizer dart, and somehow, that managed to fuel my rage even more.

"Who is there?" I yelled, and at my words, I didn’t get any response... what I got instead were two more shots of tranquilizer.

Now, panic was beginning to creep in, especially since the effect of the drug was already beginning to seep into my blood.

My vision was quickly getting blurry as I stumbled away from behind my car and began to make my way to the front door.

Goddess, if I can just get in and shut the door behind me...

If I can just reach the desk phone in my living room...

Swoosh.

Another one landed at the back of my knee and I yelped when I fell to the floor.

But there was no way I was giving up. No way in hell that I would let them get to me so easily.

I clawed my way to my feet, ignoring the pain ripping through my body from where the darts still stuck out from and ignoring how difficult it was getting to move my body.

I finally arrived at my front door but just as I clutched the door’s handle, I felt another one now—not one but two— hitting my back and my neck simultaneously.

I dropped to the floor with a loud thump, cursing whoever it was that was behind this and hating myself for not being faster.

Before darkness finally enveloped me, I vaguely saw a woman crouching in front of me. Her cold fingers grazed my chin and she whispered in a voice that was oddly calm but eerie; "Sleep now, princess. You have a long day ahead of you."

—

My first thought when I finally came to in a cold stinky dark cell was that this ought to be Chalice’s doing.

I couldn’t help but think that maybe she was still salty from what I’d done to her at her wedding... or maybe, just maybe this was one of her usual ploys to get me into trouble.

So what is she up to this time?

Is she going to strap a small explosive device around my torso and hers and then ask the triplets to choose between one of us the way I’ve seen it happen in some crazy novels?

Or is she here to try to beat me up? To ’retaliate’ for hitting her that one time in the parking lot?

My hands balled into fists at the thought but surprisingly, I couldn’t squeeze hard—maybe because of the extreme dose of tranquilizers that I’d been dealt with earlier... or wait, are those silver chains?

My eyes nearly bulged when I finally noticed the heavy metal chains clasped around my wrists. They burned where they made contact with my skin and I immediately knew that they had to contain silver.

What the fuck?

I frowned, my heart thumping wildly in my chest as I growled; "Come out now, Chalice! I think you’ve gone too far this time around!"

But I was met with nothing. Just silence.

"Chalice!" I tried again, more desperately this time, and when I still wouldn’t get any response, I seethed; "...this isn’t funny!"

"Oh, it is..." a feminine voice drawled from a corner of the cell and I stilled for a moment before turning abruptly to the sound.

Because it was dark, I couldn’t fully make out her face, so I yelled again;

"Chalice!"

"Are you obsessed with the owner of that name or something?" The voice came again, sounding perplexed, and I realized to my utmost horror that this wasn’t Chalice.

It was a girl I’ve never met before.

A girl I’ve never seen before— well, scratch that!

Suddenly, some lights flickered on and my eyes widened when I saw who it was. And I have seen her before. Hell, I even knew one or two things about her.

I growled; "Keisha?!" hating the way my stomach dropped when she smiled at me, her eyes glinting with malicious delight as she leaned close and tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear.

"You know my name?" She whispered in a mocking tone, but before I could respond, she added; "...that’s so sweet! It shows that Jarek is still obsessed with me. So obsessed that his new plaything knows exactly who I am."

And goddess, all I saw was red.