Replacement Bride

Ella had spent the whole of her day volunteering at the Hope of Tomorrow orphanage, this had become her routine. If she was not at school she would be at the orphanage which was like her second home. Her love for children had been the main drive for everything that she was doing. The rejection she had suffered growing up, she did not want other children going through it especially when she could be of help. Ella was born a twin and one of the two heirs to the Wilson estate. Their family had accumulated a vast amount of wealth from the many business ventures they had invested in during the early nineties, that is why from their birth great precedence was taken in training them to become the best. However, somewhere along the line, her parents figured out that one was better than two so despite being the oldest they were put to a test. Emma was outgoing and she said her first word a month before Ella could. Her first steps again came before Ella had hers so their parents saw it fitting to train her to one day lead their wealthy estate although Ella was the oldest. Ella however was perfect when it came to her academics as well as playing golf. She had been named the best golfer all over the United Kingdom three consecutive times however all her efforts were in vain as her parents had already made their decision. She had sought their acknowledgement for a very long time that she finally became tired. The only family member who valued her was her paternal grandmother who held her close at heart. Her grandmother owned almost all their family's wealth and her parents had tried so hard to have her like Emma more but to no avail. Four years had passed since Ella had seen her family since they had shipped her far North to Edinburgh where she was studying medicine. They had never visited her, it was only her grandmother who frequently checked on her however due to old age she could not travel often. Her parents had sent her grandmother off to a fancy old people's home. "Lost in your thoughts again," Maggie's voice broke Ella's reverie. "No, just thinking about how my parents and sister hate me for no reason." "Hasn't it been four years now, why hasn't any of them come to see you?" Ella remained quiet as all of it brought undesirable pain to her. "At least they send money frequently," Maggie pattered Ella's back in reassurance. Money had never been Ella's priority, all she wanted was to be close to her family but her parents had declared that London was too small to contain Ella and Emma. "Ella, have you seen this?" Maggie pulled her vigorously. All of which made Ella enthusiastic to want to see. On the phone, the screen has displayed a picture of Emma holding a man's hand with captions, "The hottest couple in town to be wedded soon." The name that read on the bottom was Martin Smith, a business tycoon who had managed to make his business from scratch. It came as no revelation that Emma would be married to a wealthy man but what hurt Ella was that like all the people on earth she got to hear the news over social media. The anger was too much for her to bottle inside, she had to be alone. She raced into the nearest toilet and locked herself in. "Are you alright?" Maggie banged on the door with worry sounding in her voice. The two of them had been friends for twenty years, Maggie was the only other person who understood Ella well besides her grandmother. They had met on their first day in grade school. Emma had made friends already and Ella was left by herself. Other people had paused only to look at the uncanny resemblance she had with her sister but no one had dared to talk to her. Maggie was the one who had approached her and from then a friendship was fogged and like a dream, years had gone by. Maggie knew all about how Ella had had to live in the shadow of her outgoing twin sister. She also knew first-hand all the pain Ella had to go through from the pain of being rejected and often looked down on by her family. When Ella had been sent to Edinburgh, Maggie pleaded with her parents to also go there. She knew of the pain Ella was in and she had vowed to always be by her side consoling her. "I am sorry Ella, this hurt I know but please don't cry," Maggie attempted to open the door but to no avail. She sighed with sorrow in her voice before walking away to give Ella her privacy. Ella could not contain her anger and hurt as she screamed out loud. She recalled the last words her mother had told her before they had shipped her to Edinburgh. "It would be better if you keep a low key profile, leave the spotlight to Emma," were her last words. Her voice held not even a sign of motherly hesitation. Her blood relations with her family had brought her nothing but pain. If there was a way they could sever all the ties with them she would have done it with no hesitation after all they had made the first move. After close to thirty minutes of locking herself in the bathroom, she finally emerged like a phoenix from the ashes. "Who is she?" The people in the corridor who had heard her outburst asked. Although she had lived in the same dormitory and learned with most of them. She knew their names by the head but somehow they did not know hers. Her one outburst finally made her noticeable. "Are you alright?" Maggie came running with concern written all over her face. Ella simply nods her head. "I am so sorry for telling you that, I didn't mean to hurt you," Maggie mumbled. "It's alright it's not your fault that I am an outcast even in my household. So when is the wedding?" Maggie was hesitant to answer the question and all she could do was pass her the phone. "Will you be okay going through all of that?" Maggie paused. Ella held her friend's hand before forcefully untangling it from the phone. She scrolled down and all the headlines were on the amazing life of Emma Wilson and her dreamy prince charming Martin Smith. The date for their wedding had already been set for the weekend which was two days away. "Don't worry maybe they will tell you," Maggie reassured her. "No, it doesn't matter at all am already used to it." The night was long as she twisted and turned wandering why her parents hated her so much. She had tried to be the perfect daughter but her efforts were in vain. She did not recall when she fell asleep but what woke her up was Maggie's loud voice bringing an excruciating pain to her tired self. "Ella, Ella come out here!" She staggered across the room, into the sitting room. Her throat felt dry and she made a detour to the fridge pouring cold water into a glass cup. She walked to the door gulping down the water. However, what awaited her made her lose all the power she had in her bones making her lose control of her hand. The glass shattered into many pieces one cutting her on her foot "Ouch," she wailed. Standing at their door was her mother and father she had last set her eyes on three years prior. She had never envisaged that a moment as such would one day come. A lot of unsaid emotions filled her. She wanted to hug them but it just did not feel right, at the same time she wanted to cry to her mother, an emotion that was new to her as well. Her mother had taught her that tears were for the weak and a strong woman like her had no right to possess such attribute. All she could do then was stand still and let her thoughts run wild. "Are we going to stand here all day or are you going to invite us into the house?" her father asked in a very authoritative voice his voice glued to her wounder foot. Maggie looked at Ella and she saw that her mind was miles away already "Come in Mr and Mrs Wilson," Maggie ushered them into Ella's bedroom with a plastic smile not before pinching Ella lightly to get her back in her right senses. She sat down on a couch that was far from where they had sat and remained quiet. Maggie noticed the trail of blood Ella had left behind. Maggie stood up and grabbed a first aid box from where they kept it. She took Ella's foot into her hands as she gently took care of the wound. Maggie was the sister and mother Ella had never had and Ella was too accustomed to having Maggie take care of her. Her parents could not hide the annoyance written all over their faces. "Thank you," Ella quietly told Maggie who nodded with a smile on her face. "Now are you done, can we now discuss why we are here?" Her mother asked her in an annoyed voice. "Yes, why are you here?" Ella tried to be authoritative not before her voice deceived her midway. "Emma is missing and you have to take her place. You have to marry Martin Smith pretending to be Emma," her father said blandly. She remained quiet as she had failed to grasp what they had said. "What?" Maggie said shocked. "Oh, you are here?" Mrs Wilson said with irritation in her voice, "I hate repeating things but for the sake of clarity let me simplify it for you. Emma is missing, she has been missing for over two weeks now. We could not tell anyone because we thought the whole thing would be sorted by then but we could not contain the situation. Now Ella here has to take Emma's place and marry Martin for the sake of the family she belongs to." "Family, what family are you talking about? The family that told me I was not good enough to be part of. Or the family that shipped me off because the both of us Emma and I could not coexist and decided that I was the one who was lacking. What family does that and what parents do what you are doing right now? I am only good enough as a substitute!" Ella shouted. "Don't you dare take that tone with me, young lady? I brought you in this world, I bathed you, I clothed you and I put a roof over your head. The little I deserve is a bit of gratitude from you brat and this is the only way you can show it. We are not saying you have to be perfect like Emma because you can never fill the void she left but we are asking you to be a little bit considerate of the rest of the family and the mess we are in and take up this position until Emma is found. Is that too much to ask after everything we did for you?" Her mother said. Her mother had managed to play the victim card with her but she was not going to give in to her messed up request. They had thrown her away like thrash and she was going to prove that she was not "I will not do it, I can never do that I refuse to become a pony to this game you have chosen to play!" She stood her ground. "Listen here this is not a request, this is an order and if you choose to play hard then fine I do not fear getting my hands dirty. You see Miss best friend over there, her father works for one of the companies we are investing in and one short call he will be out of his job and they will lose all the benefits he possesses. She will be in their street and who will be to blame? " her father pulled out his first dirty card. Maggie's eyes opened up wide as she could not believe it at all. Tears started to form in her eyes as she knew that this was no empty threat. "And that orphanage you donate to every month, one word from me and all the money I give to you will stop and so will those donations I could go on and on to the levels I can stoop to but that will take forever so are you in or out. The moment you choose remember a lot of people's lives are on the line," he concluded. In as much as Ella had vowed never to give in to them, they had played a very powerful and deadly card she was no match for. She looked at Maggie and her face was already disoriented from the shock brought by what Mr Wilson had said. She could not do anything to hurt her friend who had stood by her through everything. Although her parents were asking for too much she had to make a decision that would not hurt her one and only friend. She was going to give up her life so that her friend never regretted crossing paths with her. "I will do it," she said as a lone tear escaped from her eyes. "Good, we expect to see you at the house this evening. A car will come to pick you at the airport and one will be waiting in New York. We will not take lightly any embarrassment from, a lot is at stake for both sides but I will take it yours has more to lose than ours," her mother said before they walked out of the room. They closed the door with great impact that was felt from the room. Ella and Maggie heard the faint engine sound as it slowly went quiet in a distance. Maggie wailed loudly, she felt sorry for her friend and for being a weapon they uses against Ella. "I am sorry Ella, I made it hard for you to make a decision. If it was not because of me you would not have been forced to give up your life this easily" Maggie cried even more. "Nonsense, you have always been here for me. I have always looked for a way I could assist you and I feel happy that I get to pay you back with this," Ella pattered Maggie gently. This was hard on Maggie as it was on Ella. She knew that her friend had to give up everything there was about her. Maggie and the orphanage were the two things that gave meaning to Ela's life. Ella looked around the room and saw everything there was about her that she was about to leave behind "Don't worry I will take care of everything and send it to New York for you. I will also rent a container where I will put everything," Maggie said. Ella smiled lightly at her friend. She packed a few of her clothes and some of the pictures she had been taken with Maggie. After two hours the car finally arrived which had to take her to the airport. "I will miss you so much," Maggie said. "I will miss you too but will be in touch," Ella wiped the tears from her eyes. The drive as well as the flight she had that day were ones of the loneliest she had had in a very long time. She had been exiled but now she felt exile would have been better than the place where they were forcing her to go. The Wilson estate came into view, nothing seemed to have changed about the one place that had made her life miserable. The butler opened the door for her into the house as she felt a dark cloud hang above her head. Her parents were not there to welcome her. Although she had expected that much she was a little disappointed. She walked up to her room and it was the way she had left it the last time she was there. She walked to her bookshelf and looked through all her books. The animal farm was always her favourite, "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others" she loved the saying because it had a way of expressing how her life was. The way she was twins with Emma but Emma managed to steal the spotlight from her. "Good you are here, I was wondering when you were going to arrive," her mother said as she came holding a wedding dress. She laid it on the bed gently. "The dress had already been picked, I know it is your size. Emma made sure that everything was perfect. The dress for the evening after-party will be ready at the venue for you. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes," her mother said before walking out. She walked towards the bed and unfolded the dress. A Dior pure white custom made with a mermaid silhouette with flowers embedded all over the sleeves. The Swarovski crystals sewed all over were the finishing touch. It had a ten feet train with a two feet veil. She didn't even have the energy to try it on. This was all Emma and she did not have to put much effort to please Emma circle of many friends. She walked out of her room down the stairs and her parents had already sat at the table. "Finally good that you can join us," her father said with sarcasm in his voice. The table was empty like always, the only difference was Emma and her chitty chatting were missing. Her food had already been set, the plate was filled with salads. "You have to cut down on carbs, you are fat," her mother said, "Emma had everything under control. With the way you look, it won't take long before Martin sees right through you." "If I am not good enough you might as well go do it yourself," she said as she stood up from the table and walked away. She threw herself on her bed and before long she was out.