Give Me Back My Husband

POV: Olivia My twin sister is getting married... It’s been eight years since I’d set my eyes on her. I escaped that life eight years ago when I left without looking back. I escaped the games, the betrayal and everything that comes afterwards. I don’t remember the first time I became my sister. Not truly. It started so young that it felt like a game, like dress-up. The adults laughed about it, teachers rolled their eyes at it, and Sophia, my ever mischievous twin sister turned it into a game, her favorite game. “Don’t worry, Liv,” she would say with a wink, “no one will know.” she always tells me. And she was always right. Always, always right. Oh wait, did I forget to introduce us? My bad, I apologize... We are, or rather, we were Olivia and Sophia Reed, identical faces, identical voices, identical eyes. But beneath that, we were completely different. She was the fire everyone gathered around, whereas I was the quiet light in the corner, the nerd. She loved attention, but I loved peace. She broke every rules while I covered the damage and cover up for her... Always. Our parents loves her, especially my mother who never stopped reminding me that Sophia is smarter and more ambitious. Even dad treats her like the she was the one worth protecting. “This family can’t afford scandals,” she would whisper to me always, warning me never to bring shame to the family. And yet, scandals belonged to Sophie like freckles belong to sunlight. She is on the front page of the papers weekly, and yet mom never say anything about it. Sometimes, she deliberately makes everyone believe that the person involved in the scandal is me when she knows for a fact that it’s Sophia her favourite daughter and not me. When we were fifteen, she had two boyfriends, best friends. She dated both friends at the same time, and I should’ve said no when she asked me to take her place when they were on a group date. But I didn’t. I sat across from the other boy in her dress, pretending to be her, nodding to conversations I didn’t care about, smiling like I belonged to his world. No one noticed... And that was the problem. No one ever noticed when I disappeared. It feels like I was born as her substitute, like a shadow meant to follow her lead always. On our graduation night, The night everything finally broke. Lucas found me behind the gym before we went up to collect our awards. He had this beautiful smile on his face that made me wonder why he was so excited. It had been the perfect high school day for Sophia, she had just won homecoming queen, and I had stood in the crowd, clapping, pretending I was happy for her as she flaunts her crown in my face. He leaned against the wall, smile wide and careless. “You were amazing last night,” he whispered, eyes full of memory that didn’t belong to me. My blood went cold. “What night?” I asked, surprised. He laughed. “Our first time.” He admitted proudly, leaning to kiss my lips softly. “You were amazing, my love. I didn’t think you’d go through with it.” He teased, putting his hands around my waist. I stared at him, feigning smiles. I was planning to give him my innocence tonight, I wanted it to be special. He looked proud, he didn’t even realize that it wasn’t me. I’m still a virgin, but Sophia is not a virgin. Yet he doesn’t realize the difference and that made me sick in my stomach. I couldn’t wait until I got home to ask her, and when I did, she didn’t even look up from her mirror. “Oh that,” she said, dusting powder on her cheek. “Relax, Liv. He’ll never know the difference. I’m still tight like a prude virgin, plus I know how to take care of a man,” she winks. “I wasn’t there,” I whispered, voice shaking. “And? We’re twins, Olivia. That’s the whole point.” She told me without remorse. I felt broken , she stole my special night, my special moment. I didn’t yell, I couldn’t if I wanted to. I didn’t break anything. I just stood there, staring at the girl who wore my face like a mask. And she smiled as if she hadn’t just shattered something sacred. That was the moment I understood that Sophia didn’t just want love or a bond. She wanted ownership of everything I desire. She wants to be herself and be me too. She wanted to be adored so badly that she’d steal my identity to get it. That night, I stood in front of my bathroom mirror, sobbing as I cut my hair shorter. The next day, I stopped wearing her clothes and I made a quick stop to the salon to get my shorter hair dyed black. Now I look different from my twin with her natural blonde hair that is so full and long. I stopped covering her lies. And after prom and our family party, I packed everything I owned in a single bag and bought a one-way ticket out of town. No goodbye... No note... No forwarding address... If she wanted a twin sister, she’d have to find one somewhere else. I left without looking back and Eight years passed before I heard my family’s voices again. The envelope came on a Tuesdayz gold-trimmed, heavy, expensive. Even before opening it, I knew whose world it came from. I could smell the perfume of attention on the paper. It screams Sophia and I curiously opened it to see it’s content. “MR. & MRS. Gonzalez REQUEST THE HONOR OF YOUR PRESENCE AT THE WEDDING OF THEIR DAUGHTER, SOPHIA Gonzalez, TO DOMINIC JEFFERSON FERNANDEZ.” Billionaire. That was the word under his name, printed in tiny letters like it was an afterthought. Sophia had done it again. A part of me wanted to laugh, of course she was marrying rich. Of course she was living the dream. And of course, after eight long years of silence, my family only remembered I existed because they needed something. They want to show me off to the rich guests coming to my sister’s wedding. I can imagine mom flaunting me to rich men, trying to find me a man befitting their status. I should’ve ignored it, thrown it into the trash. But my hands trembled, and my chest felt heavy. Not because I missed them, but because some small, foolish part of me still wondered if maybe, just maybe I’d walk into that wedding and not feel like a ghost anymore. Maybe for the first time in my life, I’ll finally be noticed. I didn’t know then that I wasn’t going to my sister’s wedding, I was walking back into a war. And this time, I wasn’t the one pretending to be her. This time… they would force me to become her again.