What Other Secrets?

Chapter Six... Single Maybe...

Lada knew deep down that she was the cause of this confusing situation, but she couldn’t look past her rage and act calmly.

Tawan looked at Lada with wide eyes, genuinely curious and annoyed with the way things were going.

“Lada…?” Ira carefully asked Lada who kept her warning gaze on Tawan.

Lada kept quiet… she didn’t know what reply to give and couldn’t bring herself to even glance at her lover.

“P’mor… can you stop and explain already? Why or how do you even have a look alike? How…? How is this even possible?” Earn finally spoke up, her voice cutting through the silence that had swallowed the house. Her voice firm, a tone she reserved for Lada when she wasn’t playing.

Lada took a step away from Tawan and looked to the wall behind her lover, not able to actually look her in the eye. She cleared her throat loudly as Tawan slowly got to her feet and stared holes in Lada’s head. Ira took quick steps till she was beside Tawan, holding her by the chin and inspecting the already forming bruise.

“N’Earn, I’ll explain eve-” Lada started slowly, thinking of the best way to actually explain what she was trying to say, her eyes found Earn who shot her a look that clearly said ‘I’m waiting’ and she puffed out air.

Tawan was exasperated with the way the events were unfolding and stepped towards Earn

“This is ridiculous Lada, you usually never bring your one nighters home, even the ones that you mess with for a couple months, you always meet with them at one of your apartments. What makes her so different? Because she’s a celebrity?” Tawan rushed out in a monotone voice still stalking towards Earn.

Earn didn’t particularly like the sound of any of the words that had left Tawan’s mouth, she also didn’t like the way the woman approached her slowly… dangerously. She looked at Ira who was staring at Lada confused. Tawan continued to approach Earn as she spoke

“You hit your Twin sister that you haven’t seen in nearly 6 years, because of your blonde slut?” it sounded like a rhetorical question. Ira looked shocked at the harshness of Tawan’s words, while any remorse Lada had was slowly being washed away by the steady waves of anger that crashed on her.

She looked to Tawan and watched as her younger twin grabbed Earn’s arm harshly and started dragging her to the door, “its time for you to leave blondie. You can offer your services to my twin another time, this is a family issue now.”

Earn was surprised at how roughly she was being dragged to the door, she was in shock so her body just followed while her mind raced, her wife wasn’t an only child, she had a twin sister… Lada had kept this from her… never once mentioned that she had a sibling, let alone a twin? Lada never told her twin sister that she was married, which was why she was being kicked out of her own home like she was some cheap w***e that didn’t know when to leave. Lada had kept Earn a secret from Tawan and Tawan a secret from Earn, and now the whole thing was blowing up. She felt embarrassed and ashamed. She had been demoted, in just a night, from being Lada’s wife, to being her plaything that shouldn’t even know her address…

Earn’s mind raced a mile a minute and she hadn’t noticed when Lada had stopped Tawan -roughly- and was now holding on to her with a firm and soft grip. Lada tried to gently rub Earn’s hand in hers as a way to soothe her with her eyes still glaring at Tawan, but it only made Earn feel sad and disgusted with the way things were going. She removed her arm from Lada’s hold fiercely and she couldn’t help the tears that gathered in her eyes and slowly rolled down her cheeks, she felt like the biggest fool in the room.

Lada turned to face Earn when she lost the warm contact in her hold. She saw the tears on Earn’s face as she saw a look she thought she’d never see on her partners face, -disgust and disappointment- this was not how Lada planned this evening to go… she had planned to sit everyone down for dinner and explain everything to them. Guilt washed over her as she took Earn’s cheeks in her hands slowly, her heart ached when the actress flinched away from her touch but she pressed on, she had to try and make it right, before things became irreparable. She looked into the actress’s eyes, trying to pass a message to her, trying to tell her that she’s sorry and will explain, she softly wiped the tears from Earn’s eyes when she heard a scoff behind her. Already knowing the source, she spoke slow and clearly with a hint of warning in her voice, her eyes never leaving Earn’s.

“Tawan, if you say one more disrespectful word about my ~wife~” she took a breath, slowly turning to look at Tawan as though to make her point clear that she wasn’t joking around “I will make sure you get the best treatment at my hospital… Are we clear?”

And without waiting for a reply, she took Earn’s hand in hers and led her to the living room, leaving a stunned Ira and Tawan standing there, shocked and seemingly speechless. Earn trudged slowly, she had never heard the doctor give threats before, but this sounded closer to a promise than a threat, and she was genuinely worried. It seemed like she was the only one though, Tawan stopped Lada when they crossed her front by grabbing on to her shoulder. Lada glanced at the hand placed on her and at the face of the owner, it was a silent warning, but Tawan wasn’t ready to back down to her older sibling and kept her hand placed on her shoulder.

“what do you mean ~wife~ Lada? Today at the hospital, you said she was just your good friend, now all of a sudden, you’re married? How is that possible?” Ira voiced out half of Tawan’s thoughts. Her grip on Lada’s shoulder tightened when she asked,

“You got married and didn’t tell me? You didn’t tell either of us? Mom? Dad? None of thought to reach out to me that my twin sister… the person I shared a womb with for 9 months was getting married?” she fully turned Lada roughly to face her

“Are you kidding me? Is this some kind of sick joke? Because there’s no way you would get married and never even bother to reach out to me. All the calls we had, the conversations, it never crossed your mind to say something? To mention that you were getting married?”

Lada’s hand had dropped Earn’s when she was turned around and she looked at Tawan’s face and saw anger and pain dancing along her features. The remorse that had been buried by her rage crept back to the surface accompanied by guilt. She sighed heavily looking at the face that resembled hers so closely… she was expecting a reaction but this night was a whirlwind that even she hadn’t planned on. She tried to keep a neutral face as she glanced away.

Tawan hated that… That blank expression that Lada put on, careful not to let any of her emotions show… she knew it well, after all, they had the same face. Now in the heat of the moment it only enraged her to see her twin look so neutral, as if what Tawan said or felt was invalid. She wanted to get a rise out of the doctor, to get a reaction. She knew that her sister was probably putting on a front, but she didn’t care, after all she thought she knew her sister, but just found out she was married.

Tawan scoffed at the thought that left a bitter taste in her mouth, “or did you go for any easy bimbo you could find?” she said the words with spite and hoped it would spark a reaction from Lada… but nothing… Instead, it was Ira that replied

“that’s enough P’wan. I know you’re hurt but N’Earn did nothing to you.”

Tawan looked to Earn whose expression was still distant and sad, she felt guilty about the things she’d said, but her anger wrapped in her pride stopped her from saying anything. She looked at Lada, still with the blank, unreadable expression on her face with a forlorn look, and it annoyed her even more when something dawned on her

“you never even told her about me Lada… you married her and never told her I existed? You tried to wipe me out of your life.?”

That had stuck a nerve in Lada long enough for her façade to crack. Tawan looked at Lada and saw the aloof and distant look was firmly placed back on her face. It irked Tawan to no end, wondering if jabbing at Earn was the only way to get Lada to react. And then the opportunity she’d wanted presented itself. Lada’s gaze flickered to something on Tawan’s neck, and it put a crack in her mask and Tawan saw it and could guess what was enough to do that. Tawan turned to Earn and said

“How much would I have to pay for you to give me another one of these?” she pointed to the hickey on her neck and continued “what’s the usual pay for premium pu-”

That was the last ground breaking for Lada, she grabbed Tawan by the shirt and cut her off with a punch squared in her face, before she could recover from that, Lada was already delivering the next one, and the next... She could vaguely hear Ira yelling for her to stop… she could vaguely hear Earn yelling that she should calm down, but her mind was hazy with anger and she poured it out on her twin.

Tawan had expected Lada to react fiercely, but she hadn’t anticipated for what she was receiving, she was getting blow after blow with little or no time to think. Lada had been the golden child growing up as she was the eldest, she was groomed to be a doctor and the next owner of the family business from the minute she was in diapers, meanwhile, she also received training, the pressures were non-existent for her. Lada was always the calm and quiet twin with her reserved but warm nature. Tawan was also quiet and reserved, but lacked that warmth, she seemed to have a cold vibe and always had trouble socializing. Lada helped her continuously, acting as her crutch in social meetings. She idolized her older twin. She remembers their late night promises to be each other’s maids of honor at their weddings, no matter what, so it stung differently with this revelation, she felt betrayed, like she hadn’t mattered enough to her twin to even be mentioned, let alone invited. One particular night, when they were still in their early teens, she remembers Lada coming home with some bruises and ignored it until the same thing happened the next night and the one after that. She’d threatened Lada to take her alongside or bear the wrath of their parents when she tells. Lada had been arm twisted into taking the anti-social ice twin to the gym/Dojo she had found and was using to release stress dissociate from the pressures that burdened her. Tawan couldn’t understand why Lada would willingly beat and get beat up… until she gave it a try. It became their secret, sneaking out to release stress with the sensei and gym equipment at the Dojo. One night, after a long training and work out, on the stroll back, Lada casually mentioned that if she could live the life she wanted, she would have become a bodyguard… for the thrill and the choice of it. Tawan had remained silent, offering only a hum as a reply. She knew that Lada would excel if she went down that path, she was yet to ever beat Lada in a fight, both on and off the Dojo mat, but that was the night she decided to become a bodyguard… and the person responsible for her life’s path was pummeling her face in and erased her from her life.

Tawan finally had a second to catch her breath and held the doctor’s fist before landing a clean hit to her ribs. The hit was enough to push Lada back but not stop her. In seconds, she tackled a disoriented Tawan to the ground, straddling her stomach, pinning her hands beneath her knees and making sure her fists had an equal taste of her twin’s bloodying face, she poured her 3 weeks of frustrations into her swings, jealousy that her twin had gotten more of Earn in a day that she had allowed herself to in 3 weeks. She only got 4 hits in before…

“P’MOR!!, STOP IT. YOU’LL KILL HER!” Earn’s sharp cry mixed with Ira lying over Tawan, shielding the bloodied opponent with her body, finally pulled Lada from the trance like state of anger she’d been in. she glanced at Tawan, barely conscious and still trying to move her hands, her face had bruises and her nose was bleeding out, following the steps of her cut lip and eye brow. Lada stood up silently and walked up the stairs. She did her best to make sure she didn’t glance at Earn or Ira. She was the bad guy this time, she knew fully well that she shouldn’t have taken it that far. And she didn’t think she could stand seeing fear on her wife’s face and disappointment on Ira’s probably crying face while held onto Tawan.

As she approached the top of the stairs, her anger has dissipated, leaving only the sting from her bruised knuckles. She recalled Earn needing to leave the country tomorrow night. She couldn’t help wonder if she would still be married by tomorrow morning…