Tale of two sisters

“The business needs financial assistance. Lots of it” Mr. Whitemore's voice resounded breaking the fragile silence that cases the dining room. Olivia raises her tinted blue glass to her lips, taking in the water rather slowly. To while away some time for sure. It wasn't her first time. She was, if not is now, used to the practice. “All would be fine” Ximena Comforted. A sharp click shakes Olivia as she startles. Mr Whitemore drops his fork on his just-emptied silver plate. “Oh? ...” He started, raising his grey brows. “Then you may as well just make it fine. How about you give some money to the factory. At least for the first time in your life!” He returned sharply to Ximena. Olivia's eyes meet with her and she breaks off with a bowed head staring at her food. She didn't seem interested in it from the start. Her mood didn't suggest it anyway. Mr. Whitemore had always been domineering and harsh. He smiled more a little often than ever and seemed to always wear one look—A straight face. Olivia wondered if he ever had happy days. He did. He used to. When the factory yields much, when he gets his expired packs of drinks cleated without being altered by the authorities, when he persuades his way over a price bargain, or when Olivia comes top of her class. Her coming second was last of last to him. But those days were fewer. He's such great a businessman that his factory loses daily. Olivia sunk into her white cotton dress, and then into her chair. She completely lost her appetite. Dinner wasn't so much of a pleasure with him around. His temper seemed to always throw the atmosphere of the whole duplex into gloom. The same gloom her mother wore at that moment, and oftentimes. Just then, Mr. Whitemore's voice quaked, once more. “None ever! Would I see Olivia in this state” Everyone's eyes rose and moved in the same direction, settling on her. She just came in through the door. “Such audacity! , Young woman.” He stood up, his finger shakily pointing at her with the veins almost leaving through his wrinkled skin. “You should be living on your own, and not on my money. My hard-earned money!”. The dishes on the table leap as he slams it with his fist causing Ximena to rise in shock. Ximena stares deeply at Natalie. Her first daughter was born exactly 25 years ago that day. She looked with searching eyes to where her true daughter went, wishing she didn't turn out to be what she was looking at. Natalie stepped in ragged trousers and an armless crop top. It was obvious she had gotten a new tattoo. This time, on her right shoulder, in addition to the last one which got her infected. It took Olivia’s savings to get her treated. She had numerous piercings. Her ears suffered, as well as her belly and nose. Olivia sneezed at the stark odor of alcohol emanating from her. She was at the club, obviously where she spent most of her time. She ignored Mr. Whitemore despite his ravings and ran upstairs. She paused and gave a sinister look at Olivia before getting on to her room. They were worlds apart even as far back as her father got changed by life's cruel outcome. Mr. Whitemore showed no iota of affection, whatsoever for Natalie. She adjusted to it just fine. She was never his daughter from the start, only Olivia was. Natalia's dad was long dead as young as age three before Ximena got married to Mr. Whitemore and gave her a sister, Olivia. Natalia, with her fiery spirit and unquenchable thirst for life, moved through the world like a whirlwind. As a club dancer, she commanded the attention of everyone around her, her movements, were a mesmerizing dance that captivated and enthralled. Yet beneath the surface of her vibrant exterior lay a well of betrayal and pain, a chasm that had opened in her heart the day she realized her mother, Ximena, would never stand up to her husband, and excruciatingly annoying stepfather, Mr. Whitemore, for her. It was always uneasy watching her mother dumb when he talked down on her. She locked up having secretly, enough tears from the sting of rejection she encountered each passing day in the solace of the duplex. The Club was so much better. So she felt. The disparity between the sisters Natalia and Olivia was etched into the lines of their lives. Mr. Whitemore growled at Ximena, storming out of the dining to his Bedroom. Ximena's sad eyes fall into Olivia's. She had so many questions, evident through her concerned eyes for Natali. But she spoke not so much. She would rather stay indoors for a month than speak a word against her husband. She leaves walking slowly to the study. That was her safe place for Olivia. They all knew she could neither read nor what she did there was known to her alone. Whether she cried, or prayed, no one. It was hers. Her safe place. "Natalia.” Olivia heaved a sigh at the bang of Nalatia's shut room door. She was the only one standing at the round mahogany table in the dining. The dishes also remained quiet through her thoughts. She, aware of the growing chasm between them, felt a pang of guilt for the privileges she had been granted, though she had never asked for them. She longed to bridge the gap and heal the rift, but Natalia seemed to drift further away with each attempt, her eyes often glinting with a coldness that belied their shared blood. Unbeknownst to Olivia, Natalia's feelings had crystallized into a dark resolve. The sense of being wronged, of being the overlooked daughter, had given birth to a plan—a plan that simmered in the back of her mind, waiting for the perfect moment to be set into motion. It was a plan that would change the course of their lives forever, a plan born not out of the love that once bound them, but out of the shards of a broken sisterhood. As the night deepened and the stars blinked into existence above, the two sisters, each lost in their world, stood on the precipice of destiny. One driven by ambition and the pursuit of dreams, the other by the desire for retribution and the haunting question of what might have been. Why did Ximena never stand up for her? If she isn't tired of his disgusting pride despite his ever-stagnant business? If She ever will? If her father, alive, would stand where her mother lacked? The unending whys had Natalia craving for answers and widening the gap between her and every other person in her supposed to-be-loving family. Olivia longed for love between them, and she got it a few days later even better