THE BRIDAL SWITCH

CHAPTER TWO

​POV: Amanda

​The morning light began to bleed through the hospital blinds in thin, grey strips, and I sat in the hard plastic chair with my eyes burning from the lack of sleep while I watched the steady rise and fall of Audrey’s chest.

The machines hummed and beeped in a rhythm that made my own heart feel heavy, and I reached out to touch my sister’s cold hand, but she didn’t move or react to my touch at all.

I had spent the last few hours thinking about our childhood and the way she always got everything she wanted, and now she was lying here while the world outside was preparing for the biggest wedding of the year. The door to the private room pushed open quietly, and my mother walked in with a cup of coffee that she hadn’t offered to bring for me, and she stood at the foot of the bed with a look of pure calculation on her face.

​“Get up, Amanda, because we don’t have much time left before the stylists arrive at the house,” she said, and she didn’t even look at Audrey as she spoke, but instead kept her eyes fixed on the gold watch on her wrist.

​“I’m not leaving her, Mom, and I don’t care about the stylists or the wedding right now,” I replied, and I felt a surge of anger that she was still talking about logistics while my twin was in a coma.

​“You are going to listen to me very carefully, because I have already made the arrangements, and you are going to go to that house and put on that dress,” she said, and she stepped closer to me until I could smell her expensive perfume mixing with the scent of hospital disinfectant.

​“I told you last night that I won’t do it, and it’s insane to think I can just walk into a church and marry Leo Sandler without anyone noticing,” I said, and I stood up so I didn’t have to look up at her anymore, but my legs felt weak and shaky from the exhaustion.

​“People see what they expect to see, and since you are identical, no one is going to question why the bride is a little quieter than usual on her wedding day,” she argued, and she set her coffee down on the tray table next to Audrey’s medicine.

​“It’s not just about the look, Mom, because Leo has spent months with her, and he’s going to know the moment I open my mouth that I’m not the woman he’s engaged to,” I said, and I shook my head because the whole plan felt like a disaster waiting to happen.

​“Leo Sandler is a busy man who is marrying your sister for a business alliance, so do not flatter yourself by thinking he is deeply in love with her personality,” she said coldly, and she crossed her arms over her chest while she stared me down. “This wedding is about the Sandler Global Holdings and the Hart family reputation, and if we cancel now, the scandal will follow us for the rest of our lives.”

​“Then let it follow us, because I would rather deal with a scandal than live a lie that involves a marriage certificate,” I replied, and I turned back toward the window because I couldn’t stand the way she was looking at me.

​“Is that your final answer, Amanda?” she asked, and her voice dropped into a low, dangerous tone that made me freeze where I stood. “Because if it is, then you should know that I have decided to officially liquidate the shares your father left for you in the family company.”

​I spun around to face her, and I felt the air leave my lungs as if she had punched me in the stomach, because those shares were the only thing I had left of my father’s legacy. “You can’t do that, because he left them to me specifically, and they were supposed to be mine when I turned twenty-five.”

​“I am the executor of the estate, and I can argue that you are mentally unfit to manage them if I want to, or I can simply tie them up in court for the next ten years until they are worthless,” she said, and she smiled a little bit because she knew exactly how much power she held over me.

​“That’s my inheritance, and it’s the only way I can finally move out and start my own life away from you,” I whispered, and I felt tears stinging my eyes because I knew she was serious about taking everything away from me.

​“Then earn them, Amanda, and all you have to do is play this part for a few weeks until Audrey wakes up and we can figure out a way to switch you back,” she said, and she reached out to pat my cheek, but I flinched away from her hand.

​“A few weeks? You want me to live with him? To sleep in the same house as a man who thinks I’m his wife?” I asked, and the horror of the situation was finally starting to sink in.

​“Leo is a gentleman, and he will be too busy with the merger to bother you much, so just stay in your room and pretend to have a headache if he gets too close,” she instructed, and she picked up her coffee again as if the matter was already settled.

​“This is wrong on so many levels, and I don’t understand how you can sit there and plan this while your daughter is lying right behind you in a coma,” I said, and I looked at Audrey’s pale face, wondering what she would say if she could hear us.

​“I am doing this for Audrey, because if she wakes up and finds out she lost the Sandler fortune because of a car accident, she will never forgive us,” my mother said, and she walked toward the door and held it open for me. “This is the only time you will ever be useful to this family, Amanda, so don’t ruin it with your misplaced morals.”

​I looked around the room, feeling the walls closing in on me, and I thought about the shares and the freedom they represented, and then I looked at the cold woman standing in the doorway who had spent her whole life making me feel like I was nothing. I knew that if I didn’t do this, I would be stuck under her thumb forever with no money and no future, and the weight of the choice felt like a physical pressure on my chest.

​I took a deep breath and walked toward her, and my voice was barely a whisper when I finally looked her in the eyes.

​“...What do I have to do?”