My Husband Replaced Me WITH MY TWIN SISTER

Chapter 4

Madeline's POV

Elliot took another slow drag from his cigar, completely unperturbed. "I think it's time to tell the truth, darling. Sienna and I... our story began before yours. Long before."

"Before..." I repeated the word, my brain struggling to process the meaning. "What does that mean? Where did you meet?"

Sienna stepped closer, lightly rubbing her reddened cheek. Her face was illuminated by a sickly victorious expression. "I was the one who introduced Elliot to you, remember? At that post-graduation party. I insisted you go. What I conveniently forgot to mention was that the two of us had already been seeing each other, in secret, for six whole months."

"Six months?" The word came out as an incredulous whisper. "You... you were together when he... when he started sending me flowers, calling me, asking me to be his girlfriend?"

"When he started courting you?" Sienna finished, and her smile was a horrible, twisted thing. "Exactly. It was all an arrangement. He was always mine, Madeline. From day one. You were just... you. A means to an end."

Elliot nodded slowly, confirming each word with a calm movement of his head. "Your family, Madeline, had better political and social connections. Getting close to you first was a strategic move. It was easier to infiltrate the right circles by starting with the more impressionable Rhodes daughter."

"And the designs..." I choked, a new wave of betrayal hitting me, even deeper and more poisonous. "All those projects, those furniture lines that took your company to the top... You always said they were hers, that she was the talented designer behind it all..."

"They were mine," I confirmed, and the truth of what I was saying made my legs completely give way. I slid down the side of the table, falling to my knees on the thick carpet. The air felt heavy, hard to breathe. "You stole my sketchbooks, my projects, my creativity, and gave the credit to her."

"Stealing is such a strong and ugly word, Madeline," Elliot said, with a tone almost of reproach. He rested the cigar in the crystal ashtray. "I merely... redistributed the recognition to where it was most strategically useful. The name 'Sienna Rhodes' sounded more sophisticated in the international market. It was an asset."

Sienna walked with determined steps to the mahogany bookshelf. She picked up a brown leather portfolio, one I hadn't seen in years. It was one of my old portfolios. She opened it and pulled out a sheet, holding it up for me to see.

It was the initial sketch for the "Aura" chair, the piece that had defined Thorne Designs' early success. "Remember this?" she asked, her voice dripping sweet poison.

"You showed me these sketches one night at my apartment, excited, saying you'd finally found your voice. You went to get wine. I took pictures with my phone and sent them to Elliot. The next week, he registered the design in my name. It was like that for years. Everything you created, I presented as mine."

"For years?" I whispered, looking at the drawing that was an extension of my soul, now stained by her lie. The room began to spin slowly around me, the furniture, the shelves, their faces, all blending into a nauseating whirlwind. "Everything? The marriage, our creative partnership... even the children? Were they also part of the plan?"

"Everything," Elliot confirmed, his voice final like the closing of a coffin. He crushed the cigar in the ashtray, extinguishing it completely. "The marriage provided the facade of stability and traditional family that investors love. The 'partnership' with Sienna gave the company a sheen of family creativity. And the children... well, they solidified the image. The perfect Montgomery family. It was a complete package."

I remained kneeling on the floor, the weight of the betrayal was no longer emotional, but physical, like a concrete block on my back, crushing me against the carpet. "Mason... Violet..." My children's names came out as a lament. "They are my children! I carried them, I raised them!"

"For now," Elliot said with a coldness that made me shudder to the core. "But children are adaptable, Madeline. They forget quickly, especially when they are gifted with a new mother who not only gives them everything they want but is also a glamorous 'star' they can look up to."

Sienna knelt, bending her knees carefully so as not to wrinkle her dress. She leaned forward, getting to my level. Her perfume, a woody, floral scent, invaded my space, filling my nostrils, making me nauseous.

"I'm going to be such a better mother to them than you ever were, Madeline. With better skin, more fun, more connected. I already am, actually. Violet, that sweetheart, has already started calling me 'Mommy Sienna' when you're not around. It was her idea, you know?"

I raised my eyes, slowly, forcing myself to meet her gaze. And for the first time, without the mask of the caring sister or the successful businesswoman, I saw the true malice there, pure and undiluted. "Why?" My voice was a thread of sound, laden with absolute confusion. "Why do this to me? I was your sister. I loved you."

"Because you always had everything!" she exploded, losing all composure at once. Her voice was a sharp scream, her eyes wide and wild. She jumped up, gesturing angrily.

"For as long as I can remember! The best dresses, the best toys, the best opportunities! And you always had our father's eyes, you were his little princess! And then, when we grew up, you got the one thing I wanted more than anything else: Elliot! No! This time, I won! I took everything from you!"

Elliot stood up and put his hand on her arm, pulling her back firmly, containing her outburst. "Enough, darling. She gets the point." He then turned to me. "Madeline, you'd better go now. The taxi is waiting on the curb. Don't make more of a scene."

I stood up slowly, my legs shaking so much they could barely support me. I clutched the table, my fingers white against the dark wood. "I will fight this," I said, trying to inject some strength into my voice, but it still sounded fragile.

"I swear to God I will fight. I will expose you both. I will tell the truth to everyone – to the press, to your precious investors, to our friends."

"And who, exactly, is going to believe you?" Elliot asked, his voice smooth as velvet, but sharp as a blade.

"To the outside world..." Elliot paused, letting the words hang in the air. "You are just an emotionally unstable woman. A wife facing a difficult divorce..." He took another drag from the cigar, releasing the smoke slowly. "Clearly consumed by jealousy of her own sister."

Sienna laughed softly, a smooth, cruel sound. "A sister who is a successful designer..." she added, running her fingers lightly over Elliot's arm. "And who now... well, now is the new woman in your ex-husband's life."

Elliot nodded, his cold eyes fixed on me. "The story... the story writes itself, Madeline." He paused again, studying my reaction. "Even that best friend of yours... David..."

Sienna tilted her head, a feigned smile of sympathy on her lips. "Do you really think he will believe your word..." she made a dramatic pause, "...against ours?"

Before I could even fully process the depth of that situation, Sienna was already moving.