Page 153 of Poison Aches

“Daddy! You didn’t know but Mom actually had twins when she had me! This is Ivy, my sister!” Melissa says happily.

Governor Hughes stares at me, with an impressively schooled face.

He looks like he’s genuinely surprised and delighted, but his eyes are ablaze with fury.

At Melissa or at me, I don’t know.

“Oh, this is just…wow,” he starts and then he turns around as if to look for someone. “Honey, is this true?”

Don’t look.

Don’t look.

Don’t… but it’s too late.

My gaze follows where Governor Hughes is looking and land on a tall, strikingly beautiful woman.

Her brown skin is glowing as if it’s shimmering with diamonds.

Her curly hair is swept up in an elegant updo with a few tendrils at her temples.

Her high cheekbones, beautiful nose, and sparkling eyes are so perfect, she could be a model or a movie star.

The woman looks so much like Melissa, so much like me…and so much like Grammy and Gramps, the parents Beverly Irving dumped me to.

Jesus.

“Oh God,” the woman whispers shakily. “This cannot be.”

“Oh but, Mom, it is!” Melissa says gleefully. “I found my sister! The one you told me died at birth!”

Died at birth?

I feel sick to my stomach so much so that my forehead feels damp with a sheen of perspiration, and down my spine an intense wave of shudders are rolling through me as if I’m being electrocuted.

Oh no… it’s back.

I need to get out of here…

“E-excuse me…” I croak, but in front of me, around me, all I feel are stares of judgment, shock, and I think there are people filming me right now.

With wide eyes and fear drumming in my blood, I quickly turn around and start making my way toward the door I just used.

Each step I take feels like my body is being dragged back, weighted down by the quicksand I’m sinking in.

My entire body starts trembling.

I’m shaking so hard, I think I might wet myself or pass out or both.

“Excuse me,” someone says behind me, but I ignore them and keep going.

“Ivy, please wait!”

Trembling, I keep going.

Blindly, I go down a hallway, then I turn left on another, my feet stumbling against each other but I'm not fast enough.

I crash into someone holding a tray of champagne flutes.

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