Niall’s P.O.V.

Aria had fallen asleep with her head resting on my chest. I studied her face carefully, my thumb brushing over her full, pink lips. Her complexion was absolutely beautiful, with a natural blush of light pink present on her cheeks. She exhaled air lightly through the small parting in her lips, her long eyelashes covering her eyes as she rested. Lately, there had been very few times that I had seen her in such a calm and relaxed form.

I felt so bad for her. So much stress had been put on her and she was carrying a heavy weight on her back. I understood why she felt like everything was her fault, but the past events were inevitable on her part. She could do nothing to stop them.

What mattered now is that I had the chance to hold her. To be the one to comfort her was all I could have ever asked for, since the day I met her. I remembered her shy face when she first saw me, and how Liam had called me out for staring at her instead of letting her into our hotel room in California. It wasn’t my fault she was so damn beautiful. I remember that was the day I realized that if I couldn’t have her, there was no point trying to have a relationship with anybody. I was just one ounce luckier than some other guy to get her to fall in love with me the way I fell so fast for her.

Aria had definitely matured. When I first met her, her face was young and bright. She constantly wore baggy clothing to cover her body that she believed was anything but beautiful. Now, her curves were defined and she wore clothes that brought them out in the sexiest humanely way possible. It was nearly impossible to not stare every time she walked by, though over time I had managed to control myself.

More so, she deserved none of what Scarlett did to her. The more I thought about it, the more it didn’t make sense to me. Why would Aria’s own sister want to hurt so badly? As far as I knew, Aria had done nothing wrong. Jealousy drove people far, but not this far. Aria and I were missing a huge piece in this puzzle, I just knew it. But I didn’t know what it was. Scarlett seemed like such a happy sister in the pictures that Aria showed me from the scrapbook. Something had changed about Scarlett around her teen years. Something drastic, that changed her forever. And the more I thought about this, the things Scarlett told Aria lingering at the back of my head, something clicked.

“There are two of us, if it helps your puny little brain.”

Maybe Scarlett wasn’t Scarlett.

Maybe there was another Scarlett.

Two of them.

---

Aria’s P.O.V.

They wouldn’t let us in.

We spent nearly an hour talking to the guard outside of the large Gracedale factory, trying to convince him that I was related to Alan Grace. It was hard to give them proof when the only proof we had was an article off the internet. We tried to explain our situation with Scarlett and our suspicions of her, but the damn stupid security guard didn’t believe us.

“How the hell are we going to sneak in?” Niall groaned as we sat parked in the large parking lot. “There are fucking security guards everywhere.”

“We could try sneaking in through the back.”

“That’s an idea,” Niall agreed. “But how do we get passed the employees walking by? We definitely should have thought this through.”

“Let’s just try and get inside first,” I sighed softly. “Hopefully we can find Alan’s office and convince him that we aren’t crazy. Put your phone on record so we can catch anything he says.”

“But think about it,” Niall’s hesitation captured my attention. “The last thing he would want to believe is that his daughter is some crazy criminal. He’ll kick us out for sure.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” I slapped his arm lightly, opening the car door. “Just stay low. And seriously, put your phone on record.” I got out of the car and crouched down, waiting for my chicken of a husband to follow my lead. He took ahead of me, together, sneaking behind a row of bushes that covered our bodies as we moved along the side of the enormous building. Niall suddenly flush at arm back, stopping me from moving further. He pushed me against the wall roughly, sucking in his breath.

I followed his gaze to see two guards coming out of the door just three feet ahead of us. The way that Niall glanced at me let me know we were thinking the same thing; stop that door from closing. The door was halfway to locking shut when Niall took a lucky shot and flung a pebble at the door, just barely stopping it in time. Relieved exhales escaped both our mouths as we waited a second.

“Stay down.” Niall whispered. “I need to make sure the hallway is clear.”

I nodded at watched as he stood up, moving his body against the wall to peek through the crack the pebble had created. Shortly after, he gave me a thumbs up and grabbed my hand, pulling me inside. The hallway was long, with many doors and what looked like a large lobby area further down.

“Over there,” I pointed to the door nearest to us. Niall nodded and pushed the door open, pulling me inside once he made sure the room was empty. But it wasn’t completely empty. It seemed too good to be true. The room we had walked into just happened to be a changing room for employees, the baby blue uniforms worn by them people walking by hung up on various racks across the entire room.

“Grab your size,” Niall hissed, giving me a light push. “Hurry.”

I grabbed a shirt and pants that seemed to be my size, pulling them over my clothes. I tucked my shirt in like I had seen other employees do. Niall dressed himself as well. It was agreeable that we fit in much better with the simply pieces of clothing. After leaving the changing room, we kept our heads low and moved down the hallway. We got a few looks from employees walking past us, but for the most part we were ignored.

“Hey, you two new?”

Or not.

Niall look up first, then myself. A lady dressed in a uniform identical to ours stood in front of us with a curious expression. She studied our faces carefully.

“Yeah,” Niall answered for the both of us. “It’s our first day.”

“Oh,” she nodded slowly, continuing to study us. I watched her carefully as her eyes lingered over Niall’s face. Realization hit her faster than I had hoped, and soon she was pointing a finger at him. “Aren’t you that guy from the boyband?”

“I get that way too often.” Niall chuckled nervously, trying to brush the comment off.

“No,” the lady narrowed her eyes at him. “My daughter loves your band. One Dimension, right?”

“It’s One Direction.” Niall rolled his eyes, suddenly realizing his slip up. The lady’s eyes widened and I assumed she would start begging him for an autograph, attracting attention towards us.
And just as I thought, she did bring attention to us, but in a completely different manner.

“We have intruders!”

Heads turned to us in a domino reaction, hundreds of eyes burning into our souls.

“Run.”

The words came out of Niall’s mouth as a low hiss, demanding and stern. I stared back at the employees, trying to from a clear path through them with my eyes. Past the fat one, around the tall guy, through the two desks, dodge the double doors, up the stairs. I took off, Niall running after me. People began to shout, hands trying to grab me as I maneuvered quickly through the obstacles. I could feel Niall close behind me. I nearly ran over one short lady, knocking her to the floor. I sprinted up the long set of stairs.

“Go, go, go!” Niall yelled behind me. I took a deep breath and pushed myself to run as fast as I could. We reached the second floor and ran past the doors.

“There they are!” I turned my head for a split second to see three guards gaining on us. Niall grabbed my hand and dragged me along as we sprinted down the hallway. As soon as we lost sight of the guards, Niall pushed open a door to a room, shutting the door behind us. I turned around and had a near heart attack at what I saw before me.

There sat Alan Grace behind his large desk with the most intimidating expression I had ever seen.

“M-Mr. Grace,” Niall gulped beside me, grabbing onto my hand. “What a pleasure that we’ve run into you.”

Alan’s eyes narrowed as he stared at us. “Who are you, and what are you doing in my office?”
Niall glanced at me, and I knew it was my turn to speak. I needed to be straightforward with the limited time we had.

“We might have some information of your daughter.” I spoke clearly, “You know, the one you gave up for adoption.”

Alan’s eyes widened and he sat up straighter, but the stern look on his face remained. It was clear he was trying to suppress his initial curiosity. “And why do you believe this interests me? I have important business to attend to.”

“I understand, Mr. Grace.” I said, stepping up. “But please, give me a chance to explain. My family and I are under a lot of pressure right now and you are just about are last hope.”

“I have no time to deal with your family problems.” Alan Grace rolled his eyes. “Please leave unless you are here for business matters.”

“Mr. Grace, please.” I begged. “Just let me tell you what I know. I’m sure you’ll gain some sort of interest if you just hear me out. It’s a lot of unbelievable stuff, but that’s why we need your help.”

“I have no time to deal with your damn family.” Alan Grace spat. “I have my own family and I am more than happy. I gave up my daughter for a reason and I want nothing to do with her. Now, leave my office now before I call security and have them deal with you.”

“Listen up,” Niall growled, suddenly stepping up after being so quiet. He went straight up to Alan’s desk and set his hands on the edge, claiming his ground. “Being a father myself, I know that deep down you care for the daughter that you never got to raise. I understand that you are a busy man, but don’t push my limits. There is a high possibility that your daughter is in my wife’s family and if she is, she’s done some terrible things.”

Niall glanced back at me and waited for me to continue.

“Do you remember your daughter having blue eyes and dark brown hair?” I asked, joining Niall’s side at the edge of Alan’s desk so he was forced to look at us. He nodded slowly, trying to look bored. But some spark in his eyes comforted me. We were buying his attention. “What age did you put her up for adoption?”

“Three,” Alan gulped, clearly pained at the memories. “Poor children, only three years old. Poor Camryn.”

“You said children.” I called him out. “Did you put more than one child up for adoption?”

“Camryn?” Niall picked up, cutting over my question with a look that read, Slow down a bit. “Is that what her name is?”

Alan nodded, his Adam’s apple moving up and down as he gulped. “Camryn.”

“Pretty name.” Niall sympathized. “Is it possible that you and your wife had twins? It would definitely fit our situation if this were true.”

Alan’s expression hardened. He shook his head vigorously, glaring daggers into Niall’s eyes. “Of course not. That’s the most absurd thing I’ve heard. Foolish even.”

“It’s absolutely fine if this is true,” I said carefully. “Whatever we discuss will remain between us. I suppose if we tell you why we’re here, you might be more up to telling us what you know.”

“It’s a long story,” Niall added on, squeezing my hand gently. “And it’s just about the most unbelievable story you’ll hear in your lifetime.”

“It started when I was four years old.” I tried to recall every detail I possibly could. “After my mom left a year earlier, my dad and I got the call from the police station saying that my sister, Scarlett, got into a car crash. It happened so quick. They said they only identified her because of her driver’s license, considering the fire from the crash completely ruined her. Only two years earlier, she would come home drunk. She started smoking and partying. It was a complete personality change that happened in such a short time. So when she supposedly died from drunk driving, it wasn’t too much of a surprise.

“But a few months ago, someone broke into our house and left a note, addressed to me by the nickname only Scarlett called me. At first there were so many possibilities of what could be the case. Perhaps someone caught her calling me by the nickname, but then, more and more messages erupted my phone and we found out that every device in our house that had a webcam installed was tapped.” Alan’s face crumpled with worry. “A bullet was shot through the kitchen window and just barely passed by our children’s ears. And just weeks ago, my sister Scarlett herself showed up in my bedroom and beat me up to the point where I nearly passed out. And she told me ‘there are two of us’. At first I didn’t know what it meant, but then my husband here gave me his theory.”

Niall stepped up and took over our explanation. “We think that Scarlett has a twin. It would make sense, that is, if you and your wife had twins. We believe that around the time that Scarlett’s personality changed, the real Scarlett was actually captured by her twin and replaced. Her twin probably watched over the family carefully and waited until their mom left, so ‘Scarlett’s’ personality change could easily be blamed on the loss of her mother. And speaking of the driver’s license found in the car crash, we think that the car crash was set up. Scarlett’s twin may have put the driver’s license in a person’s car with similar physical appearances as Scarlett. We think that Scarlett was kidnapped by her twin and was forced to give every piece of information she knew about Aria so she could come after her.”

As our explanation came to an end, Alan’s face had subsided to a pale color. He stared at us, speechless. Niall grabbed my hand again, waiting for Alan to speak. When he did, all the confidence in his voice had drained out completely. We had managed to break him of his walls, exactly what we wanted.

“What I’m about to tell you two is to be completely confidential.” He spoke raspily. “If word gets out, I will have my security track you down and personal tear each of you apart.”

Niall and I both nodded to show our understanding. I tried desperately to hide my smile. Thank god, we were finally getting somewhere. “We swear on our hearts, Mr. Grace.”

Alan took a deep shaky breath, his icy blue eyes darkening as he began to speak. “My wife and I did have twins.” He confessed. “Camryn and Candace. Camryn was the absolute definition of a perfect child. She was very loving, even at her young age. She loved us, I just knew it, and she wouldn’t stop crying when we gave her to the adoption agency. Candace on the other hand was the main reason we gave up on parenting. She was a…” Alan gulped. “…a devil child. She screamed when she didn’t get what she wanted. She constantly tried to get into brutal fights with Camryn. She would come to our room in the middle of the night and dig her nails into my skin just to see blood. She was obsessed with blood. Each time she fell and scraped her knee, she would simply stare at the blood instead of asking for a band-aid. A couple of times, she tried to get her hands on Camryn but fortunately we were there to stop her. Still, she completely drained us of hopes of being a family, and we eventually gave them up for adoption. We sent them to different agencies, and that was the last time we saw them.”

Niall looked at me and nodded, signaling me to get the pictures out. I nodded back and dug my hand into my jean pockets, pulling out a couple of pictures I had gathered from the scrapbook that Scarlett and I had made together. I placed them on Alan’s desk and pushed them towards him.

“Is this Camryn?” I asked as he stared at the pictures. The tears that rimmed his eyes gave me an answer. He shook his head in disbelief and flipped through the pictures of Scarlett, occasionally myself appearing in the pictures as well.

“I know this is Camryn,” he spoke softly. “Not Candace.”

“How can you tell?”

“Candace had a large birthmark on her neck. It’s hard to miss.” He answered.

With that, my body went limp. I recalled the day that “Scarlett” had broken into my bedroom.

And I remembered as she spoke insults towards me, the way she ran her fingers over the birthmark on her neck. A birthmark that the real Scarlett never had.

“Candace was the one who assaulted me,” I turned to Niall with wide eyes. He looked especially confused, searching my face as I spoke. “She kept running her finger over this humongous birthmark on her neck whenever she yelled at me. Scarlett never had a birthmark, I just know it.”

“Yes,” Alan cut in. “Candace rubbed her neck a lot, especially when she stood in front of my bed in the middle of the night. I guess the habit never broke.”

Slowly, the pieces were beginning to fit together. Everything was falling into place. The shock nearly made me collapse. It was so much to take in. This whole situation had been a completely terrible misunderstanding. There were so many different concepts within this complex situation that had taken us by surprise, and we were so quick to jump to conclusions when we hadn’t even fully understood what was going on.

“So do you agree with us that Candace is behind the dangerous actions happening to our family?” Niall asked Alan. “Do you believe us?”

Alan looked Niall in the eye.

“I believe you.”

“So will you help us?” I gulped, trying to hold back tears. “As we said earlier, you really and truly are our last hope. And for all we know, your daughter Camryn could be in a lot of danger.”
“I will do everything I can.” Alan nodded confidently, standing up. He held his hand out. “I never properly introduced myself. I’m Alan Grace.”

“Aria Horan,” I shook his hand.

“Niall Horan,” Niall shook Alan’s hand as well. When Niall mentioned his name, Alan’s eyes expanded.

“Niall Horan, from the boy band, correct?”

“Yes, sir.” Niall blushed lightly.

“I knew you looked familiar.” Alan spoke more to himself than to us. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, and I will do everything in my power to help you and your family. You two seem like well respectable people and for that, I’m glad. Just tell me what I can do, and I’ll see if I can.”

“Well,” Niall suggested. “You could start by giving us the names of the adoption agencies that Scar- er, Camryn and Candace were sent to.”

“Camryn went to Lisle Adoption Agency.” Alan replied as if he had the names memorized. “Candace went to Sunnyside Adoption Agency. Lisle was stationed in Sacramento, California while Sunnyside was stationed in Houston, Texas.”

“Thank you,” Niall exhaled, writing the names down on a small sticky note taken from Alan’s desk. “This will help us a bunch.”

“It’s the least I can do.” Alan nodded quickly. “Please, take a business card so you’ll have my contact information. And if it’s possible, can I get some contact information for you as well?”

Niall and I both agreed, giving Alan our numbers and emails. Alan personally lead us outside to the parking lot, and lent us two guest passes to enter his building without hassle in the future.
As we drove back to our hotel, we both sat speechless. The day had been eventful and valuable in more ways that I imagined.

“Aria?” Niall reached over and squeezed my hand.

“Yeah?”

“We completely misunderstood everything.”

“I know.”

“So now we have to go to Houston. Better get some tickets when we get back to the hotel.”

“I’m honestly terrified. Candace sounds like a psychopath.”

“She probably is.”

“But what did I ever do to her?”

“You’re related to Scarlett. You’re automatically a target.”

Notes