“The surveillance inside your flat shows that you went home each afternoon, made yourself a coffee and not long after you would fall asleep on the couch in front of the television. Natalie would come and check on you and then go over to your boyfriend’s house and pretend to be you.”
“What? Are you absolutely serious? This is preposterous, how did I not wake up when she entered my flat?”
“She drugged you,” Cayd put in. “Simon has footage of her mixing your sweetener with some kind of sleeping drug. Mia, I think you need to go to the police over this.”
“This is ludicrous,” Mia said to no one in particular.
“Let me show you the footage,” Simon said, nodding at Cayd who picked up a remote, aiming it at a wall mounted television. It blinked to life, quickly displaying a recording that showed Mia moving to sit on her couch before her head went slack. Simon took the remote and sped the recording forward a few minutes until Natalie entered the shot, confirming that everything he just told her was true.
Thankfully, Mia was sitting down when the realisation hit her, because the blackness came so quickly, she wouldn’t have had a chance at saving herself.
***
When Mia woke, it was dark outside and it took her a while to realise that she was lying on the long three seater couch that was in Cayd’s consultation room. A single lamp was lit in the corner and as she sat up, she realised that the doctor was still there, sitting in his chair working on his laptop.
“Oh, you’re awake,” he mentioned quietly. “Can I get you a glass of water?”
Mia simply nodded, her mind still reeling over all of the information she had been given over her predicament. She had a twin?
Gratefully, she accepted the water that Cayd offered her, closing her eyes momentarily as he placed a cool hand on her forehead, an expression of concern on his beautiful face.
“You have very lovely eyes,” she whispered suddenly, overcome with the need to tell him.
Smiling, he laughed a little through his nose and thanked her. “How are you feeling?”
“I really don’t know. This all seems so unreal,” Mia murmured, sitting up properly.
“I understand,” Cayd told her, resting his hand on hers reassuringly.
“You do?”
“Yes, you’ve had a big shock. Were you even aware that you were adopted?”
“I’m adopted!?” she burst out, almost choking on her water.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
“Of course I’m adopted… My parents never told me. I guess it makes sense,” she reasoned. “I don’t look that much like them, and they were so much older than everyone else’s parents…” she trailed off as her mind started piecing together sections of her life. “They’re dead now though.”
“Who? Your parents?”
“Yes, they died in a car accident a few years back – when I was nineteen. So they never told me, I wonder if they were ever going to…”
Cayd smiled at her kindly, not having the words to help her right now. He felt that if her parents were going to tell her she was adopted they would have told her long before now or at least provided some way of her finding out in the event of their death.
“I’m sorry Mia,” he said quietly.
“I can’t go home can I? I mean, I don’t know what to do… What if she’s there? Is she stable? Oh god, this is madness,” Mia said, raking her hands over her head.
“Listen, it’s already late, why don’t you just stay here for tonight, try to mull things over and then we can perhaps figure this out in the morning.”
“Stay here? In your office?”
“No, in my home. I live here as well.”
“Do you think that’s appropriate? I mean, you’re a doctor.”
Cayd let out a chuckle, “I’m not
your
doctor Mia, and there’s nothing happening to you that requires a psychiatrist’s help. Although, I would very much like to help you as a friend, if you’ll let me.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Well, it’s not every day that you meet someone who’s long lost twin has resurfaced and tried to insinuate herself into the other's life. If you don’t mind I would like to be there and see this one through.”
“Is that the only reason?” she asked, staring into his eyes as he sat in front of her, staring straight back. Electricity sparked in the air between them, drawing them toward each other until they were no more than a hair’s breadth apart. Suddenly Mia’s breath hitched and she turned her head, fighting the pull that was forcing them together. “I can’t do this, I have a boyfriend,” she gasped out, breathing heavily, her head swimming from his nearness.
“I’m sorry,” Cayd said, pulling back from her, “I shouldn’t have done that – I just…”
“I know, I’m sorry too. I really am, I feel this…. pull around you. But I’m supposed to be with Eric.”
“Of course you are. It won’t happen again,” he said, clearing his throat and lifting himself off the table to standing. “Come on, you can take the guest bedroom.”
“Are you sure that’s wise? I mean after we almost – ”
“It won’t happen again Mia. I assure you, you can go home if you’d prefer but the offer still stands – you can spend the night here, get some rest and then we can talk about the next move in the morning.”
“I think I’d like to stay,” Mia said, feeling calmer with him near her. The thought of going home to a flat that had been intruded upon didn’t sit well with her at all and her options were limited while Natalie was in the picture.
“Alright, follow me,” he said, leading her out the door towards the entry of his home.
***
Meanwhile, a silver Ford Focus with New South Wales plates sat parked at the curb outside Mia’s block of flats. Its sole occupant was starting to feel very nervous when her twin hadn’t arrived home at the expected time.
“Shit! She should have been home hours ago!” Natalie said to herself as she sat, staking out Mia’s block of flats. From what she had witnessed, Mia was a creature of habit, who was dedicated to her job. She was always home before dark. Where in the world would she have gone today?
For a while Natalie had started to panic at the thought of Mia being with Eric, but breathed a sigh of relief when he texted her to ask where she was. She felt trapped between her want to be with Eric and her need to make sure that Mia was passed out beforehand. So, Natalie returned his text, saying that she had a headache and needed to stay home tonight.
She had managed to keep Mia and Eric apart for most of this past month, bar a few chance meetings. She’d spent almost every night with him ever since they ran into each other at the 7-Eleven that day and he had kissed her.
Although she didn’t dare sleep over, not after the first time when she was nearly caught. She had only just made it out of the bathroom window in time and was thankful that she had taken her handbag containing her toiletries in with her or she would have been busted for sure.
The sleeping tablets she had been using were strong enough to knock her out within half an hour, but they weren’t strong enough to make sure she would sleep the entire night undisturbed. It was stupid of her to think that she could get away with sleeping over when she knew full well that the tablets weren’t fool proof. They were her prescription after all.
But there was something about Eric that drew her in and made her feel willing to do anything to be with him – even pretend to be someone else. At first, she just wanted to know what it was like to be Mia, but then he kissed her…
She sighed audibly as she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, remembering the sensation his lips against hers evoked in her body. She had now fallen heavily for him and didn’t want to risk the truth coming out before she was ready. Somehow she had to find a way to tell Eric who she was without ruining everything they had.
Her psychiatrist, Evelyn Butler, had advised her to come clean, saying that the longer she pretended to be someone she wasn’t - the harder it was going to be on everyone when the truth came out.
Natalie moved uncomfortably in her seat as she thought, she had omitted telling Evelyn that she was drugging Mia. She knew it was wrong, she knew she could get in a lot of trouble for it. But she just kept on reasoning that she was doing it to buy herself some time. She wasn’t ready to come clean yet, she wasn’t ready to risk losing Eric…
Checking her watch impatiently for the hundredth time in ten minutes Natalie huffed out her breath in frustration, drumming her fingers rhythmically on the top of her steering wheel as she stared out into the night. Eventually, she decided to return to her serviced apartment, annoyed that she wouldn’t get to see Eric. She would try to find Mia tomorrow.
“She’s still here?!” Cherry asked Cayd in hushed tones the next morning. “You could lose your license over something like this Cayd!”
“Why is this so hard for you and Evelyn to grasp? She’s not my patient Cherry, I’m not treating her,” Cayd replied, attempting to reason with her.
“Yes, but she came here as a patient Cayd and you’re continuing contact with her. I think it’s unethical,” Cherry reminded him, looking at him pointedly.
Raking his hands through his dark unruly hair, he huffed out his breath. “It will be fine Cherry. There’s nothing untoward going on here.”
Cherry placed her hands on her hips and continued her pointed look, “So a patient comes to you with a suspected alter ego, and you find out that she has a twin, so now you’re hanging out after hours PLUS she spent the night in your home? Not only does that sound ridiculous, but it sounds untoward as well – like she was the damsel in distress, and the good doctor saw an opportunity to save her.”
“It’s not like that! I met her before she came here. Besides, is it so wrong that I want to find out who this other twin is and why she’s trying to take over? This is the stuff that movies are made of Cherry – you don’t ever get to see this stuff in real life. I’m more than curious here. I have a burning desire to know.”
“A burning desire to get in that girl’s pants,” Cherry mumbled under her breath.
“What was that?”
“I said why can’t Harry’s guy help her? Why do you have to do this? We’re trying to build a practice here and Evelyn and I can’t do that on our own.”
“And we still are Cherry. But what am I going to do right now? I have two patients – that’s it. I’ve got a stack of time to kill.”
“So you’re going to be a psychiatrist slash private investigator until business picks up are you?”
“Something like that,” he conceded with a grin as he leant against the door frame behind Cherry’s desk.
Shaking her head, Cherry sighed as she studied her boss’ handsome face. “You know what your problem is? You have entirely too much money at your disposal.”
Cayd broke into a grin that set Cherry’s heart aflutter. She found him to be devastatingly attractive, especially on days like this when he didn’t have any patients booked and hadn’t bothered to shave. He was dressed casually in a fitted bonds t-shirt that showed off his lean build, a pair of slightly worn jeans, with bare feet.
“How is that a problem Cherry? If my father views love as unquestioned access to his funds, then I don’t have a problem with that, neither should you.”
“You know they say psychiatrists are the most messed up of them all right?” she pointed out.
“I do know that Cherry,” he laughed, pushing his weight off the door that led to the back of the building and his home.
“Just be careful ok?”
Cayd responded with a wink as he punched in a code and opened the door. “Tell Evelyn I’ll be out today, but call me if I’m needed,” he shot over his shoulder as he entered the hallway, padding quietly down the length of it until he reached another door that opened into his lounge room.
“I guess I’ll just stay here and man the phones then,” Cherry said to herself. “I can’t believe I gave up my old job to sit around all day doing nothing,” she continued to grumble as she opened her web browser and brought up Yahoo 7, so she could catch up on some tv shows as a way to occupy herself.
***
When Mia woke up, her head was pounding, and she still didn’t feel like she had slept much at all. Her body felt heavy with lethargy as she tried to move. Had she been at home in her own bed, she would have actually contemplated staying in it and calling sick to work that day. It was something she never did, knowing full well how hard it was to cover her classes. Normally, they needed to hire a substitute teacher and a translator, so she only called in sick when she absolutely could not work.
“Shit!” she exclaimed sitting bolt upright, as she realised that she was probably already late. Frantically, her eyes searched the room for a clock, finding one on the nightstand that read six-forty-five. Sighing in relief, she threw the covers back and stretched her arms above her head before standing up and gathering her clothing from yesterday. Having slept in her camisole and underwear overnight, she quickly slid her legs into her tailored dark grey pants and shrugged into her pale mauve button up blouse.
Turning around, she twisted her hair up in a messy bun and secured it with a hair elastic. It was something that she always made sure to keep around her wrist for when her long hair became too unruly or hot for her to wear out.
She then moved towards the bed, taking hold of the covers she had thrown back and securing them again, neatly in place before looking once more at the clock on the nightstand. Six-forty-five.