Mistaken Identity
My mom, Nicole Anderson, leaned over the coffin of her deceased identical twin sister, Natalie Archer, with tears settled in her eyes. “I wish I had the chance to make things right with her.” She sniffed and dried her eyes with the tissue paper folded in her hand.
It’s not like she didn’t have the chance, she just didn’t take it while she had it. I walked over to her, my black sequined dress swept the floor. “It’s gonna be alright.” I embraced her and she rested her chin on my shoulder.
Sometimes my parents can be overprotective for nothing at all. It was my twelfth birthday when my family went to dinner at Myxis Gold Restaurant. Aunt Natalie took me out of there and blindfolded me because she had a surprise in store but before she got the chance, my parents followed us and ruined it. They banned her from coming over to our house, my mom stopped talking to her since and honestly, I have no clue what the surprise was or why my parents reacted that way until now. I kept telling them that everything was fine and they should give aunt Natalie another chance but they refused to listen to me. Now that she was lying in a coffin, mom regrets it all. She’s had so many times to forgive her sister when she was alive and she didn’t.
I pulled out of the hug and stepped back. “You’re coming back in church?”
Mom nodded. “Sure.” She rested her hands on the coffin, her lips trembled and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Do you mind giving me a minute alone please?”
I wasn’t sure when was the last time I’ve seen mom so heartbroken. In fact, I have never seen that side of her. Mom was always positive, upbeat and dedicated to her job and family. She was also one of the strongest, bravest, loving and most forgiving persons I’ve ever known—which is why I can’t understand what was the issue between her and my aunt. I rejoined everyone in the church and sat in between my sister and best friend, before the service started.
My best friend, Kiara, gave my hand a gentle squeeze and whispered, “I’m sorry for your loss.”
I nodded. “Thank you.” The truth is, I haven’t recently lost my aunt—I lost her three years ago. My only regret was not fighting hard enough for her though. I could’ve always reached out to her on social media and planned a secret meet up but I was more concerned about whether or not my parents would find out.
My mom came back inside the church, not a trace of tear stain on her cheeks. You’ve got to be kidding me. This woman really found the time to redo her makeup now. No wonder she took around ten times the minute she asked for in there. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Crying is what normal people do at funerals, she didn’t have to act so emotionless just because she’s some big FBI agent. Mom walked up to Pastor Simeon and whispered something to him then sat next to dad on the bench in front of us.
Moments later, the service began. We sang a few choruses then we were told to sit before I heard the pastor call my name. “We’ll now have Hazel Anderson to deliver her aunt’s eulogy.” Chills jolted through my spines and my eyebrows hit the heavens. When did this happen? I thought he was supposed to call my mom.
Mom turned around to look at me. “I’m so sorry, Hazel.” She lowered her voice. “I don’t know what to say after I pushed her away for all these years—Natalie would prefer this too.”
And I was supposed to know what to say. “Remember you told me that you wish you had the chance to make it right?” I reminded her. “Well this is your chance, mom—you grew up with her.”
“Hazel Anderson,” he repeated, his eyes scanning the room to be sure that I was there. “Please come forward.”
The way mom looked at me, I knew she wasn’t going so I rose to my feet and walked over to the altar then collected the mic from the stand. My hands trembled a little when I looked into the crowd. Everyone was staring at me with high expectations and I wasn’t even prepared for this. I closed my eyes then took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds. I reopened my eyes and everything appeared a lot better, at least the microphone wasn’t dancing in my hand anymore. “Today we are gathered here to celebrate the life of Natalie Archer.” I said, trying my best to maintain eye contact with the audience. “For those of you I haven’t met yet, I am her niece and I would like to extend my gratitude to each and every one of you for coming today to mourn the loss of aunt Natalie with me and the rest of her family.”
I paused for a few seconds and twirled a few strands of hair around my fingers. “I will never forget the times when I was a kid, when I was afraid of the dark—she stayed up with me and read bedtime stories until I fell asleep.” A knot tied around my throat as tears welled up in my eyes. “Sometimes when my parents weren’t around, she would order pizza and we would watch a movie—she was like a mother to me.”
My lips quivered as tears poured down my cheeks. I raised my voice. “But one day, my parents got up and decided that she wasn’t worth coming over or communicating with us anymore so they stopped her.” My dad was on the edge of his seat while mom appeared to be expressionless but I could tell that she was curious about what could happen next. “You know—”
Before I knew it, Pastor Simeon scrambled the mic out of my hands and walked back over to the pulpit. “That was well said.” He gave a slight smile. “Thank you.”
Everyone one in the church looked at me then murmured to each other, my mom remained seated with a frown embedded on her forehead and my dad’s face was colored in guilt and embarrassment. My eyes blurred out and I gritted my teeth then returned to my seat, almost stumbling on my heels.
“Well done,” my sister, Holly said in a hushed tone. “Now I am gonna have to wear ear plugs so I don’t have to hear their rantings when we get home.” She looked at our parents.
Holly was right. Mom and dad would have to give me a lecture based on how I should’ve kept my mouth shut about how they handled the situation years back. I collected a tissue from Kiara and dried my eyes then blew my nose into it. “Do you have extra plugs too?” I sighed.
***
After the ceremony was over, we came back home and as expected, my parents were lecturing me about what happened in church earlier. Except, they started the instant we got into the car. I ran my fingers through my light brown hair then held my head and screamed, “Stop!” I got off of the couch and turned towards them. “You guys keep yelling one thing over and over like your CD has a scratch—you’re acting as if I can’t hear a stupid thing you say and for what exactly—it’s not like I told the world how clumsy you were.”
They were both surprised that I answered them back and so was my sister. My dad rubbed his chin and just stared at me while Holly’s eyes widened with her head buried in a book. As for mom, she was jaw dropped for a while but she always has something to say.
“That was utterly disrespectful of you, young lady.” She walked towards me then turned to my sister who sat on a chair facing us. “Holly, please put that book down and you—” mom pointed to dad then the empty chair that was in line with the one Holly was on. “—will sit there, Michael.”
On her command, Holly dog-eared a page in the book and rested it on the coffee table while dad sat where she wanted him to. She and I took a seat on the couch.
“There’s actually something I wanted to tell you all.” Mom rested her elbows on her knees and clasped her hands. “Natalie didn’t die from a heart attack like her husband thought.”
We all glanced at each other then dad leaned forward and looked mom in the eye. “What are you talking about?”
Her eyes were glossy. “She was suffocated and I think whoever did it was probably coming for me instead of her—they just got the wrong person.” Mom sniffed a couple of times in a short while.
“But how?” I raised my eyebrows. “She lives on the other side of town.”
“Does it matter?” Mom widened her eyes and tried not to blink to avoid the tears from escaping. “Most likely they didn’t know I have a twin and tracked my sister instead.”
“Mom has a point,” Holly said, shaking her legs.
It does make sense. The amount of cases and arrests my parents were involved with would easily put a target on their backs plus it wasn’t hard for anyone to track my aunt instead of mom, they’re identical after all.
Dad braced back and rested his arms on the chair handle. “So what are we going to do?”
“Well I’m not gonna cower and hide.” Mom seemed fierce and emotionless again, more like her usual self. She stood up and pushed her hands in the pocket of her beige color coat. “So we better find out who did this and fast.”
“What about the kids?” Dad got up too. He placed his hands on his hips. “If people are gonna try to kill us, no doubt they’ll try to kill them too.” He referred to Holly and I.
I hate it when my parents treat Holly and I like kids who can’t protect themselves. We’re teenagers that can handle ourselves pretty damn well, they just can’t get over it.
Mom looked at Holly and I back and forth, chewing her inner cheeks. “That’s true.” She nodded. “Maybe we can let them stay in at all times for now—I can ask the teacher to send in their work online.”
“What?” Holly and I said in unison.
“No way that’s happening.” Holly jumped to her feet and protested. “With your kind of job, we may seem protected or if anything happens you will always find justice but it doesn’t change that fact that we can almost always be in danger.”
Since everyone was standing already, I stood too. “Holly’s right—”
“No your mom’s right,” Dad said. When he makes up his mind, there’s nothing you can do to change it. As for mom, although she may seem fierce and badass most of the time, I bet I can break through to her.
I crimped my forehead and folded my arms, just prepping myself for debate mode. “Mom said she wasn’t going to cower and hide.” I squared my shoulders and squinted my eyes, trying to play big bad. “Then why should we?”
Instead of getting an ‘okay, she’s right’ kind of answer, dad’s phone rang and he walked across the other side of the room to take the call. “It’s George,” he said to mom, coming back over us. “He wants us to meet with him at the office now.”
Mom grabbed the bunch of keys that were hanging on the wall. “We have to go,” she said. “And to answer your question, you’re gonna listen to us cause we are you parents.” They left the house.
Just one death in the family and it was like the world was going to end for us. The funny part is, there wasn’t even proof that whoever suffocated my aunt meant to do it to my mother instead.
Holly heaved a sigh. “The good part is, homeschool comes with netflix and popcorn.” She walked into the kitchen.
Looks like there was always an upside to everything. Meaning, a good sneak out should be fun too. I texted Kiara to pick me up for the next fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, I went up to my room and changed into a black long-sleeved jersey and a pair of light blue ripped jeans. I pulled my hair up into a decent ponytail then slipped on my black high heel boots.
As soon as the fifteen minutes were up, Kiara was already honking outside. Too bad I forgot to warn her not to make a scene. Kiara was an unlicensed driver. If you asked me, she’s fake licensed and borrows her uncle’s car. That’s one of the things I liked about her. Her father worked with the GHPD, my parents worked with the FBI and neither of us were afraid to bend the rules from time to time. I grabbed my purse and rushed downstairs.
I opened the front door then froze when my sister walked up behind me and said, “Where are you going, missy?”
“Nowhere?” I shrugged and turned around to face her.
“It better be that.” She placed her hands on her hips. “You heard mom and dad earlier, right?”
“So you’re scared with the little story they told too.” I smirked. “Don’t tell them anything about this or—” I paused when she stepped closer to me. Judging by the ‘or you’ll what’ look on her face, I backed out of the house and said, “Nothing.”
Around ten minutes after Kiara and I drove off, we pulled up at her grandfather’s house and parked there. We usually did this whenever we went to the mall together because she hates to find a good parking space there, plus it only took five to ten minutes to get there from her grandfather’s on foot.
We walked on the pavement and out of nowhere someone grabbed me from behind and dumped me in a car trunk that opened up when we got close to the car. Gunshots were fired.
