charter 1

While sobbing, Melisa looked Mark straight in the eye

"I can't believe that of all days you chose today to do this to me, Mark"

"I'm sorry Melisa, it's really not you, it's me"

"yea, right"

"Your perfect, loving, caring, beautiful, I'm just not happy"

She sobs harder

"You told me you saw a spark"

"Yeah, but that was long ago"

"That was last week, Mark"

"I'm sorry Melisa"

"Our wedding is in a month what do you want me to tell my parents, what are you going to tell your parents?"

"My parents actually know already"

Tears began to flow down her eyes. She was looking at him in disbelieve. Her brain couldn't process what was happening, she felt different emotions. She felt pain, sadness, her heart was breaking and she could hear the little pieces piercing through her flesh, and in something less than a second, she felt anger.As she was still processing her feelings, she heard him call out to her.

"Melisa…" before he could finish

"Get out mark"

"what"

"I said…GET OUT!"

"I'm really sorry I hurt y…"

Just before he could finish his sentence, Rosa, Melisa's sister cut in. She said staring right into his eyes.

"I think you should really go Mark"

He was shocked and realized he really messed up cause Rosa have never look so serious before. He turned around and started walking, right before he opened the door, he pauses to turn, before he could fully turn, he heard a crash, followed by a scream from Rose. His heart fell upon seeing Melisa unconscious on the floor and that was when he realized that he couldn't do this to her.

**************

In the hospital, Rosa and Mark were waiting at the reception for the doctor to calm the voices screaming out possible things that happened. In Marks head, a voice kept screaming

"It's your fault!" another voice was scolding him "you couldn't just wait a little, you had to tell her when she was picking a wedding dress. Where you even supposed to be there in the first place, don't you know it's bad luck, well, I guess you have seen where this bad luck has brought you, THE HOSPITAL!!!"

Rosa finally broke the silence.

"Why'd you do it"

He raised his head up to look at her, he tried but nothing came out of his mouth. He was blank, it was like he had forgotten how to talk.

"Mark, you know how much she loves you and you couldn't look for a way to let her down slowly no matter what your reasons were. I know you Mark, and I know you won't just wake up one morning and feel like doing this". She paused a little to look at him in the eye and continued,

"What happened Mark?"

It was at this time that he found his tongue.

" three days ago my ex came to my house with a three year old child saying he was mine"

Rosa didn't believe her ears, she looked at him with so much sadness and didn't know what to say to him, luckily for her, he continued.

" I didn't want to tell her that because I didn't want her to hurt much, I didn't know this will happen if I called off the wedding"

"So you think that calling off the wedding is better than telling the truth?"

He was silent, rethinking his actions in his head.

Rosa couldn't be mad at him, she felt pain for him and understood what happened.

"I understand Mark, and I know Melisa will too but she just has to wake up first"

Immediately she said that, the doctor was at sight and they both stood to inquire from the doctor.

"She is in a pretty bad shape. Seems like she hit her head pretty bad few seconds after she went unconscious and I can't guarantee her waking up any time soon. Her brain is being affected and she would have to stay here for a while"

Rosa couldn't handle it, she had to sit. Melisa is her twin sister, the only family she has, the only person she feels connected to and can tell all her secrets and problems to, and that person is going to be stuck in the hospital for…only God knows how long. Rose began to think about how she is going to get the money for the bills and how she is going to keep the house considering the fact that she doesn't have a job or friends she can call for help.As she was gathering her taught, Mark has already finished talking to the doctor and was on his way to her. She felt his presence and came back to reality. He sat next to her and held her hands and she hugged him in tears.

***************

Thirty minutes later, they arrived at a small two bed-room apartment painted in bright red color with a flat roofing, brown door and glass windows. He walked her inside to their almost empty sitting room, with four sofas, one rocking chair, a plain carpet and a small flat screen T.V that Mark bought for them and a small table at the middle of the room.He turned to her,

"The hospital bill is a great deal. I'll pay half the bill considering that I'm the cause of this mess. I would have paid for everything but seems like I now have a family to take care of"

"Thank You so much, Mark"

"if you need anything please don't hesitate to reach out to me and I'll see if I can help in any way, okay?"

"Thank you"

"I'll see you around Rosa"

He turns to live and just then…

"Mark?" he turns,

"can you please not tell anyone about what happened today and about me too"

confusion dawned on him and when Rose saw that, she decided to explain herself.

"Since no one knows about me but you, I want to take her place at her job so that I can earn some money since we don't know when she is going to be out"

"But the two of you have different personalities, Rosa, it's not enough that you look exactly like her"

"I know but…I've been with her for a long time, I guess I can pull it off"

"you guess? Rosa I don't think that's a good idea"

"Please Mark" She looked at him with big puppy dog's eyes and who can say "no" to that?

"okay, just be careful"

"thanks Mark"

"Goodnight Rosa"

"goodnight"

Now Rosa has long dark hair with bangs but Melisa has a short dark hair and she always wore it as a side cut with two hair clips at the side and that was her signature look. For Rosa to go ahead with her plan, she took the first step. She went to the mirror in the bathroom and cut her hair short, making it look like Melisa's. She decided to go to bed because it was a Friday, she had the whole week to get ready and it was a hard day, she needed to rest.

**************

The light rays of the rising sun kissed Rosa's face and she gently opened her eyes and chose to believe that everything that happened yesterday was all a dream. She kept believing that until she looked herself in the mirror and saw the haircut. She burst into tears remembering that once again, she is alone in this world again. She decided to give herself a pep talk. She looked into the mirror.

"You can do this Rosa, you need to do something to survive on your own. You can pull this off. Everyone is going to look at you and say 'hello Melisa'. It's going to be fine"

She washed her face, changed to Melisa's cloths and headed out like Melisa does every day in the morning. She knows everyone is Melisa's life, facially and by name. She headed out and started jogging. Ten minutes after, Rosa was on the ground trying to catch her breath. She is not a workout person, she just gets her perfect body shape from eating the right food while Melisa on the other hand loves to eat the things she likes and burn them out in the morning.

"Morning Melisa, having a tough morning?"

Jake said as he was running across the streets

"No, Jake, I'm fine"

Nope, she wasn't fine. She was battling with death to survive. She saw her life summer saluting toward a cliff and ready to jump. He stopped to as"

"how is the wedding?"

'dang! The wedding' she thought

"it's going as planned"

This was when she realized it wasn't going to be easy. She was able to park herself back to the apartment, straight to the shower and took a cold bath.

She made some eggs and sat at the table alone with a cup of coffee in her hand. She didn't take a bite from her plate and not a sip from the cup of coffee. Her mind was else were, she was day dreaming. She was thinking of how she was going to pull this off. She decided to go to places Melisa would go on a normal Saturday with a lot of people. She wanted to start training herself for the next working day.

She spent the next seven hours going round the city and she actually gave her best. Although a lot of people asked if she was feeling okay, but she knew she did better than she thought.

She went to visit her sister in the hospital after her hard work. She sat on a chair beside Melisa's bed.

"Hey sis, I wish this didn't happen to you. I really miss you, I don't know if I can do this but is worth a try. right? Mark didn't mean to do this to you. He had a big problem he had to handle and he freaked out, he didn't know how to let you go without hurting you a lot. He had two option; either tell u the truth or call off the wedding and he didn't choose the right option. I know you can't hear me but I know your inside there somewhere. Please come back to me"

Tears rolled down her eyes as those words came out of her mouth. She cried and sobbed until she slept off holding her sisters' hand.

An hour later a nurse came in and woke her. It was already late. She picked her bag and went out of the hospital, she stayed outside looking for a cab for about fifteen minutes and she couldn't get any. She started walking, then she saw a car that looked like Marks', he was at a store near the hospital and she quickly walked to the car and when she reached there, she saw him coming out of the store. She told him she needed a ride back home. He didn't respond to her because he was shocked at how she got the dressing and signature look of his Melisa. He kept staring at her until she broke the awkwardness.

"…or are you not going that way? if you're not I understand, just that is hard to get a cab around here at this time"

"oh, no. You just really look like her. Let's go.

"She got into the car and they left.

**************

It was Monday morning, she dressed up in a blue jean and a black shirt partly buttoned and the last part of the shirt was tied in a bow. That was one of Melisa's usual simple outfit. She took the two usual clips and did justice to her hair. Applied a little gloss and little powder, just like Melisa would and finally, a replicate of the glasses Melisa wares. She felt confident when she looked at herself in the mirror, no one can tell the difference except she blows it. She said to herself,

"It's time"