Recalled

"No! You're not Julia! You're someone else," said Joe, turning his face away from Anne Marie who instantly sighed in disappointment.

She took a deep breath, "I thought you would recognize me..." she muttered as she stood up with a sad face.

Joe looked confused, his face very pale and it made Anne Marie feel guilty. She turned her face away and closed her eyes tightly, trying to dispel the doubts in her heart not to stop with the role she was playing. She had to convince Joe that she was Julia without being pushy, so she began to dive into the role. She wept bitterly, without a sound. Her eyes were staring deep into the green grass in front of her, she knew behind her Joe was watching.

She counted in her head, waiting for any questions to come out of his mouth. And her guess was right,

"If you are Julia, why is your face so different?"

She swallowed nervously, fortunately, she had participated in theater plays at an orphanage several times, so acting was nothing new to her. She turned around and looked at Joe through the tears that kept flowing down her face.

"That car accident burnt half of my face..." her voice trailed off. She could see Joe's eyes go wide, oh my God poor Joe!

There was silence, only her sobs that could be heard. While Joe looked too shocked to say anything.

"I lost part of my memory, if it weren't for Albert and Elena I wouldn't have come back to you..." she started firing the second gun.

Joe covered his face with his hands, the image of the car accident appearing in front of his face again.

"You forgot Joe? The truck appeared right from where I was sitting, isn't it a miracle that I'm still alive? I know I'm not the same anymore, even I have trouble remembering everything about us but this photograph..." she pulled out a photo from her handbag. Julia and Joe Brandon's wedding photo. "This photo touched my feelings, makes me remember you without even a memory..."

Joe was silent, looking at Anne Marie with a confused look as if digesting everything was still very difficult. Suddenly he raised his hand, and called to a male nurse who was standing waiting for him, "Take me inside," he said without turning his head to look at Anne Marie who seemed a bit surprised by that reaction.

Did she fail? She was almost crying over her loss of two million dollars when her mind realized something, that all of those facts were too much for Joe to digest. He must have needed some time and all she needed to do was convince him that she was indeed Julia. She'd better go back to her room and watch more videos of Julia to get deeper into the role. She stood up and walked languidly into the mansion.

Before she went to her room she passed the kitchen and suddenly it occurred to her to open the refrigerator and get a bucket of ice cream, but she knew that Julia didn't like sweets stuff and she would never do that. She let out a long sigh, as long as she became Julia she might lose her weight because she won't be able to eat whatever she wanted to eat.

As if her wish was granted by nature, from a distance she saw Albert who was passing by, half running she approached him.

"Albert!" the call made Albert turn his head.

"Yes, Mrs. Brandon," said Albert who didn't want to make other staff suspicious about Anne Marie's true identity.

"Do you have a minute?"

"Is it urgent?"

"Um, yeah! Kind off…" she answered hesitantly.

They walked over to what Albert believed was a safe place where no one would hear their conversation.

"What is it?" asked Albert patiently.

"Um can you help me smuggle some ice cream and other treats for me to eat, I mean I have to act like Julia, I can't open the fridge and get my favorite ice cream anytime I want to…" said Anne Marie as she flicked the watch on her wrist, like what Julia used to do.

Albert took a deep breath,

"Do you think this place is a playground?" he asked coldly.

"It's not like that, I just ..." she was busy pushing her brain to think, "It's just, I'm a bit difficult to concentrate when my stomach is hungry," she said pitifully.

Albert looked at her in disbelief, but finally, he nodded, "Just wait in the room, my people will deliver it to you," he said flatly.

"Thank you Albert!" said her cheerfully.

"Watch your intonation, Julia Brandon never spoke so cheerfully like that, she always seemed mysterious and elegant," he reminded her firmly. "But your voice is very similar to hers..." he muttered as he walked away.

Anne Marie shrugged, she knew that her voice was very similar to Julia's, she had heard the way Julia spoke from the video documentation given by Elena, and that similarity surprised her too.

She opened the door to her room and inhaled deeply when she was inside, being Julia Brandon in one day wasn't easy at all. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, then she realized something was wrong, shouldn't Julia's hair be blonde? Well, she could reason that she had dyed her hair, but it would be easier for Joe to recognize her as Julia if she really looked like her from head to toe.

She opened a drawer because according to Albert everything she needed was there. And Albert was right, she found a new cell phone along with several other things there. She turned on the cellphone and looked for Elena's number, well actually there were only two numbers inside the phone, Elena's and Albert's.

"Elena, it's me, Julia," she purposely pranked Elena.

"If you continue to act so childish like this, I'll cut your fees, I'm deadly serious!" Elena said curtly.

Anne Marie rolled her eyes,

"Oh come on, you really don't know how to joke! I want to dye my hair like Julia, what do you think?"

"Not necessary."

Elena's answer completely confused her,

"Why? Wouldn't that be better? I mean that way it will be easier for him to accept me as Julia right?" she said with a furrowed brow.

"No, well I do want him to recognize you as Julia and believe that you are Julia, but I don't want him to love you the way he loves Julia, you know what I mean? He likes everything about Julia, you have to be Julia but with the new version, he has to assume that you've changed a bit, his feelings for you can't be the same! It can't be the same!" babbled Elena, there was a hint of anger in her voice. She must have a lot of hatred in her heart for Julia.

Anne Marie frowned, everything was really complicated. "Okay, so I have to be Julia but not Julia, hmmm you want to eliminate Julia's perfect image in Joe's eyes?"

"Yeah, at least be eighty percent like her and leave twenty percent to show changes in you that my son might hate you, but remember your first job is to make him believe that you are his wife! That's the priority!"

She breathed out heavily after ending her chat with Elena. Things were really complicated. If she knew it would be that difficult she should have asked for a higher fee from the start! Being Julia with the new version? It's hard to even convince Joe that she was Julia, how about being another version of her?

"Aaargghhh!" she ruffled her hair, dizzy but suddenly a knock on the door startled her, she got up from her bed, that must be someone Albert sent to deliver ice cream and snacks for her. With her messy bun hair that was literally messy, she opened the door and to her surprise, she found Joe Brandon staring at her from his wheelchair...

*****