34 years ago
Columbia University, 1991
The sky was gold that day, and everything in their life looked beautiful. Natasha walked through the campus of Columbia University, books tucked against her chest, curls bouncing with every step. She was new, wide-eyed, and hopeful, a girl who believed love could be soft. "First week of classes and you already look like a politician." Natasha turned to find her best friend, Amira Fernandez, 19, hair slicked into a tight ponytail, lipstick too bold for morning lectures. "I look like a leader," Amira said, smirking. "And you look like a daydream." They laughed like sisters; they were a lot of fun together. People thought they were twins, but the only difference was that Amira was one year older than Natasha with one year. They were almost inseparable, that's what they thought. But underneath the laughter, something darker brewed.
Because everything Amira wanted, Natasha somehow always had first.
She saw him first, and she loved him before her. Amira saw him across the courtyard. Leo Santiago, a senior. Confident. Brilliant. Very handsome, the hottest guy in the college. He quoted Sartre during debates and had eyes that said I've already figured you out. She saw him one sunny afternoon sitting alone with a novel, "what you reading?", she asked, he looked up and stared at the beauty in front of him, "diary of a wimpy kid", he replied, "you know that's against the school right?", she said with one eyebrow raised, "yeah I do", he replied flatly. She sat beside him and noticed that he wore wealth like a badge and intelligence like a sword. "You don't look like someone who follows the rules," she said to him. "I break them beautifully," Leo replied. They talked for a while, then she asked him a question, "What's your favourite colour?" "Brown", he replied, "and you?" he asked. "Well, I don't have a favourite colour, but I love a specific flower", she replied. "And that is", he asked, "Jasmine flower", she asked, as they both smiled at each other. And that was it. She fell for him very hard.
That was when Natasha came into the picture, when he approached her in the school hallways. Natasha has always been very beautiful; she's more beautiful than Amira. Amira began to despise Natasha bit by bit. Later on, Natasha and Leo began dating, and their love life was wild. Loud. Reckless.
Amira was hooked. And Leo? He was charmed, but was always looking at the horizon.
"Do you still love me?" she once asked. Leo stared at her, then he just kissed her wrist. "I love power."
Later on, Leo and Natasha broke up. Amira seduced him a lot of times to get what she wanted, and she did. They started dating for a while, and he left Natasha for Amira. Months passed by, Amira's family started becoming rich, she started showing off bit by bit, and she became richer than Leo sometimes.
Amira started showing a lot of attitudes towards Leo during their relationship. They had a huge fight in public, and Leo came back.
He knocked on her door, and Natasha welcomed him inside. She didn't tell Amira.
During the fight, where Leo and Amira tore each other down in public, Amira screamed that he was beneath her. After hearing this, he couldn't bear it; Leo just vanished. But he came to Natasha's dorm days later. Eyes red, like he had cried all his tear glands away, his voice low. "I made a mistake."
She should've said no. But she didn't. Because she had loved him too, quietly, always. "Then stay," she whispered. And he did. Amira later found out.
One night in the university bar, she saw them: Natasha and Leo, hands touching under the table.
"You bitch," Amira hissed at her after cornering Natasha in the hallway. "You always wanted my leftovers." She spoke. "You threw him away." Natasha defended sharply, "not just because you are rich now, you pick who you want to be with or not", Natasha said, "and what do you mean?", she asked, "I'm tired of this friendship, let me tell you in your face, Amira, everybody will hate you one day, you suddenly became all proud of yourself, you have pride bitch", Natasha lamented, tears rolling down her eyes, "then fine Natty, have it your way", "congratulations on throwing away our 15 years of childhood friendship". Amira just hissed and walked closer to the door. She stooped and added, "I'll always throw away what's dirty."
That night ended their friendship. Permanently.
Amira started flaunting her father's money recklessly. She went to a Manhattan Gala at 21, and there, she met a guy, very handsome and good-looking, very, very rich; his dad was a politician, and they owned Columbia at that time. She met him there. He was the heir to the famous Caldwell Global Limited. Old money. Quiet charm. No messy past. Just a clean opportunity.
"You look very stunning", he walked over to her, "you too", she replied and blushed, they started talking, to each other, he visited her once in a while, they started dating, both families were okay with their courtship, because she also came from a rich background, but in Amira mind, she wanted more than power, more wealth than the president, she wanted her name alone to be blessed and bowed to. Three years later, at 24, they got married along the way, and she became pregnant with Selene months later. But something haunted her. George's father warned her at first that the child should be a male so that all the wealth would go to his grandson, and George wasn't too particular abouthehe gender of his child. unfortunately it was a girl, Amira been bold, cony and manipulative; she pulled the fake act of having a boy for 9 months. Months later, while she was pregant Leo had reached out again. He knew she was pregnant. He knew too much.
One night, George and Amira argued over the gender of their child, "I want a baby girl, and this is final, and I have my reasons", he said, "we need a boy that will carry the Caldwell name along", she shouted back. "Amira, this is final", he concluded and slammed the door in her face.
She went for different scans in different hospitals, and they all told her it was a girl she had, and if she aborted the baby from her womb, she would die, a doctor told her in a hospital she went to. But she was scared.
So she went to seeDr. Liam, Leo's closest friend, was a gynaecologist in a hospital there. She was due to give birth, but she was bold and strong. "End it," she said.
"Make it look like a stillbirth. Replace her. I don't care how." Liam hesitated. "You want me to kill your child?" "I want to live."
Present Day, Year: 2025
In a dim clinic in Queen Mary's Hospital, located in midtown of New York, DDrLiam sat behind his desk, holding a letter that cahad comeo him 3 months ago. He was scared to open it, because he knew who it came from. The past was knocking again. A woman named Selene had sent a DNA test. His hands shook as he opened it. And there, on the line marked
Mother: Amira Fernandez.
He took a deep breath. "She didn't die after all"