ONE TRUE LOVE

VIVI’S POINT OF VIEW.

By the time I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the unfamiliar ceiling patterns above me. I gasped and pushed myself to sit up. I’m in bed… where am I?

I looked around, but there was no one present; only the silence of the modern-looking room.

My body felt too weak to move even as I tried to. The sound of the doorknob turning makes me freeze.

“W-who is it?” My voice comes out squeaky. The person steps in and leaves me utterly gutted all over again. Hope surges inside me when I take a look at his face.

“Elias?” I whispered.

W-who is it?” My voice came out thin. Fragile.

The door opened.

And my heart stopped.

Hope hit me so hard it hurt.

“Elias…” I breathed.

He stepped inside as he belonged there, loping all calm and composed, while holding a steaming mug in one hand.

For a second… just a second… everything in me softened.

He came back.

He changed his mind.

I knew he would-

Then he looked at me, and something shattered.

His face was the same, the same.

But his eyes…they looked wrong, it’s not that they’re cold or distant like they usually are towards me unless they’re filled with lust.

No…..this is something else….something heavier, and sharper. His eyes watched me like I was something to figure out… not something he already knew……..and I knew, as much as I wanted to deny it, this isn’t my husband.

My breath hitched.

“Elias?” I tried again, quieter this time, my voice filled with uncertainty.

His lips curved slightly, not with a smile but something more dangerous.

“I’m not your husband,” he finally spoke, and my stomach dropped. I felt the room tilt off its axis, almost rendering me dizzy.

“What…?” My voice cracked. “No-that’s not-you look-”

“Like him?” He took a slow step closer. “I get that a lot.”

I shook my head, backing into the headboard as far as my weak body allowed.

“No. No, this isn’t funny. Where is he?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he kept walking toward me, his steps measured and unhurried, like he had all the time in the world.

“I intend to be your husband, though.” The words landed softly, but they hit hard like a blow.

“I don’t understand-” My chest tightened. “Stop saying things like that. Where is Elias?”

At first, there’s silence, all he does is stare; then,

“I guess my brother didn’t tell you.” My heart skipped at that word…..

Brother?

My fingers tightened around the sheets with such force that they would have cried out if they had life.

“…tell me what?”

His gaze lingered on my face, studying every flicker of emotion as it fascinated him.

“About me.” He paused for what felt too long, then, almost lazily, he added,

“We’re twins.”

The word echoed in my head.

Twins.

“No…” I whispered, ready to call his bluff, but my eyes betrayed me.

Same face.

Same voice.

Same build.

Just… different hair… and energy. Around Elias, even though he was cold, it still felt gentle. Maybe it’s because I already knew Elias from before, but with this……..man, there’s something utterly unhinged that breaks into my pores.

“I’m not lying,” he said quietly, and I swallowed hard, my throat felt dry, and cracked.

“That’s… that’s not possible. He would have told me.”

Wouldn’t he?

A flicker of something crossed his face, amusement, maybe.

“Would he?” he murmured.

That question hit deeper than it should have, but I didn’t answer………Because I didn’t know. Elias still received me as a stranger, not as the love of his life.

He stepped closer, holding out the mug.

“It’s chamomile tea. It helps calm the nerves.” I didn’t dare lay a finger on it… what if he’s poisoned it?

“Don’t trust me yet, huh?”

“You may have my husband's face, but I’m not foolish enough to take a drink from a stranger.”

He doesn’t say anything. He brings the mug to his lips, his eyes still on me, so I feel every wave of tension digging into my spine. He pulls his tongue out slowly…….before he takes a sip of the tea and swallows…….all without breaking eye contact.

“Happy?” He hands the cup to me again. Only then do I take its

His fingers brush against mine, sending waves of something ticklish all over my arm. I gasped before I could stop myself, then gulped to act natural.

However, I underestimate how hot the tea is.

“Ahh!” I hissed when the hot liquid burned my tongue.

“Shit. Be careful.” He takes the mug from me and moves closer, but I push him back, my chest rising and falling rapidly.

Even as my tongue burns, I hissed, “What the hell do you even want from me? I snapped. “First, I wake up in some strange place, then you show up looking like my husband, saying insane things, w-what do you want?”

He went still at my outburst, and for a moment, he just watched me. Then he straightened and was all composed again.

“My grandfather gave us a condition,” he said. “Exactly two years ago, he gave Elias and me an ultimatum. We are to find a wife, get married, and have a child… the first to do this gets control of the company.”

What does that have to do with me?

“And?” I said sharply, watching as his gaze dropped………..to my stomach.

Slowly, Intentionally, with interest I couldn’t mistake for something else.

Ice slid through my veins.

“No.” The word came out before he even spoke.

“I want you to marry me,” he said anyway. “And we present the child you’re carrying… as mine.”

My hand flew to my belly.

“No.”

Stronger this time.

“No. Absolutely not.”

“You haven’t heard the full-“

“I don’t need to!” My voice cracked. “I’m married to Elias. I love him. Whatever this is, whatever game you think you’re playing, I’m not part of it.”

His expression didn’t change, not even a flicker.

“I know you love him.” My chest tightened.

“I know he loves you, too.” He adds, and I freeze.

“…what?”

He tilted his head slightly, studying my reaction with a knowing, confident smirk.

“That’s why you’re going to agree.” My pulse started to pound, he sounds so sure…..

“You don’t know anything about us.”

“I know enough.” His voice dropped. “Enough to know he didn’t forget you because he wanted to.”

The words hit like a slap, because they carried so much pain to my soul. My breath caught, both with shock and hope I couldn’t afford.

“What are you talking about…?” I whispered, only for him to pause. Just before I could snap at him out of anxiety, he lands another blow.

“My brother has amnesia.” He reveals, and everything in my world went quiet.

No.

“No…” I whispered.

“He doesn’t remember you,” he continued, calm, precise. “But someone made sure he found someone else to believe in.”

My head shook slowly in disbelief……..I didn’t want to believe it.

“That’s not true. He said he found his true love. He didn’t forget me; he doesn’t want me anymore…….maybe what we had was fake, maybe he’s fallen in love with someone else. He always speaks about finding his true love.”

“Yes,” he cut in. “And he’s found her……..well, a very convenient one.”

I pressed my hands to my head in an attempt to ease the looming headache.

“No, no, no… that doesn’t make sense. He would know. If he still loved me, He would feel it. What we had-“

“…..was real,” he finished for me, and silence fell between us.

It was heavy and suffocating in the already charged room.

“I was there,” he added softly, and I felt how my heart shook.

“What?”

“When he fell in love with you.”

My breath caught again as a flood of memories rushed through me. The late-night texts, the way we would plan dates for when we finally met……..the nights we planned our wedding, the number of kids we wanted……we talked about everything.

“He didn’t talk about much,” he continued. “But when he did… it was always you.”

Tears blurred my vision.

Then why doesn’t he remember me?

“Why are you telling me this?” I whispered.

He stepped closer again, but this time, I didn’t push him away.

“Because,” he said quietly, “right now, you’re losing him.”

My chest tightened painfully because I realized one thing… he was right.

“And I’m offering you a way to stay close enough… to take him back.”

My lips parted.

“But in return…” His voice hardened slightly.

“You become mine.” Again, the silence stretched between us. All I could hear was the pounding of my heartbeat reverberating in my ears in a loud, unsteady way.

This was wrong.

All of it.

But if what he said was true…

If Elias really didn’t remember…

If someone was replacing me as we speak…….

My fingers curled into the sheets.

I could fight.

I could stay close.

I could make him remember.

Right?

…I’m not giving up on him.

Not now.

Not after everything.

But marrying his brother…….

My stomach twisted violently.

This wasn’t just a deal.

It was a line.

And once I crossed it…

There was no going back.

Right?