Chapter 2 The Proposal

~ LENA ~

Minutes later, I was walking into a small, quiet café just a block away from the hospital. Julian moved ahead of me. He looked around the room once before choosing a table in a cozy, private spot by the window.

He pulled out a chair for me, then took the seat opposite. He looked calm-too calm-nothing like me, whose heart was doing backflips in my chest, tight in anticipation.

"Would you like anything?" he asked as soon as a waitress appeared. "Coffee? Tea?"

"No." I shook my head immediately. The smell of warm pastries in the air was tempting, reminding me that I hadn't eaten since the night before. But hunger felt irrelevant now, trivial compared to the knowledge that my sister was lying on a hospital bed with a heart that could fail at any moment. Food didn't stand a chance against that thought.

He nodded, then pulled out his phone as the waitress left to get the coffee he'd ordered. Unlocking it, he swiped a few times before placing it on the table and sliding it toward me.

I frowned at the image on the screen at first. Then my breath caught, seeing the picture on it.

A woman with my face stared back at me. She had my eyes, my mouth. The same cheekbones, the same jawline. The nose I'd inherited from my mother. Even her complexion was the same.

I was staring at a woman who could have passed for my identical twin. It was like looking into a mirror-except the woman in the photo looked elegant, polished. Like a version of me that belonged in a completely different world.

I jerked back slightly, my heart racing, as if I'd been stung by the picture. Julian watched me closely, his eyes following every expression that crossed my face.

"What is this?" I whispered, my voice barely audible. "Who is she?"

"That," Julian said calmly, folding his arms casually over his chest, "is Kimberly Hayes. She's my cousin's fiancée. Nathan Blackwood-CEO of Blackwood Industries." He reached over, swiping his finger across the screen until another picture appeared. "That's him."

Nathan Blackwood. I recognized that face instantly. CEO of Blackwood Industries, headquartered in New York. The man was always in the news. His face was plastered all over the business magazines I loved to read. He was tall, like his cousin, Julian-handsome, with the kind of presence that commanded attention, even in a photograph.

And his fiancée-Kimberly-she looked exactly like me. I swiped back to her picture with trembling fingers, my stomach twisting in confusion and disbelief.

"I don't understand." I looked at Julian. My mind was still spinning. "Why are you showing me this?"

The waitress arrived with the coffee. Julian waited until she placed it down and walked away before he spoke again.

"Lena, I need to understand something here. Were you born a twin?"

"What?" I blinked, thrown off completely. "No."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes. I'm sure." I frowned. "I have no other siblings apart from my sister, Sofia. This woman-whoever she is-is a stranger to me."

Julian sighed, his tone conclusive. "Then that leaves only one logical explanation. Kim is your doppelganger."

Doppelganger. A shaky breath left my parted lips. Even that didn't seem enough to explain it. How could two unrelated people be this identical? Too identical.

"You're exactly alike physically," he went on. "Which is why you're perfect for the job I need you to do."

A chill crept down my spine.

"Which is?" I frowned. My heart was racing now. I already knew whatever he was about to say, I wouldn't like it.

"Nathan and Kimberly's wedding is in two weeks. I need you to take Kimberly's place."

"How?" The way he looked and sounded so calm and casual made him look crazy to me.

"By marrying my cousin."

"What?" Now, he definitely was crazy, I thought. "That's insane. You're insane. There's no way-"

"Five million dollars."

The words cut through my protest like a blade. Silence fell.

"Marry my cousin," he continued, his voice calm and steady, like he was discussing something completely normal, "and I'll pay you five million dollars."

For a moment, I wondered if I'd heard him correctly. I stared at him, shocked to my core, unable to breathe, unable to utter a single word.

"Yes, you heard right," he continued, as though he'd heard my thoughts. "One million dollars will be wired to your account upfront. That is-if you agree to this. You could use that money to pay for your sister's surgery and other expenses that may arise later. The rest of the money would be paid to you in instalments-only if you agree to my offer."

I shook my head, finally managing to catch my breath. "I don't understand. Why do you need me to impersonate your cousin's fiancée? You just said they're getting married in two weeks. How am I supposed to take her place?"

Julian didn't answer immediately. He studied me for a moment, his gaze steady, as though measuring how much of the truth I could handle. His fingers curled around his coffee cup, but he didn't drink from it.

"Kimberly isn't getting married to Nate anymore."

My brows drew together. "What?"

"She ended things," he said simply. "Days ago."

The words hit me, but they didn't fully sink in. "Ended things...how?"

Julian reached into his jacket, pulled out a folded envelope and placed it on the table. He didn't push it towards me. He didn't need to.

"She wrote Nate a letter," he said. "Told him she couldn't go through with the wedding. That she wasn't in love with him anymore. That was before she disappeared."

"I'm...I'm sorry. That must have been devastating for your cousin."

"He doesn't know anything yet."

"What?" I stared at Julian, confused. "I don't understand. How could he not know about it?"

"At the moment, he's out of the country on a business trip. I found the letter on his desk at home after he left."

"And you kept it from him?" I asked, disbelief creeping into my voice.

"Yes."

"Why?" My voice came out sharper than I intended. "That's his fiancée. He deserves the truth."

Julian's jaw clenched slightly. "If I'd told him, shown him the letter, Nate would have been destroyed."

I frowned. "People get heartbroken all the time. They survive it."

He shook his head once. "Not Nate."

Something about the way he said it made me pause. Like there was more to the story than I knew.

"There was someone before Kimberly," he continued. "A woman he loved deeply-Evelyn Carter." He sighed. "She was everything to him. He loved her... Loved her with every fiber of his being. He planned his entire future around that woman. But then she left him-for another man." He exhaled slowly, in anger. "She had been sleeping with someone else all along."

My breath caught.

"When Nate found out," Julian went on, "he broke. Completely. He had a full emotional collapse. He got sick. The company suffered because he couldn't even step into the office for weeks. It took him months," he said quietly, "months of therapy to get over the pain of Evelyn's betrayal. And when he finally did, he shut himself off completely. Swore he'd never give his heart to any woman again."

"So...what changed?"

"Kimberly," he replied. "She convinced him to try again, to love again. She became his second chance at love."

A heavy silence settled between us.

"And now she broke his heart too," I whispered, shaking my head.

"Now you understand where I'm coming from."

"So you want me to lie to him-to pretend to be his fiancée?"

It was absolutely crazy. Even if anyone could pull it off, it was crazy.

"That's not protecting him. It's deception. And it's going to destroy him even more when the truth comes out eventually."

Julian leaned forward, his expression firm. "Lena, if Nate finds out now, he doesn't just lose his fiancée. He could very well lose his position as CEO of the company."

"How?" I frowned, not following.

"Blackwood Industries is in the middle of a merger with an international company," he explained. "I can't tell you exactly the magnitude of this, but it's massive. We can't afford for anything to go wrong."

My pulse quickened as the weight of it sank in.

"If Nate is seen as emotionally unstable again, the board could force him to step aside-temporarily, or even permanently. Nate has enemies in the company, people waiting for an opportunity like this to get him out. People like our uncle-Victor Blackwood."

I swallowed as a chill ran through me. "So...so this is-"

"This is about survival, Lena-Nate's and the company's."

I shook my head. "But this is insane. You're asking me to lie to a man who's already been destroyed once. What happens when he finds out I'm not her?"

"He won't," Julian said firmly. "Not if we do this properly."

"And Kimberly?" I demanded. "What if she comes back? What if she exposes everything?"

"She won't," he said calmly.

"And how are you so sure?"

There was a slight pause.

"Because she's somewhere far away," he replied calmly. "She wouldn't interfere. I made sure of that."

"How?" My confusion deepened.

"Don't bother yourself about all that." He leaned back, giving me some space, but his next words were quiet and deliberate. "All you should be concerned about is the fact that time is running out-for Sofia."

My breath hitched at the reminder. Julian glanced at his watch, then back at me.

"So, Lena Martinez," he said softly. "What's your answer?"