Her regret, his torment

"Yes. And when I grow up, I'll protect from everything." Lauren startled awake. It had been a while since she dreamed of the little boy. The last dream was after she barely escaped a fire a few months ago. She looks at her watch and sees it's after 8. She just finalized a contract she'd been working on all week. All that's left is to meet the people for signing tomorrow. She decides to head home early.

She's lived in this house for the first 5 and last 6 years of her life, so she doesn't bother turning on the lights. She removed her shoes and sets her purse on the table by the door. She freezes as she thought she heard a noise. 'Im just tired' she thinks. As she heads up the stairs, she heard the noise again. 'Is that someone giggling?' she thinks. She creeps slowly up the stairs. Her fiancee was out of town for business so it shouldn't be him, right? She gets to the landing and hears another giggle followed by what sounds like whispering words. She turns and sees a light under the door of the master bedroom. Her bedroom. She doubted the housekeeper left it on. She tiptoes to the door where the whispers get clearer.

"How do you think Lauren would react if she knew you came home early just to fuck me in her bed while wearing her bitch mother's jewelry?" a female voice says.

She recognized that voice. It belongs to her crazy cousin Kaitlyn.

"She always stays overnight at her office when working on a big deal while I'm out of town. She probably hasn't opened that safe for months. I think this necklace looks better on you than it probably would on her. Diamonds go great with nothing," a man's voice says.

Tears come to Lauren's eyes when she recognized that voice, too. It belongs to her fiancee, James Marshall. He came back early just have an affair with her hateful cousin.

"Do you really have to marry her? I don't know if I can keep sneaking around to see you," a whine is heard in Kaitlyns's voice.

"Babe, we've been through this. I only love you. I have not nor will I ever touch her sexually. She'd probably just lay there like log and think about business the whole time anyway. Don't you want to get all of your property back?" James says.

"Yes, but I don't want to lose you to get it," Kaitlyn answers.

"I'm not going anywhere, babe. I just need to marry her for a couple of months. There's no prenup, so after that I can drug her to fuck a couple of guys, get it on video, and boom, your stolen property is yours again," James tells her.

Soon moans and creaks are the only thing Lauren can hear. As tears fall down her face, she thinks back through all the times she thought he was out of town business. It was true that she stayed in her office a lot while he was out of town. She hated coming home to an empty house. He didn't live with her, but she always left work early to be with him when he was home. And her mother's jewelry, they've been coming here for quite a while if they found the combination and hidden key. Her cousin lying about everything being hers is normal. She's always wanted everything that belongs to Lauren, because her bitch of a mother keeps telling her lies. None of it was ever hers, including her father. Lauren creeps back downstairs, thinking of a way to expose them without them knowing she knows now. She grabs her purse, and walks out barefooted. She grabs her phone from her purse to call 911.

"I need help. I just got home and heard talking coming from upstairs. I live alone, so I think someone broke in. I'm so scared I don't know what to do," her tears fit perfectly with what she reports.

Soon 4 cop cars pull up, no sirens, just lights. Fortunately her room was at the back of the house, so they wouldn't see them. Two cops step out of each car with guns drawn and pointing down.

"Are you the reporter, ma'am?" the first cop to reach her asks.

The other 7 open the door and stagger their way in.

"Yes sir. I came home from work early because I wasn't feeling good. I started to head up stairs when I heard someone say something about how the jewels look and something about nothing. I don't know if that means they found the safe or not. I crept back down the stairs, grabbed my purse which had my phone. I didn't even stop for shoes," she moaned miserably.

The officer starts asking for her details when a crash and a scream break through the silent night. They can hear the struggle all the way from the front door.

"We have 2 suspects in custody. But there's a problem, sir. There's a woman claiming she's the real owner of the house. And there's a man who claims he's her fiancee. You need to come see what the problem is, sir," a voice comes over the radio.

The officer looks at her suspiciously, so she pulls out her driver's license, which shows this is her address. Only the name on the ID says she is Veronica Clark.

"10-4 be right there," the officer responds.

He looks at her to see if she'll be okay out here alone.

"Go ahead, sir. But, could you grab me my jacket first, please? I'm a little chilly. It's a black jacket hanging on the back of the front door," she smiles at him.

The officer approaches the open door and looks behind it. Sure enough, there's a long black jacket hanging there. This further cements her claim that this is her house. He hands her the jacket before walking back in. Soon she hears voices complaining about the rough treatment they're getting.

"I'm serious officer. This is my house. My name is Lauren Short. My ID is in my purse. Just let me get it out," she hears Kaitlyn yelling.

The officers lead out James and Kaitlyn to present them to Lauren. Lauren can understand the cops' confusion, as they look back and forth between the identical looking girls. Both have jet black hair with grey eyes. Both woman stand about 5 and half feet. You had to look closely to see the minor differences. Lauren had a pale ring of blue around her pupil and Kaitlyn had smaller lips. Lauren was more fair of skin, since she spent more time inside an office. Kaitlyn was slightly softer in her curves than Lauren. A result of not doing any real physical activity. Well, activity outside of pretending to be her and fucking her fiancee.

"L-lauren?" James stutters. "How are you here? We, well I thought we, I mean you were the one I was making love with," James backtracks to protect himself.

Lauren was rich and his company was in trouble. Everything he said to Kaitlyn was a lie. He was planning on taking the property to sell to inject the money into his company.

"Sister? What's going on? You were supposed to be at work?" Kaitlyn was too shocked to even try to lie at that moment.

"Don't call me sister! I barely recognize you as a cousin, I will never claim you as my sister!" Lauren states.

"But, we are sisters, whether you admit it or not. And this is also my home, or it was before you took it from me," Kaitlyn smirks.

"Get it through that crazy head of yours. This house, my property, none of it ever has or ever will belong to you. It was left to me by MY mother, who got it from her parents, and my father, who never claimed you. It NEVER belonged to that crazy bitch you call mom and it never will. I guarantee it," Lauren shouts.

Then, Lauren notices that Kaitlyn is wearing her robe, and it's open to show a dazzling large diamond necklace. She looks closer and sees that Kaitlyn is wearing the entire set, necklace, earrings, and bracelet. On her hands, a ring of varying colors emit a cold light from every finger if her hand.

"You bitch! How did you get my mother's jewelry?" Lauren cried.

"Some of it belonged to my grandmother, too. It should belong to me," Kaitlyn argues.

The cops surrounding them confusedly watching them argue back and forth, suddenly realize there's a serious problem. They noticed the jewelry, too, but just assumed it belonged to her.

"Do you have proof that this jewelry belongs to you?" the first officer asks her.

"Yes, in the safe in my office. I have appraisal reports for everything in my safe upstairs," Lauren looks at him.

"Can you show me?" he asks her.

Lauren enters the house and flips on the light. She leads him to a room after passing through the living room. She leads him to a bookcase, where she pulls out a book and pushed a button hidden behind it. The bookcase slides to the left, exposing a large, elaborate safe. The officer whistles in admiration. He's seen this kind of safe before. "Sorry, I may be careless about my jewelry, but not about my company. Trade secrets and contracts are more valuable to me than jewels," Lauren looks sheepish.

She does the combination lock which opens a door with a numbered pad under it. She enters a 10 digit passcode, which opens another door. In this door is a scanner, keyed to her fingerprints. The safe opens and she grabs a file sitting at the back.

"Let's go up to the jewelry safe and see if anything else is missing," the officer says.

The key was still in the open lock of her jewelry safe. Lauren gets her first look at the bedroom her fiancee and cousin messed up. There are clothes scattered around the room. Her closet door is open and several of her most expensive evening gowns are just tossed on the floor. 'No wonder I felt that things were missing. Kaitlyn has probably been taking them' Lauren thinks.

"They must have been doing this for a while. The combination was in a file in my office and the key was well hidden in a painting," she points to a painting on the wall.

The officer looks closer and realized there's a tiny pocket on the painting. He pulls the key out and it fits perfectly in the pocket. It also blends in with the colors on the painting. If he wasn't shown it's secret, he probably wouldn't have found it either. Lauren pulls out different sized velvet jewelry boxes. The officer opens each one, compared it the appraisal list, and checks it off. Through this method it's discovered, aside from what Kaitlyn is wearing, there are 2 bracelets, 4 rings and a sapphire necklace missing. The necklace's loss hits Lauren the hardest. It was a gift from her father to her mother to celebrate the day she was born since it was in September. Lauren always wore that piece on her birthday.

"Are you sure you haven't taken them out and placed them somewhere else?" The officer asks.

"I haven't even opened that safe for at least 3 months. That was my last formal event. That's the only time I take anything out. The necklace was there then for sure, because i almost wore it, but I had to change my dress at the last minute. So I switched to this emerald one since it matched the new dress better," Lauren sadly says.

All of this jewelry belonged to her mother or grandmothers at some point. They were given to her when they passed away. The officer takes pictures of the safe and appraisal report. Then pictures of the scattered clothes and messy bed. Even the used condom in the trash. Then he gathered their clothes so they could get dressed before getting taken to the jail. They leave the house, to James and Kaitlyn arguing they did nothing wrong.

"She's the one lying officer. I can prove this is my house. Let me get my ID. I'm Lauren Short and property records will show I own this house. My sister is just jealous of me. Because her boyfriend chose me over her," Kaitlyn is still claiming.

Kaitlyn and James are being interviewed separately while Lauren is showing the officer her proofs.

"Lauren is my fiancee, of course I have the right to be here. I thought it was Lauren I was with. I've only met her crazy sister a couple of times. Oops, sorry her cousin," James says in finger quotes.

The police have separated James and Kaitlyn to get their statements to figure out what to do next. The officer with Lauren pulls the other cops to the side after throwing James and Kaitlyn's clothes at them. He tells the men about the missing jewelry and that Lauren is pressing charges against the other 2 for theft and trespassing. The officers nod before uncuffing James and Kaitlyn so they can get dressed. James and Kaitlyn look at each other with 'I told you so' expressions, each thinking they were being let go. They were surprised when the officers arrested them again after they were dressed.

"You're both under arrest. The owner of the house says she did not give either of you permission to enter. She's pressing charges for trespassing," the lead officer says.

"Lauren, listen to me. I'm your sister. You can't send me to jail. I'm 3 months pregnant with James child. You're putting your niece or nephew in danger of miscarriage if you send me to jail. James, James, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I didn't want it to interfere with your marriage. I didn't mean to trick you that I was her," Kaitlyn needs James to convince Lauren not to send her to jail.

"YOU ARE NOT MY SISTER!" Lauren shouts. "Just because you're mother tricked my father does not make us sisters."

Kaitlyn and James both look at Lauren in shock. Lauren is always cool under pressure. They've never heard her raise her voice before.

"I'm sorry, cousin. But the truth won't change regardless of how you call me. I'm pregnant with James's child. I'm sorry, I fell in love with James long ago. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just wanted

a chance to be with him, so I pretended to be you. I just imagined he was calling my name instead. But, this child is still your family. And the Marshall's won't be happy to learn their first grandchild died because of you," Kaitlyn tries to scare her.

"First trespassing, then identity theft. Now it's lying to a police officer. Is there anything you say that's true?" Lauren smirks at Kaitlyn.

"What do you mean, ma'am?" the officer asks her.

"I don't have video cameras inside except my office. However, I do have audio recorders that activate when someone talks. I run a global, billion dollar company. Because of different time zones, I get business calls at all hours of the night. I installed these recorders so I could go back and use it like minutes of a meeting. I helps if I missed something in a contract, to make sure I remembered what I said if I was half asleep. There's one in every room of the house, a long with a computer that monitors them. They're time stamped and dated. After every call, I log the information into a tablet synced with the computer so I can quickly find the right conversation. Looking at my tablet randomly now, I found many recordings that I can't account for. My housekeeper and cook are gone by 5. These are all between 5 and 10 pm," she shows the log to the officer.

Sure enough, there are timestamps that show recordings lasting for several hours. James and Kaitlyn both look panicked now. They didn't know about the recorders.

"You have no right to record me without my permission. Delete them. Delete them right now," Kaitlyn yells as she tries to knock the tablet out of the officers hand. A cop drags her back before she can

"I have every right to record anything in my own home. I don't need your permission, because you weren't supposed to here," Lauren calmly answers her.

Kaitlyn is screeching, sometimes unintelligible nonsense, just to try and cover the conversations with James that may have been recorded. Especially the ones where he talks about drugging and having her raped. When she sees the officer looking at her and James in disgust, she knew she failed. There was proof they both knew she wasn't pretending to be Lauren. Kaitlyn continues to wail that Lauren made the recordings up.

"Looks like this started about 4 months ago. The rest of the recordings match with my tablet logs," Lauren finally announced.

"If you can, please copy those recordings and send to the police station. These 2 will be arrested for trespassing, false reporting, identity fraud, and attempts to commit great bodily harm to another person," the officer tells the cops to read them their rights.

"Oh, don't forget grand theft, sir. The recordings might prove what happened to the missing jewelry later, but that set she's wearing right now appraised at 10 million dollars 3 years ago. Diamonds don't depreciate. And the cheapest ring she's wearing is worth a half million, the most expensive is 3 million. If we averaged each ring at 1 million dollars, she's wearing 20 million dollars in stolen jewelry," Lauren smirks at Kaitlyn.

This ought to keep her out of her hair for a while. James will be listed as her accomplice, but he has family money to bail out. The officer photographs the jewelry Kaitlyn is wearing and where before a cop forcefully removes them from her. He hands the jewelry back to Lauren.

"I suggest you get a new appraisal ma'am, just in case they switched out the stones," the officer says, causing James to pale even further.