Transmigration: Her Chosen Path

Today was the day everything was supposed to change.

After years of orphanage life, its warm chaos, its melancholy, its strange joys... I was finally being taken in by my biological father. The director had delivered the news with a smile, her voice soft with something like hope. And I... I was overwhelmed with a strange happiness. As if my life was finally beginning.

But that joy... it was fleeting.

Because the moment I saw him, a strange chill seeped into my bones.

It wasn't the way he looked because we didn't share a single feature that is alike. And it wasn't because I remembered growing up with him as I had no memories of my childhood, not really. Just scattered fragments, like shards of glass catching the light.

But there was something about his voice.

The smoothness of it. The careful rhythm. And suddenly... like a ghost rising from the deepest recesses of my memory, a moment resurfaced.

I was little. No more than three. Clutching my mother's dress as she argued with someone... and the person she argued with was none other than this man. I didn't see his face clearly back then, but I remembered his words. Cold, precise, laced with disdain:

"You are on your own. Not anyone can take the position of my wife."

The same voice. The same cruel distance masked behind polished civility.

My breath caught. I staggered back a step, not from the sight of the father I had finally met, but from the voice that had been etched in a forgotten corner of my heart.

I hadn't recognized him with my eyes.

I had recognized him with my scars.

Maybe it was the shock or perhaps it was the unforgiving sun beating down as I waited far too long for him to arrive. Fortunately or unfortunately, a wave of dizziness washed over me, and the world spun out of reach. Then, everything went dark.

***

I couldn't tell how long I'd been unconscious. But when I came to my senses, I was nestled in the back seat of a luxury car, the leather cool and buttery against my skin.

A voice broke the silence.

"You're awake?"

I turned toward the owner of the voice... the man called my father but I said nothing, just looking at him.

He frowned, just slightly. But his face quickly returned to a gentle expression.

"You fainted suddenly," he said, his voice showing concern which I could tell was fake.. "The director told me you were perfectly fine this morning but I'm still worried. I've already called our family doctor. He's waiting at the villa."

Such kindness. Such grace.

But I wasn't fooled anymore.

She remembered the way he stood that day with a straight arrogant posture and cold eyes. "I have nothing to do with you. Nor with her." Even if I was an ignorant three years old I could understand his words.

He left without looking back, severing whatever fragile bond might have existed. And now here he was, playing the role of a worried parent. As if his abandonment had never happened. As if my mother's tears and the years he was absent from my life were nothing

But now, I don't expect anything from him.

Now. Not love. No regret and especially I don't expect him to change.

He could create all kind of family stories or excuses but they will all be meaningless.

If I could call someone my family, it would be first my mother and then the people of the orphanage.

But now why did this father of mine come for me for?

It can't be that he really regret it?

Just when I was thinking and having doubt of him possibly regretting everything he did to us in the past, the man opened his mouth.

"Then before we reach our home, let me introduce your other family members."

He took out his mobile phone, scrolled in his image gallery and showed the faces of my two aunties and uncle then showed me another photo of a very young girl, perhaps she was 8 or 9 years old when she took this picture.

"This girl is your sister. Although the picture is old but because your sister hates taking pictures this is the only picture I have of her... Your sister is the same age as you. You're twins."

Twin sister?

I frowned is it his child from another woman?

"But you see due to the greed of the nurse who worked at the hospital where your mother gave birth to you, you two were separated. She switched you with the dead child of another couple. From what I heard after the nurse was caught and interrogated. The husband was crazily in love with his wife, and he couldn't tell his wife the news about their child so when the nurse saw him devastated and in a dilemma like that, she offered to exchange his dead baby with you. Your mother had given birth to two children so she claimed that one of the babies died because she was born weak and we all believed her because no such thing has ever happened. So when I knew and because the man was a foreigner, I have been focusing on searching on his foreign country. I never expected he would abandon you here shortly after stealing you from us because his lie was exposed..." He continued.

"No way..."

"It's hard to believe it but this is the truth..." He affirmed his fake story again.

But I know this isn't the truth but a lie... every word he had spouted now is a lie.

I hadn't been switched.

I hadn't been stolen... rather I and my mother were discarded by none other than my father.

And now? He wanted to rewrite the story painting himself as the grieving father, robbed of his baby girl.

It's just that there was no love in his eyes when he looked at me. Just calculation.

I wasn't family. I was just a pawn.

The girl he introduced her as my twin sister... I'm not sure if his feeling towards her were sincere or if she was his first pawn. But I'm sure about my situation

***

"Aira, are you even listening?" He called me, his voice showed a slight irritation.

'There's still so much work to be done on you. First thing's teaching you how to listen properly.' He muttered

Work? Work to be done on me?

What am I? Some unfinished sculpture?

I held back the anger that had been surging and smiled faintly as if I hadn't heard him.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I guess I was just too tired. But don't worry, I remember everything you have told me."

"Good. Rest for a bit. I'll wake you when we arrive." Perhaps satisfied with my answer, his tone improved a lot.

*

The rest of the ride passed in silence.

When the car stoped and I stepped out... I choked on my breath. The villa was... majestic. Super grand.

My dear gentle father patted my shoulder as he kindly said;

"Let's get inside and you go take a rest, I'll send the doctor to you shortly."

I nodded and walked by his side..

But as I was walking towards the mansion entrance, I felt a pair of eyes. Watching me.

"This must be the starting point."

The beginning of everything.

The real daughter would return, and with her arrival, jealousy might spark like a flame and with it, the conflict between her and Arin, the false daughter, might intensify until it consumes them both.

But is it really worth it?

No, it isn't.

Whether it's the one I remember or the one I met, Arin isn't cruel. She even sympathized with the girl, and so did I. After all, she is only a child, raised as an orphan who would have always dreamed of reuniting with her family.

Still, it would be better to keep my distance for now. Not only from her, but also from the man who calls himself my father.

Knock, knock.

Just when I made up my mind to stay away, a knock sounded at the door of my room.

"Come in."

A maid stepped inside, bowing politely, then spoke:

"Miss, the Master requests that the three of you dine together tonight."

The first hurdle appeared the instant I decided to withdraw...

I sighed inwardly but I replied showing a smile.

"Tell him I'll be there on time. It's rare to have a family dinner, and I'm... excited to see my sister."

The maid bowed again before leaving.

Here, every servant act as his eyes and ears. That's why I must continue to act like 'Arin'... obedient and cheerful. Only then would he believe I'm still the daughter who dances in the palm of his hand.

***

Awkward... so awkward.

After arriving here, taking a bath, and being examined by the doctor, it was already time for dinner. I went down to the dining room expecting the three of us to eat together, just as Father had said... but the one who suggested it was absent.

Father suddenly received a call, claimed there was an urgent matter at the company, and left in a hurry. In the end, I was left sitting face-to-face with Arin.

Strangely enough, this might be better because I wanted to talk to her alone as I need to figure out her character and I also want to show her that I'm not someone she should be wary of in this house.

From today on, the two of us will live together, I have to make it clear that I'm not here to compete with her for anything... really... especially my 'dear' father's attention I just the scenario of the true daughter and fake daughter fighting to death in the novels I read before.

Sitting across from each other at a dinner table, the silent atmosphere just feels too heavy.

I stared at the girl in front of me with some doubts in my heart as I recalled my 'father's words.

"Were you sad that Dad didn't come to pick you up earlier?" He suddenly asked.

"Yeah, I thought the DNA test was negative." I said my honest thoughts at that time.

"Dad is sorry. I actually wanted to come sooner and I tried many times to do so in my free schedule but everytime I was planning to come get you, your sister gets into trouble and sometimes she even gets injured that I would need to take her to the hospital." He said as he sighed deeply by the end of his words.

"It's okay..." I smiled slightly but not sincerely.

"Anyway, your sister doesn't know that you are coming here so we are going to surprise her."

She doesn't seem like someone who really didn't know of my coming... not surprised at the slightest.