You Could Be My Lover.

"survival."

{Michael}

It broke my heart to see Mother so heartbroken and upset.

"Mother... I promise I'm going to be fine," I reassured her once more, "If I don't go out and find her, who will?"

"I know," she sighed as she lowered her head, "...I just want you to be careful, sweetheart. You know how he can be," she said, the disappointment in her tone more evident than ever.

"Of course," I obliged. "Blood kin or not... Darryl deserves what's coming to him. After all that he did to us, it's what he truly deserves. Kicking everyone in the family to the curb and cutting every single one of us off for money and some bogus irrelevant career, and for what?" I shook my head as I stood up from the chair at Mother's dining room table.

It fell silent for a short while until Mother finally spoke up to say something more.

"Yes, it's unfortunate what he did to us, but sometimes the things that happen to us in life happen for a reason," she calmly stated.

"He's only doing this to spite me and get a rise out of me. I wish I had never ran into him when I had Alika with me by my side... none of this would've ever happened."

"Like I said... everything happens for a reason, Michael," she reiterated. "Yes, what Alika did to you was more than wrong, but... that doesn't take away from the fact that 'getting even' with her wouldn't make things better. It's always easy to point the finger and blame someone else, but the fact of the matter is that Darryl is the direct cause of all of this," she shook her head. "By no means necessary do I wish harm on anyone, but what goes around comes around. Darryl will reap what he's sewn—there's no other way around it."

Just as I was about to open my mouth to speak, Mother beat me right to the punch.

"However you choose to handle this situation is completely up to you, Michael. All I can tell you to do is be careful, be mindful of every decision you make and most importantly, keep yourself and Alika safe by all means necessary."

"...absolutely," I nodded eagerly in agreement. "Alika and I both hurting one another was wrong across the board, but Darryl finessing his way in between us to get her to deceive me was so much worse," I explained. "The only way to right these wrongs is by ending Darryl's reign—regardless of how much he's caused Alika and I to drift apart."

Saving Alika is the only way I can end Darryl's deceitful ways and make amends with her all at the same time.

Mentally, physically and emotionally preparing for the tough journey ahead wasn't the hard part—it was only the beginning.

**

{Alika}

Miserable isn't even the word to describe how I've felt since my time here at Darryl's secret hideout.

Lonely wasn't even enough to describe how painful I felt.

Nothing but pure, endless abuse—mentally, physically, emotionally; and then there's torture—the worst of them all; that's what describes my experience best.

Every second of every draining moment, I felt as if I was losing more and more of myself.

I guess this is what happens when you fuck around with someone's family—let alone rival identical twin brothers, at that.