The Grand Viper

14. Comeuppance

I quietly placed my feet on the cold marbled floor. The cold air brushed my warm skin as I removed the blanket over me. Elevating my weight from his bed,  I shook his body. When I didn't get any response, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I never knew perfume could drug people.

I searched for his laptop in his room. After a few minutes, I found it on his chair. Placing my sweaty palms on the cold metal, I lifted the screen. I then proceeded to place the silicon thumbprint to open the laptop. It opened in one go. Although my heart was beating rapidly and my palms sweaty, I knew I couldn't back down. After scanning and searching through his files, I found a specific protected folder which again needed his thumbprint to access it.

With one press, the folder opened. The folder was partially written in English and mostly used numbers that had to be decoded. When I pressed a certain file in the folder, I saw my father's picture pop up. Right below him, his information was noted. But, his name was different.

Vincent Steele...?

"This can't be... No," I said to myself shaking my head. "He must be a doppelganger-" When I read about his family section everything seemed to match my own dad's.

A deep brown hair and amber eyes, resembling mine. She smiled cheerfully in the picture. I touched the laptop screen with a small hope of holding her through it. Right beneath her picture, her information was noted. Her name Seraphine Steele was written in bold letters and right below that, her status was written as killed. In the children's section, a familiar name, Sapphire Steele was written.

Sapphire? Who is she?

I squeezed my brows together to think about all the possibilities I can be familiar with that name. But at the same time, my heart was palpitating rapidly and so were my irises.

"Sapphire darling." Mother said mustering all her strength. Her voice came out a little louder than a whisper but enough for me to raise my head from the bed and look at her.

My eyes were teary as I looked at her condition. The back of her hand was pierced with sharp needles connected to a bag held on a metal rod. The dark circles were prominent under her beautiful amber eyes and her body was lean.

She touched my cheek affectionately and said, "I will always love you, Sapphire. Always."

My head started hurting from everything running through my mind. I massaged my temples when they started hurting a little too much.

My whole life- everything was it a mere lie or was I pretending to be someone else all along? I didn't understand.  The voices in my head were fighting but I knew better than to let them win again and ruin my plan. Without letting myself get consumed by my thoughts further, I copied the information into the pen drive and quickly walked out of the room after placing the laptop in the exact place as before.

What is even real around me?

My father has another name, my name is different, I couldn't understand it.

Mother was killed? Who killed her?

Why would Reece have all this information with him?

What else am I unaware of?

***

He placed a small kiss on my cheek as I was preparing breakfast for both of us. If it had been any other day, I would have genuinely loved the moment we were sharing right now but after the actual realization, I could only pretend to be happy about it. I returned a small smile as I placed his plate on the table decorated with omelets, beans, and sausages.