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2012, Stallard-Menken Household
After a few hours of the three girls listing to music while talking about the most random things, the twin's mother finally arrived and made dinner. The three girls head down after their mother called them down.
"There you girls are, I was thinking you all disappeared or something up there."
The four women all laugh. Upon hearing another laugh the twin's mother interrupts the laughter.
"Oh, how silly of me, I forgot to introduce myself to our guest. I'm Donna Menken, it truly is nice to meet you." Hope smiles and shakes her hand. "I'm Hope Stark, it's nice to meet you as well, Mrs. Menken." Donna pushes Hope's hand away and pulls her into a hug. "No need for formalities here, darling and please call me Donna. Calling me Mrs. Menken reminds me of my mother." Hope smiles at the hug as the feeling she got with Dylan Stallard is nowhere to be found with Donna Menken. Hope gets a feeling she can trust the twin's mother completely.
The dinner between the four women is filled with laughter and telling Hope about the twins in their younger years. Donna even brings a photo book of the twins after they all finish their dinner.
Donna tells the twins to set up Hope's things in their room while she cleans up the dishes and kitchen.
"Goodnight girls, see you in the morning." The three girls all say goodnight to Donna before going up the stairs to Olivia's room. While the twins share many things, a room isn't one of them. So, Sophia helps Olivia set up Hope's things spending a few hours with them before Olivia brings up something.
"Okay spill, why were you being weird when you met our dad?" Hope freezes slightly but tries to play it off.
"What are you talking about." Olivia rolls her eyes.
"Hope you literally just froze right now as you did in the car when you met him." Sophia pipes into the conversation while Olivia takes Hope's hand in hers. "You can tell us, we're just concerned about you." Hope sighs biting her lip in contemplation. She knows the twins wouldn't ever hurt her, but she wonders if they'll believe her if she tells them the truth about their father.
"Okay, but I need you guys to trust me okay?" Olivia instantly nods while Sophia takes a second and nods as well. Hope takes a deep breath.
"Remember when I told you guys about what happened to me before I was with my aunt Nat and my dad? How I was experimented on and nothing happened? I remember a certain face who was the head of all those experiments. It would haunt me every night while I was trapped in that place, I could never forget him. When I met your father it-it's like I was back in that place again and it was him, your father."
The carefree feeling the girls had in the room shifted. Olivia just sat shocked at the information trying to process it while Sophia immediately went to her father's defense.
Sophia looked at Hope in disbelief and got off the bed. "N-no. You're lying. Our dad wouldn't- he's a normal scientist, not some crazy madman that does crazy experiments on people, let alone kids!" Hope stands up. "Sophia, why would I make this up? Do you think I would purposely ruin our friendship over this? I still have nightmares from everything he did to me!"
Sophia scoffs. "Just stop! Nothing you say is going to change my mind! Olivia back me up on this! Our father is not some psycho!" Olivia looks to her sister and then to Hope. The two make eye contact having a silent conversation, making the atmosphere in the room shift again. Sophia had made up her mind about Hope, but Olivia was a different story.
Hope was her first real friend. Sophia had made so many friends in school and they considered Olivia the weird sister. The sister who couldn't process her emotions properly, the sister who could break at any second if you say the wrong thing to her. Olivia had looked into Hope's eyes and knew everything she said was true, but was she willing to risk her whole life for it?
"Sophia, I can't back you up okay? Hope wouldn't lie about this. Just think about it. Why would she risk losing us over this? I mean think about it, really think about it. There are parts of our life we can't even remember. I mean our photo albums all start when we were eight. Something's not right here."
Hope smiles slightly at Olivia. She was happy that Olivia believed her, and she wasn't going to lose one of her only friends.
Sophia shakes her head at the two of them. "I can't believe you would trust some spoiled rich girl over our father!" Sophia turns to Olivia. "Consider us strangers from now on. I can't be your sister let alone your twin if you can't even trust the man who brought us into this world." Sophia then turns to Hope. "And you, I hope you're happy for ruining my life. For ruining the one thing that was normal." Sophia then walks out of Olivia's room.
Hope walks to Olivia after Sophia's dramatic exit. "I'm so-so sorry Liv. I never meant for all this to happen." Olivia looks at Hope and hugs her. "It's okay, it's not your fault Hope. It's my father's. None of this would even be happening if it wasn't for what he did to you."
The two girls hold each other for a while not wanting to leave the safe embrace they offer to the other. After calming down, Hope explains to Olivia everything she believes Dylan did to her. From the painful tests to the punishments for not showing signs of anything. The two girls held hands the whole time Hope was explaining knowing that both were suffering from this.
The girls talked and talked all night until they could barely keep their eyes open not knowing what tomorrow would bring them but just having the thought that they would face it together let them fall asleep.
