Hidden Memories

Chapter 1

FIVE YEARS LATER

"Kathy!" My 'mother' yelled from downstairs, pulling me out of my memories.

I pull off my headphones, yelling back, "Yes?!"

"Caspar's here."

Casper? Again? I mean, Casper's a really great boyfriend... but he's been really clingy recently. It's like he thinks I'll get stolen the moment his attention is off me.

"Alright, let him come up." I answered reluctantly.

I hear heavy footsteps on the staircase outside, before they stopped outside my door. The door swings open to my... ugh... dear... Caspar...

I look up from my phone and put it aside onto the bedside table. I make slight eye contact with him.

"Hey, Kath!"

"What's up, Casper?"

"Nothing really... Just wanted to spend some time with you..."

See what I mean?

I don't reply him and he simply assumes I'm happy with him being here. He walks over and sat on the bed beside me. He leans downwards until our faces were a few inches apart

"No." I push him away.

"Alright Alright." He puts his hands up in surrender.

I watch his eyes, trying to read them. I wonder... what he thinks about me. Well... I have a pretty good idea... he probably thinks I'm the luckiest person in the world... Lots of people think so after all...

This girl... Katherine Everett Heinrichs... Who pretty much has everything in the world... Money... Looks... Fame...

Maybe Kath is perfect... but not me... I'm just a broken little girl with nowhere else to go...

I've been acting... That's it. That's what I'm best at after all... 

I force a small smile onto my face, getting up and pulling Casper out. Maybe a little time out of the house is what I need. I think Casper can read my mind, he stands patiently outside while I close the door on him and change. After I'm done, I follow Casper downstairs and grab a pair of sunglasses to hide my face and my eyes on the way out. I hate the crowds after all. I tell my 'perfect mother' I'll be going out for a while and she waves me off simply.

My mother... Evelyn Heinrichs... She has those nice blonde locks and baby blue eyes... She's an... hmm... actor and a singer... she's really famous... So I... her 'daughter' has to follow in her shoes...

Well... I'm not actually her daughter... I was adopted... But that's a secret, kept between the orphanage and the adopted family... it isn't like she couldn't have children though... I have an older sister... Kaitlyn Heinrichs... I don't see Kaitlyn that much anymore, since she's with my 'father', and he's in Australia. I can't say they're divorced, because they're really not...

'Father' just found a good job in Australia and 'Mom' didn't want to move. She was a star here in Los Angeles, after all. So 'Father' had taken Kaitlyn along, 'Mom' wasn't very fond of her, after all. It isn't that Kaitlyn had done anything wrong. Kaitlyn tells me that 'Mom' doesn't like her because she takes after 'father' and doesn't have her 'good looks' and thus can't take her position in the acting job after 'mom' retires. And that's where I came in... A false daughter, to take the place that Kaitlyn couldn't...

The truth is, even though she doesn't show it, 'mom' surely cared for Kaitlyn more than she ever did me. I can see it, in those baby blue eyes of hers...

The only time Kaitlyn and I get to see each other is if she and 'father' come here to visit or I take a short trip to Australia (alone of course) to visit them.

Casper grabs my hand, asking me, "What'd you wanna do?"

I shrug, silently noting that I would rather be alone right now... But I don't know how to tell him that... I smile softly at him, pointing at the park... Maybe we can just have a quiet walk...

"So Kath..."

Well, it looks like Casper isn't going to spare me the silence...

And so he talks... About everything really... School... Our modelling work... Mom had signed me up for that the day after I was adopted... I met Casper in school of course... but then we realised we were in the same modelling company and we spent more time together... then last year he asked me to prom... And the rest is history...

I glance at him now. He has a hand in his pocket and another in mine. His honey brown eyes face the sky, as he talks to me. Too bad I drowned him out a long time ago, occasionally nodding so he would smile and continue.

And so we stay like that for the next hour or so, then we headed our separate ways home.

Back inside my room, I think again. About that awful past I so want to forget but keeps coming back to haunt me. And also about the good parts of my life, which got ruined the moment that devil, EVELYN -whose name feels like poison on my tongue- Heinrichs, adopt... no, dragged me into her hellhole...

Surely, many dream to be like me... With riches, fame... who wouldn't want it...

But guess what?

I want to be like them too...

I want to have a normal life, have normal friends that like me for who I am and not... this mask I put on... to cover up my fear and worries...

I want to have normal parents that actually care for me, and not these emotionless husks that greet me with dry expressions... Do they think I can't see it?

Of course, they don't care... For I am a fake... Just a useless, stupid fake... In place of their real daughter... Just a trophy daughter to show off to the crowds...