Double Trouble

Epilogue

I hugged my parents as they got ready to leave. After everything that happened, they rushed here to check on my sister and me. By a miracle, I was still alive. Just as Clara had fired the shot that meant to kill me, Jason had just barely gotten to his feet and tackled her, knocking the gun out of her hands. I scrambled to get it as he fell on top of her to try and stop her. Luckily, I got it and held her at gunpoint, even though I was shocked. In the few seconds Jason had taken to save my life, I had caused him to pass out. I quickly called 911, and they got there fast. Marcus and Jason were taken away in ambulances, and Clara was arrested. I was taken to the hospital in the police car as I wasn't nearly as injured.

Marcus had lost a lot of blood. He was in critical condition, and for a minute, it seemed as if he wouldn't make it. The shot went through his back and out the front of his stomach. Jason had been shot in the chest just below his lungs, and the bullet lodged itself there. They both had been taken into surgery in critical condition. It was touch and go for a long time, but they both survived.

Clara was now in the county prison awaiting trial. Jason and Marcus were pressing charges; frankly, I couldn't blame them. After what she had done to them both, they deserved it. She deserved it. My parents had hired a good lawyer, a middle-aged black woman with an incredible record named Sarina. Still, after talking to her, Jason, Marcus, and I and seeing all the evidence and more things they found in her belongings, it wasn't looking good. Sarina was going for an insanity plea hoping to get her sent to a hospital. My sister was insane and needed help, but I couldn't help but feel like that would be too easy for her. She tried to kill not only Jason and Marcus but myself and would have succeeded if it wasn't for Jason.

Once Clara had been arrested, she stopped talking. She hadn't spoken to anyone since what she had said to me in the park. It was making her lawyer's job much more complicated and improving his case proving she could be insane. My parents had gone to see her several times in the week that had passed, but she wasn't budging. Sarina wanted me to go and see her hoping that I would be able to get her to talk, but I refused. I had heard plenty from her and wasn't rushing to listen to more. I knew eventually I probably would have to, especially closer it got to her court dates, but I wasn't ready just yet.

My parents and Jalissa had been wonderful in taking care of me. I cried a lot the first day. It was so much to take in, and honestly, I didn't think I would recover anytime soon. My parents had gotten me a therapist to start talking things out, but it was slow. At the time, I couldn't bring myself to speak much on the actual incident, so we spoke of other things, mostly what to do with Jason and Marcus.

When they had both woken up, I visited them in the hospital. I thanked them both so much and cried beside their beds for a ridiculous amount of time. Surprisingly neither of them blamed me, which I felt that they should have. If it weren't for me and my sister, they wouldn't have been in this mess to begin with.

I forgave both of them for the indiscretion with my sister as well. My talk with Marcus wasn't easy. Despite being a victim as well, it was hard to get over the fact that he chose to continue his affair with my sister. The first time, yes, he was drugged, but he had already admitted to willingly continuing with her after that first night. That he chose to continue was a hard pill to swallow. And I accepted that she was definitely pressuring him, but still, he had a choice. Either way, I did believe he was genuinely sorry for cheating on me, and deep down, I think he really loved me, but I couldn't be with him anymore. There was too much hurt, and we needed to heal separately before trying to be anything, even friends.

Jason was a whole different ball game. Not only with being drugged and forced to sleep with her that night, we had to come to the reality that our relationship was forced to a close, and we never recovered from that either, especially knowing he was going to propose. After that first night, she drugged him, he never did anything with her, but he let her win. He didn't once come to me and try to explain until he saw another guy in my life. Honestly, I couldn't tell you how I would have reacted. Maybe Clara was right, I might not have believed him over her, but I never got the chance. Again I forgave him; I couldn't hold that against him. She went after him with more vigor than she did Marcus, not that it made Marcus's suffering any less. Still, he was always the intended target, and the situation itself was so convoluted that I have no idea who would believe this shit. I wanted to try and be his friend again, but I knew once again that healing needed to happen. As easy as it would be to fall right back in with him, it wouldn't do to heal the damage, only put a Band-Aid on it and make it easy to want to ignore it. Hell, maybe we could go back one day, but it was a long way away.

I ended up choosing myself for now. No Marcus, no Jason, no relationship at all to speak of. I kept my job at the law firm but moved out of the shared apartment. My parents helped me find another place a little further from campus without a ridiculous commute. I was planning to see my therapist weekly, and my parents were considering taking some extended time to come so they could be there for both daughters. It was pretty rough on them trying to figure out where they went wrong, blaming themselves and wondering how they could have missed the signs. I tried to ease their mind saying that none of us would have seen this coming. Who would have known my sister harbored so much hatred in her heart for me? They also were considering getting a therapist of their own and had plans to join a few of my sessions. Jalissa spent as much time as possible with us and even brought Ashley along on a couple of occasions.

There was no telling where this road would lead. It would be a rough time once the trial started and everything came out. People would know more about my family than we probably even knew; my sister would be marked as insane whether the insanity plea worked anyway. I would always be known as the girl whose twin sister tried to kill her. This was a spotlight none of us would be able to escape for a long time. However, for the time being, I wouldn't dwell on that. I would look toward the positives and just hope that one day we could all put the pieces of our lives back together.