"You two were meant for each other and by the time I came to that conclusion you two had already fallen in love with each other and I will say this, I'm glad he married you instead of Cindy that twin of yours is a handful."
They both laughed. Rella's coffee had gone cold but she didn't mind she'd lost her appetite anyway.
"So," he prompted. "Do you want to tell me how this happened?"
Rella smiled wistfully. "It was supposed to be for one night only, for the engagement that is, Cindy said her friend had emergency and that she needed to be there for her and begged me to take her place for a few hours until she returned."
"And you believed her?"
"She's my sister if cause I believed her, but I didn't know then that she was having cold feet about the wedding I let her leave and she didn't come back. It was too late to call off the wedding so my parents begged me to take her place until we find her and now here we are." Her voice had gone high-pitched at the end as she laughed uneasily.
"Where is Cindy now?"
"I have no idea, I haven't heard from her since that night not even a phone call. I just hope she's okay and that nothing bad has happened to her."
"hmmm. So in essence you're holding down the forth until Cindy returns to take her place. You do realise that Cindy Cortes is married to Stefan Diamond not Rella Cortes."
Suddenly it felt like Rella had swallowed a bone. She hadn't thought about it that way at all. She stared at Christian wide eyed.
How could she be so stupid. All these time she'd convinced herself that she had the right to fall in love with Stefan because he married her, she had been the one at the alter, she had been the one reciting those vows, she had been the one he had kissed as they were pronounced husband and wife.
She had been the one he said 'I love you' to… suddenly she saw the wedding certificate and it read Cindy not Rella and she gasped. "Oh my God." She couldn't breathe.
"Rella are you okay?"
Christian's voice was far away. Fat tears rolled down her face. She was having panic attack, she never used to get those.
She felt her chair being pulled back and then strong fingers were at her nape forcing her head down between her legs.
"Come on breathe slowly, you're gonna be fine, I'm right here."
Rella breathe in and out following his command until she could finally breathe normally.
Christian sighed as he sat back down. Thankfully there was hardly anyone in the café it was past rush hour. She didn't want to end up in the tabloids again she shudder to think of what the headline might be.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Thank you Christian."
"You've got to tell Stefan the truth. He loves you I'm sure he'd understand."
"I'm scared." She sobbed. "What if he leaves me? I love him."
"I'm sure you're just overreacting. It's best that Stefan hears the truth from you first."
Christian checked his watch. "Lunch hour's over I gotta get back to work. Will you be alright I can drop you off before you head back."
"No need I'm fine. The chauffeur's here anyway."
Her phone just as she stood up to follow Christian. She fished it out of her purse and pressed it to her ear.
"Hello?"
Nobody spoke at the other end. How weird. "Hello who's this?" Still no answer but I then a voice called her name.
Someone else who knew her name that wasn't her mom and dad, or Chloe or Van…
"Cindy?"