Chaotic Resemblance

The house was cold. Not because of a lack of warmth, but because of a lack of life. Seated at the kitchen counter was Damien, his dirty blonde hair falling over his face as his head bent forward, unmoving. He had nothing to live for, no fight left in him. Everything he had loved, cherished, and cared for was gone. His first love, Lauren, was now married to his ex-best friend Nathan. His fiancée, Jane, was now dead because of him.

He sat upright only to pick up a glass filled with alcohol, letting the burning liquid slide down his throat. He needed to not feel. That was all he wanted now. He slammed the glass on the table just as his phone rang. It was Luke, his private investigator, on the other line when Damien picked up the call on the last ring.

“Tell me you’ve found something,” said Damien, his voice rough around the edges.

“I’ve found something,” Luke said over the phone. “And more,” he continued. Damien’s breath stopped for a minute in anticipation.

“I just sent the photos to your email. You might want to check them out,” Luke said, his voice distracted, like he was looking for something.”

“Anything else?” Damien asked.

“Yes,” Luke answered, out of breath. “It was Nathan who tried to kill you,” he whispered, afraid of what Damien might do.

“You’re sure it was him?” Damien asked again, disbelief smearing his thoughts.

“Yes, sir. I sent the CCTV clip. You can confirm it for yourself.”

Damien nodded absentmindedly, hanging up in the process. They might not be friends anymore, but he never thought Nathan would intentionally try to hurt him. He was about to find out otherwise.

The first thing Damien checked was the black-and-white video. It showed Nathan entering his beach house in Malibu, where Jane had been staying for the weekend. He watched masked men go in after him, and in a few minutes, they all came back out. He shouldn’t have left Jane alone. Damien knew he would never forgive himself as he watched the house blow up with Jane in it.

What caught his eye was the picture underneath the video. It was a picture of Lauren carrying a little boy with a smile on her face. He hadn’t even known she was pregnant. But that was the problem.

The bright green eyes of the boy staring back at him were unsettling, along with the curly dirty blonde hair that sat atop the boy’s head. It couldn’t be. Damien was peering down at a little version of himself. This had to be some trick. He traced the boy’s face and saw the mark he too possessed. It was like a small crescent moon, burned into the skin close to his ear. The little boy had the same birthmark. This could only mean one thing: Lauren had had a child, and it was definitely his.

At that moment, something awoke in Damien. He had to save his child from Nathan. If he had wanted him dead, then there was no telling what he would do to his son, who was now under the same roof. Or to Lauren, for that matter. He had to save the only thing that he had left in this world. It was time to pay his parents a visit.

****

In a couple hours, Damien’s private jet touched down in Seattle. He was torn between staying in his parent’s condo and renting an apartment where he could keep an eye on them. He chose the first option as his driver turned towards the home where he’d grown up as a child.

He watched the buildings pass in a blur, his mind wandering back to when he had been happy, when Lauren had been right there in his arms, where she belonged. He thought of her straight jet-black hair, which would billow in the wind whenever they went for their evening walk in the park.

His memories continued to the time she asked him to leave and never see her again. It had been the worst day of his life. Lauren, who had loved and adored him so much, now had nothing but hatred for him. It tore at his heart how all the had could be crushed with just a few words.

He wondered if she would welcome him with open arms now. He doubted it. She had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him. All he wanted to do was get custody of his son, then he would be out of her life. For good this time. He hadn’t dreamed of coming back here since the last day he saw Lauren. Everywhere he looked held a memory of them, each too painful to dwell on now. It had been almost a year, and he hated to admit he was still very much in love with her.

The car pulled past the large gate of his childhood home. He could tell his parents were home from the faint country music in the air and the scent of soup that wafted into his nose as he walked through the front door.

His father was spinning his mother around as they danced to one of their favorite songs, so lost in each other they didn’t notice Damien walk to the burner and turn it off. It wasn’t until the song finished that his mother jumped as she turned and saw Damien sitting there with a smug smile on his lips.

“Damien! How did you get in here?” his mother asked, startled, but she walked towards him anyway, engulfing him in a warm hug. Damien didn’t realize just how much he had missed his parents until now.

“I just got in,” he answered brightly before shaking his father’s hand in greeting. The old man smiled at him, but that was all. He didn’t show his emotions very often.

“I thought you would never come back here again,” his mother said, still holding onto his hand like he was a little boy and she was afraid that he would try to leave.

“I thought so too,” Damien muttered to himself. “Let’s have lunch before I bore you with my story,” he said instead.

“Oh! I had something on the stove,” she said, suddenly remembering she had been cooking before her husband had whisked her away.

“Thank you!” Damien said, laughing as his mother turned the flame back on. She laughed as she continued cooking. At least they hadn’t burnt their house down.

Damien turned to his father, who motioned for him to join him outside. Damien followed obediently until they reached the gazebo, out of his mother’s earshot. His father turned, looking at him with piercing eyes.

Damien pulled up the photo on his phone and showed it to his father. He expected shock, disbelief, and anger on his father’s face, but he got none. Instead, the old man remained quiet, like there was nothing out of the ordinary in the picture.

“You knew,” Damien said quietly, realization dawning on him. Of course they would know. They lived in the same city with her. His father nodded, regret the only emotion filling his eyes.

“Why did no one tell me?” Damien asked, betrayal and hurt lacing his voice. He couldn’t believe his own parents would leave him in the dark like this.

“She doesn’t know the child is yours,” his father said.

Damien shook his head, not believing a single word his father was saying. “How can she not know? I wasn’t sure at first, but he has the same birthmark I do, in the same place just beneath my ear. We have the same eyes, the same hair…how can she not know?”

“She hasn’t been the same since she got married to Nathan. Something is wrong with her Damien, but I don’t know what it is.”

“Did he hurt her?” Damien asked, fear suddenly taking over his senses.

His father looked at him for a while, contemplating his answer. “Physically…no. Mentally, I’m not so sure. There’s something off about her.”

“I have to see them. They’re not safe with Nathan,” he said.

“Why?” his father asked.

“He tried to kill me,” Damien answered. “He blew up my house thinking I was there and only succeeded in killing Jane.”

“You can’t be sure about that,” his father argued.

“I’m sorry about Jane though,” his father said after a while.

Damien said no more. He had to figure out some things on his own. He also didn’t want to get his parents involved; it was the only way he could protect them.

“I’m going to go back in before your mother comes out here wondering why we’re taking so long.” His father patted his shoulder as he walked past him back into the house. Damien looked around the house. He couldn’t leave his parents here alone, not while Nathan was around.

The problem was his parents would never leave this house, even if he tried to persuade them. He called Luke, who answered on the first ring.

“I want you to send a few men over to watch my parents all day. Discreetly. The last thing I want is for them to find out. Increase security inside the house, and always have men on standby,” he said into the phone, hanging up before Luke could reply. He had to think of something really fast before Nathan found out he was around and decided to make a move.

Damien walked back into the house as if nothing had happened so his mother would not be suspicious. He sat at the table as she began to lay out the dishes, his father helping her with the process.

“Now tell me why you’re back here,” his mother said.

Damien exchanged a glance with his father before he cleared his throat. “I’m just here to handle some businesses; that’s all. I bet you’re happy to see me,” he teased her.

His mother blushed, letting the pink stain her cheeks. “You know I am. Why didn’t you come with Jane?” his mother asked.

He was still not sure how to answer that question. His mother had been fond of her; she wouldn’t take the truth very well.

“She’s fine, but you know how she is, always traveling…” he said, with the most convincing smile he could force.

“I’m glad to hear that,” his mother said. “She should come to visit one of these days. I haven’t seen her bright face in a long while.” She sat down beside her husband at the table.

“I’ll let her know,” Damien said before stuffing food in his mouth so she wouldn’t question him further.

Damien was about to take another bite when he heard the front door open and somebody knock, putting him on high alert. He saw his mother’s face freeze but paid no attention to it. He excused himself from the table to go see who it was.

Straight black hair was the first thing he saw as the door opened, then bright brown eyes stared into his green ones. The air around him suddenly came to a standstill. His heart stopped for a moment, unable to process the person standing in front of him.

Even with all his planning, he hadn’t prepared himself for when he would see Lauren again. He wished the anger that he’d felt for her would consume him, but there was none. Everything he’d felt for her these past months washed over him a thousand times over.

Lauren said nothing as she stared at Damien. The weight of the grocery bags she was carrying finally snapped her out of it, and she walked past him into the kitchen. She put them down on the counter and began putting everything away in the fridge.

Damien stared after her, following her every move as she walked around the kitchen until she was done putting the groceries away. She turned then to face him, and just like lightning, she ran to him and hugged him with everything she had.

There was light, plenty of it, shining through the dark that had blanketed Damien for the past couple of months. The moment their skin touched, he sighed in relief. It was like he could breathe again. He finally put his arms around her, he was finally home but only for a short moment.

“What are you doing here?” she asked after detaching herself from him. He craved her warmth the moment he put space between them, watching as she put her guards back up.

“This is my home Lauren, why won’t I be here?” he asked, slowly becoming angry when the memory of her asking him to leave start seeping back into his head.

“You left,” she said, in an accusing tone, looking at him with so much disdain. Damien didn’t understand why she was angry when it was her that had pushed him away.

“You asked me to leave,” he reminded her before going back to sit at the table. His parents looked at both of them as Lauren took the empty seat beside him. They had not been expecting Damien or they would’ve told Lauren to come.

“What are you talking about?” Lauren whispered to Damien, so his parents wouldn’t hear.

“I’m not going over this with you Lauren,” he said simply, he wanted to dive head in first and ask how his child was doing but he didn’t want to ruin the mood at the table for his parents. No one spoke after that, each to their own meal while his parents chatted with each other.

After the meal, Lauren helped Paula, Damien’s mother, clean up. She was humming to herself as Lauren dried off the dishes. Lauren knew Paula was stalling, she wanted to say something to her concerning Damien, and she didn’t know what to expect of the woman she’d known since she was a kid.

She and Damien had been childhood sweethearts up until a couple years ago when he broke up with her. The memory of it hurt but she consoled herself every night with Harry in her arms. That was the last gift Damien gave her even though he wasn’t aware of it. She couldn’t tell him for the fear that he would take Harry away from her forever.

“Will you tell him?” Paula asked as if reading her mind.

Lauren looked outside where Damien was talking with his father. He suddenly turned, their gazes clashing as he looked inside the house. She looked away. “I can’t tell him,” she said, gripping the counter.

“You have to dear,” Paula said, placing a hand on her shoulder “He has the right to know, you can’t hide it forever.”

Lauren looked at her, tears gathering at the corner of her eyes, “What if he takes Harry away, and I never get to see him again?”

“We both know Damien is anything but cruel, he wouldn’t do anything that would intentionally hurt you, you have to give him that.”

What Lauren wanted to say was that Damien was indeed cruel. For leaving her when she needed him the most, he was cruel. She had cried every night and day at the hospital with his name on her lips, wishing to wake up in his arms, wishing that him leaving her was a dream.

Eventually, she had learned to live without him, she put all her focus on raising Harry, their son. There were days she couldn’t bear to look at the little boy without remembering Damien and everything they could have been, a family. He threw all that away only to get engaged to some other girl. The anger she felt towards him was back and she was grateful for fear that all the love she had for him would come back.

“Go and talk to him, you both should resolve your issues. It’ll make you feel better, I promise.” Paula left after that, as she went to meet her husband so they could give the former lovebirds space to talk.

Lauren walked slowly towards Damien as he stood looking at her. She dreaded every step that she took that brought her closer to him and the truth.

“We need to talk,” she said once she was within hearing distance.

“Clearly,” Damien mused. He didn’t know how to address the issue to her. Her husband trying to kill him or her keeping his child away from him.

“How’s your child doing?” He asked carefully, watching for her reaction, he got none.

“He’s fine,” she answered in a voice that couldn’t give away whatever she was thinking. He sat down and patted the empty space beside him. After several seconds Lauren finally sat beside him, so close that she could feel the heat that was radiating from him.

“I didn’t know you were pregnant,” he said, whispering the last word as if he was afraid of it and the effect it would have on her.

“Well, yeah. You left so I didn’t think it was necessary.”

Damien turned to ger causing his thigh to brush against hers, “I didn’t leave on my own, you asked me to,” he said.

Lauren turned to him confused “I would never ask you to leave Damien, I love you…why would I want you to leave? At the hospital…”

“You said you didn’t want to see me, ever again,” he finished for her. “You asked them to throw me out of the hospital, that you never wanted to see my face again.”

“What are you talking about? I never said that.”

“Yes, you did, Nathan wouldn’t even let me see you for the last time, I deserved that at the very least,” Damien said, unable to stop the tear that had escaped from his eye.

“I don’t know who told you that, there has to be a mix-up somewhere. I love you with all my heart Damien, I cried for you every time I woke up on that hospital bed.”

He laughed but it held no humor, it was nothing but pain. “Nathan told me…”

“I don’t know what Nathan told you!” She finally screamed, there was so much confusion in her head, that day was hazy, but she remembered parts of it anyway.

“When I woke up and asked for you, you weren’t there. I didn’t know how long I’d been in a coma for after the accident. All I recall was screaming for you and you weren’t there.”

“Lauren…”

“After weeks of endless torture you finally came but something was wrong, even I could feel it. You broke up with me, Damien.” She was crying now, the tears flowing in a steady motion from her eyes “I didn’t understand what I did wrong, but you ended it with me and now you’re back telling me that I pushed you away?” she was hitting his chest now, hating the fact that she was reliving that cold day in her head.

Damien sat there and let her hit him, she finally fell to his chest sobbing and he held her, gently stroking her hair like he always did.

“Something is not right here,” he said, “It’s not possible that we both remember that day differently,” He said, trying to find reason in all the mess “I could never break up with you Lauren,” he said, wiping the tears away from her face.

“Is that why you married Nathan?” he asked. She nodded.

“When I came to see you that day, what was I wearing?” He asked suddenly.

Lauren sniffed before answering “It was a white shirt and pink pants. I thought it was odd because you hated pink.”

“That wasn’t me,” he said, suddenly realizing it as he spoke aloud.

“What?”

“That couldn’t have been me. I hate pink Lauren, I would never wear pink,” he said, his head whirling with unanswered questions.

Lauren sat up, realizing that this just changed a lot between them “Then who was that?”

“Nathan,” he answered, realization suddenly dawning on him “That was my clone that day Lauren?”

“Clone? That shit doesn’t exist Damien!”

“It does,” He said, his tone turning serious “Back when we were in college, Nathan was messing around in his lab and made a clone of me, he could’ve done the same again, there’s no telling with him.”

“Why would he go through all that trouble?” she asked.

“He has always loved you, Lauren, surely you’re not that oblivious. He must’ve wanted me out of the picture.”

“That’s unbelievable, Nathan would never do that,” she said, her husband would never intentionally hurt someone. Not the kind quiet man that Lauren had come to care for during their marriage.

“How did he propose to you?” Damien asked out of the blue.

Lauren thought hard about the answer but couldn’t come up with any. All she remembered when she woke up was that she was married to Nathan, she couldn’t even remember the wedding—if there was any. Everything surrounding the time she got together with Nathan was hazy, she was beginning to see the truth in what Damien was saying.

“He just got on his knee…”

“You’re lying,” Damien cut her off. “You’re twirling your hair around your finger and you look so unsure of what you’re saying,” he said. He wasn’t sure if he should let her know the husband, she trusted so much killed his fiancée.

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Damien, we’re already married, there’s nothing any of us can do about it now,” she said, avoiding eye contact with him.

“This changes a lot! You married him against your own will. If he hadn’t pulled that stunt of me breaking up with you, you wouldn’t be married to him, ever!” he said, losing his temper, he stood up pacing the soft grass.

“We can’t change anything, we’re legally married, Nathan and me. You can’t expect me to just pack up and follow you.”

“I expect you to do just that!” Damien yelled. He couldn’t understand how she could remain with Nathan after what they just found out. If Nathan could go through the trouble of making a clone and trying to kill him, he couldn’t imagine what he would do to Lauren if he found out she knew what he did. Maybe it was best she remained with him.

“What of you?” Lauren asked, “What of the girl you so readily got engaged to?” She asked out of anger.

Damien didn’t answer, he couldn’t. How would he explain to her that her husband killed his fiancée in an attempt to get rid of him?

“Can’t answer now, can you?”

“She’s dead,” he finally said, forcing the words out of his lips with so much disdain.

“What?” Lauren asked, unable to process what he just said.

“She’s dead, Lauren.” The words were even more painful than when he’d first uttered them.

“I’m sorry…I didn’t know,” she said, suddenly regretting why she had asked him. She shouldn’t have lashed out at him, but she couldn’t also do what he wanted. Yes, she still loved Damien deeply like she always had but now she was married and had a duty to her husband and family.

“What if my son?” Damien asked, using the last card he could get her back. He couldn’t lose both of them to Nathan, he had to use his son to get Lauren back. That was the only way, especially now he knew that Lauren had always wanted him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, looking away so Damien wouldn’t notice the tremble of her lips as the lie slipped out of her lips. She wouldn’t let Damien take Harry away because he couldn’t have her.

“Don’t lie to me, Lauren.”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“How then do you explain your son’s green eyes. Neither you nor Nathan have green eyes and the hair Lauren. Even a blind man can see the resemblance.”

“That does not make him your son! Is that why you’re here? To take him away?”

Damien turned and looked her dead in the eyes “If that is what it takes to have you back then yes!”