Memories

It was Sunday morning when Henry picked up Chantal from the Winchester Family's mansion. They were scheduled to appear for a fitting for the wedding gown.

The maid of honor Beatrice and among other bridesmaids, Leah were already on the way to the Bridal gown shop. They were also scheduled to fit their dress for the event.

Troy and the other groom's men were already waiting in the shop as well.

Since it is tradition that the groom can't see the wedding gown before the actual day, they will be separated once they get inside the shop.

"Are you excited?" Henry asked.

"Of course! The day is getting closer. I can't wait to be your wife." Chantal was beaming at Henry.

The other chuckled. "I can't wait to be your husband, too."

Chantal stared at Henry lovingly as she held one of his hands as the other was guiding the steering wheel.

"Anything new going on?" Henry asked in conversation.

Chantal tilted her head and let out a long sigh which made Henry glance at her briefly.

"What's up?"

"Well, I just found out that my real twin died on the day we were born. Her name was Sophia. My grandparents and dad kept it a secret from mom. They said it's because they're worried she'll go into depression because of it."

"Real twin?" Henry was a bit confused.

"Yeah. As in, Diana is not actually my twin. But she's still also dad's biological daughter. It turns out that dad had a relationship with an actress before and got her pregnant around the same time as mom, before they got married. The woman is basically a nobody and probably can't afford to raise her own baby so she gave up Diana."

"Wow. That's a lot to take in. How is everyone?" He was surprised to hear of this piece of information.

"I don't know, really. I'm just worried that this will affect mom and dad's relationship. Since it's 22 years of a secret. Plus, Diana as it turns out is not just some abandoned child. She's a daughter from dad's previous relationship. That must sting."

Henry squeezed Chantal's hand in comfort which warmed the other's heart.

"I'm sure it'll be okay." Henry consoled her.

Chantal nodded in agreement. "Just kind of makes much more sense now. Me and Diana have always been different. For

twins, we really are the polar opposites. Now it makes sense."

Henry agreed. Diana and Chantal really are unconvincing as twins.

Now that he came to know about this, he was relieved that he made the right choice and chose Chantal over Diana.

Meanwhile, Diana was cooped up inside the apartment.

She was still internalizing the revelation from yesterday.

Memories from her childhood keep playing on repeat in her head. And each time a memory surfaces, she can't help but weep.

She remembered that there was a time when the person she knew to be her mother, Vanessa, loved her the same as Chantal.

Vanessa would even organize photoshoots for the family and especially the babies. She loved dressing them up in the same clothes and taking them to vacations.

It was only until Diana started growing up into somebody looking unrelated to her. Her friends would always comment on the difference. Chantal looked so similar to Vanessa and their cousins. But Diana was always different. If anything, she was always more beautiful. Because of that, Vanessa started to dress Chantal better to compensate. The more Diana gets the attention, the more Vanessa tries to compensate Chantal. The grandparents also tolerate this and even encourage it. They are the ones lifting up Chantal and putting Diana down. Vanessa couldn't understand why the elders would favor Chantal more than Diana. Especially her parents, they would always spoil Chantal and neglect Diana.

Chantal became insecure because of growing up hearing the comparisons made by other people. She is the one looking more like Vanessa and Osmond but she is also the less pretty, less smart, less talented. She was also struggling with her weight, because of inheriting her mom and dad's genes. She has a slow metabolism. It's easy for her to get fat if she indulges in food.

Because of the pressure to be at least as pretty as the sister, she also has body image issues. She is envious of Diana for not inheriting it.

But she is happy that even if Diana appeared perfect, their grandparents dote on her more.

Since childhood, the grandparents would nitpick Diana's faults while overpraising Chantal. This led to Chantal having the idea that she is more favored and Diana the hated one. Every time the two would play and Chantal would accidentally get hurt, the grandparents would blame Diana.

At first, Vanessa will defend Diana since they didn't really see Diana do it. But as Chantal grew up and learned to manipulate others, she would pretend to get hurt and then tell them that it was Diana who did it. Since then, Vanessa would get disappointed at Diana for always hurting Chantal. The more Diana would reason out, the grandmothers would insist that Diana is a lying, disrespectful, and rebellious child.

Because of this, Diana would only focus on her studies, with the insistence of her paternal grandfather Vergil. He would always tell her to study hard so the family won't get humiliated by others. After all, even if a person has bad personality, if she's not also dumb, she wouldn't totally bring shame to the family.

Now that she knows the truth, she can finally understand how her childhood came to be.

What she couldn't fathom though, was that she wasn't able to feel the affection and belongingness from Osmond, Vergil and Regina. They were supposed to be biologically related to her. And yet, they treated her like an orphan all these years. Like she owes them what she has now.

This is why she made it a goal to be independent from them. That if she can stand with her own feet, she doesn't have to fear being driven away for some reason or other.

This doesn't stop Diana from feeling dejected though. How could her biological mom just abandon her like that?

Couldn't she at least have tried to raise her herself?