Two Destinies
Emily walked through the unfamiliar streets of Manchester, clutching a small scrap of paper like a lifeline. The young woman was desperate; this was her last hope for a future. For two days now, she had searched for work, but it was proving harder than she’d imagined.
“Thanks, we’ll call you!” echoed every employer, the same rehearsed line.
“But I don’t have a phone. I’m not from here, and a mobile—it’s too expensive for me,” she tried to explain.
“Miss, you filled in the form, didn’t you? We’ll consider your application!” The HR assistant’s vacant stare made Emily feel small.
*What’s wrong with me? First-class degree, fluency in French and Spanish… What more do they want?*
Time was running out. If she didn’t find work today, she’d have to return home—back to her ill mother, whom she’d promised everything would be fine. What future was there for her in a tiny village with her qualifications?
“Good afternoon,” she murmured, stepping into another office. “I’m here about the job.” She knew she should sound confident, but fear tightened her throat.
“Fill this out,” snapped a bleached-blonde receptionist, barely glancing up. Ten minutes later: “Thanks, we’ll ring you!”
“But—I don’t have a phone,” Emily whispered, near tears.
The woman stared as if she’d crawled out of the Stone Age. “Not our problem. Don’t waste my time.”
Emily stood, numb, heading for the door—until it swung open. A striking woman rushed in.
“Lucy, have the suppliers arrived?” she asked the receptionist.
“Not yet, Miss Charlotte. Any minute now.”
The newcomer noticed Emily—and froze.
They could’ve been reflections. Same face, same birthmark. Emily couldn’t speak.
“She’s here about the admin role,” Lucy sneered. “I told her we’d call, but she doesn’t seem to grasp—”
“Come in,” Charlotte cut in, ushering Emily into a lavish office. “Show me your credentials.”
“No references, I’m afraid. I’ve just graduated.” Emily placed her documents on the desk, studying her double.
“Right… You’re hired. When can you start?”
“Now!”
Charlotte barely heard. “Lucy will brief you, then take you to the restaurant. The manager, Oliver, will meet you.”
She left abruptly, ignoring Lucy’s protests about the suppliers.
In her car, Charlotte pressed her hands to her face. This wasn’t coincidence. The dreams she’d had—*this girl was her sister.*
She drove straight to her mother’s—Dr. Margaret Whitmore, a renowned surgeon, cold as steel. Charlotte had always felt like an orphan in her own home.
“Why the surprise visit?” Margaret’s tone was clipped.
“I met my twin today.”
Margaret paled. “Who told you?”
“No one. I *saw* her. We’re identical. Who is she?”
Margaret exhaled. “Your birth mother was a village girl. I couldn’t conceive, and when she had twins… I took you. Gave you a life she never could.”
“You stole me,” Charlotte whispered. “And separated us.”
“Get out!” Margaret hissed.
Charlotte fled, wandering until dusk. At the restaurant, she confronted Oliver.
“That girl—Emily. Where is she?”
He handed over her details.
Charlotte didn’t wait. She knocked on a grimy flat door, where a drunk landlady sneered, “Who d’you want?”
“Emily. Please.”
Minutes later, her twin appeared, wary. “Is something wrong?”
“We need to talk.”
Under a streetlamp, Charlotte struggled for words. “Doesn’t it seem strange—how alike we are?”
Emily nodded. “I’ve been thinking about it all evening.”
“We’re sisters.”
Silence. Then tears.
“How?” Emily breathed.
“Our mother—*yours*—doesn’t know she had twins. Tell me about her.”
“Kind. Sick, since Dad died.” Emily wiped her eyes. “I’ve dreamt of you.”
“Me too.” Charlotte gripped her hand. “Let’s go to her tomorrow. Pack your things—you’re staying with me now.”
They clung to each other, weeping. The missing piece had finally clicked into place.
Later, their birth mother wept too—first in rage at Margaret, then in forgiveness. “She gave you opportunities I couldn’t,” she admitted.
Charlotte, once so angry, softened. Margaret wasn’t a villain—just a woman who’d loved poorly.
And as the two families slowly stitched themselves together, the sisters knew: after a lifetime apart, they’d never be separated again.
