4
Elena Bai. Everyone knew who she was. Whenever you hear the name something always comes to mind.
Sophisticated, elegant, intelligent, smart. She was a whole package, oh come on! A full course meal.
The pride of the Bai's household.
President Wang's lover.
A beautiful woman that everyone was jealous of.
Elena was sitting down on a couch in their living room when she saw Kate walk by.
Her poor widowed younger sister. She smiled and stood up from the couch then walked towards her.
"Kate! " She called enthusiastically. Kate glanced at her and forced out a smile, as usual.
"Sister, I thought you were out. Why are you at home at this time of the day?" Kate asked.
"President Wang will be taking me out for dinner tonight, I'm just here waiting for some time before going to prepare myself," Elena responded. That has been the longest conversation she had had with her sister in a long time.
For almost a decade she hasn't had a decent conversation with her sister, not because they hate each other but because she doesn't feel like it.
Elena was the pride of the Bai household. She was gorgeous and intelligent and Kate... Kate was the opposite.
Elena wrapped her arms around her chest while watching her younger sister quietly. She noticed that Kate looked a lot thinner than usual.
"What are your plans, Kate Bai? Are you planning to start learning skills acquisition or do you plan to go back to school?" Elena asked.
Kate was wondering why her senior sister suddenly cares about what she does.
Elena Bai never cared about her, not when they were still young and not now.
"You don't have to act as if you care about me, I am fine being invisible to everyone," Kate said and started walking away.
Nothing hurts more than knowing that her elder sister doesn't care about her. She was the oldest, the one who should have sacrificed for her but it was the other way around, Kate was the one who ended up sacrificing everything. Her freedom, her education, her body, and the only man she ever loved.
She isn't worthy to be her elder sister. She doesn't worth it at all. Not her loyalty nor her respect.
****
It was late in the evening, Abigail Bai, Kate's mother walked inside her room and woke her up.
"Stand up and make yourself useful, come downstairs, your sister has something to tell us." She said to Kate.
Kate walked inside the living room wearing a black shirt and her baggy sweatpants.
When she got there she was surprised to see her whole family sitting down on the couch, including president Wang.
She smoothened her shirt and sat down quietly beside her mother.
"I am here." She announced.
"Mother, Father, president Wang proposed to me and I said yes!" Elena announced excitedly.
At that moment, just like years ago when her father announced her marriage to Yang Feng, her heart shattered into tiny pieces.
Why was it that everything she wanted got taken away from her?
"Wow! Congratulations my dear. You have made us proud." Her mother said happily.
Kate was speechless, angry, sad,d and depressed at the same time.
But she couldn't let her emotions betray her. She couldn't act unhappy before her family, especially before Julian. She couldn't do that.
"Congratulations sister." She said calmly.
She didn't ask for much. She never asked for much. Her sister has always gotten the best clothes, the best shoes, the best toys, and the best friends, she only wants one person. Someone she has always wished for since she was nine. A lover. Julian Wang. Why was it so hard for God to grant her a wish? Why?
Was she cursed to never have good things in her life?
Questions keep going around her head.
"Is there anything else?" Kate asked her mother.
Her mother stared at her with wide eyes and Kate stood up from the couch.
"Congratulations on your engagement, sister. I hope you enjoy it."
She wanted to act as if she cares but she just couldn't. She couldn't stand it.
She was hurting deeply.
She turned around and walked away from the living room and upstairs to her room.
Kate closed the door behind her back and closed her eyes. She couldn't shake off the smiles on Julian's face when Elena announced their engagement.
Somehow she has always known that they will end up married but she lived in denial. She refused to believe it and now her worst nightmare was about to happen.
Losing Julian Wang.
****
Kate was making breakfast in the kitchen when her phone started ringing. She turned off the gas cooker and grabbed her phone from the counter. She smiled immediately she saw the name on her phone screen, they haven't spoken to each other since that day at the bus stop but she felt as if they have been speaking with each other for years.
"Hello?" She greeted quietly.
"Hi Kate, how are you doing?" Tash asked.
"I am fine, Tash. How are you doing? It has been a long time." Kate said.
Tash laughed before responding. "I was busy with work, Kate. I work in an office and my boss is not an easy man." She said then went quiet for a while. "Are you doing fine?"
Kate wanted to tell Tash about Elena's engagement but she doesn't want to say it on the phone. Someone might be eavesdropping on her.
"Do you want to meet up? I need someone to talk to." She said.
"Okay, I am free to talk."
Kate told Natasha where they were going to meet up before hanging up the phone.
After making breakfast, she serve it on the dining table and went to call her parents to the table, Elena spent the night with her fiance so it was only Kate and her parents.
After breakfast,t, she dressed up in a black gown and white flip-flops and then grabbed her purse before walking out of the house.
That was her life.
Eating and sleeping or going out.
It was time for her to start something for herself. It was time.
* * * *
Kate got to the restaurant where she was supposed to meet Tash and took a seat. She requested a drink while waiting for her.
Tash came not too long later, after greeting themselves, a waitress came and took orders for their food.
"So what did you want to talk about? Did something happen last night?" Tash asked carefully.
Kate sipped her drink and nodded her head.
"They are engaged."
It was a short three-sentence but Tash understood it very well.
Julian was engaged to her sister. Finally. As expected.
"Well, that is not a surprise now, is it? They have been dating for how many years now? For almost a decade, according to you and Page Six, I think this is what you should have expected from the beginning." Tash responded quietly.
She was right.
Kate knew this but she also wished things were different. she wished that things were different with her and Julian.
She wishes that the man she loves will at least acknowledge her for once.
"I don't know what I was expecting Tash but it hurts. No matter how I tried to console myself that there are other men out there that will want me, I just can't stop thinking about him. About the engagement. I want it to all stop. I want everything to stop." She said helplessly.
"If you want to forget, I have the perfect way for you to forget everything, Kate."
That night Tash took Kate to the club. She had just one butterscotch while keeping an eye out for Tash.
Kate danced and laughed with Tash, she was truly enjoying herself for a while. Just for a while, she sounds sure that she was slowly letting out her frustrations.
Maybe. Just maybe she should try and move on.
Maybe it was time for her to forget about Julian Wang once and for all.
A few months later, Kate decided to start working. She started by working in a restaurant. Luckily for him,r the couple that owns the restaurant were good people. She wasn't idle anymore and this makes her happy. It makes her forget about the things she lost.
Maybe. Just maybe if she works hard and became successful on her own Julian might finally see her, not as Elena's younger sister, but as a grown-up woman who is in love with him.
* * * *
Two Years Later:
It was Elena's wedding day.
Kate stayed up throughout the other night, sleep refused to come to her, she was thinking.
She got up from her bed and walked inside her bathroom, after taking her bath and brushing her teeth, she changed into her casual dress before walking out of her room.
It was still 8 am, in the next two hours her sister would become Julian's wife.
She knocked on Elena's door but heard nothing.
She slowly pushed the door opened and walked inside the room.
"Sister? Elena Bai." She called but heard nothing still.
She walked further inside the room, her eyes taking in her sister's huge room which looked twice her own.
"Maybe she is downstairs." She mumbled to herself and started turning around when her eyes caught the note on the bed.
She slowly walked towards the note and picked it up.
She opened it and started reading the content.
Mother and Father,
I'm sorry but I have to do this.
I don't want to get married just yet, I want to achieve what I want first. I couldn't say it all this while because I don't know how you people will react to it, I am sorry but I won't go through with this marriage. By the time one of you must be reading this I'm already out of Beijing
I am truly sorry.
Tell Julian that I am sorry. Tell him to wait for me.
With heartbroken,
Elena Bai.
What the hell!
Why would Elena do this?
Kate was confused and restless. The content of the letter soon started sipping into her brain. Elena just ran away on her wedding day.
What was going to happen now?
What will Julian do?
She didn't know what to do with the information. She quickly ran out of the room in search of her parents.
She knocked on her parent's door frantically and the door was thrown open by her mother who was glaring at her with contempt.
"Why are you making a fuss out of everything, Kate Bai? Knock on the door gently, don't break down the door for whatever reason you have." Her mother said. Kate took in a deep breath and produced the letter in her hand.
"Sister ran away." She mumbled.
Her mother stumbled to her feet and quickly grabbed the door to hold herself up. "What!"
"Senior sister ran away. She left a letter."
****
Everywhere was heavy with unspoken words. Elena ran away on her wedding day and now the Bai clan is in trouble.
Who are they going to hand over to Julian at the altar?
"I think we should tell Julian immediately." Her father had said.
Her father grabbed his phone and dialed Julian's number.
After almost an hour of uneasy conversation which includes her father almost crying, he dropped the phone on the table before them.
"What did he say?" Kate's mother asked.
"We are in trouble, Abigail. Julian Wang said we better look for a wife for him. The shame is too much."
A wife?
A substitute?
Abigail Bai looked up at Kate and sighed.
"Elena is not here, we can't afford to not provide someone to take her place at the church this morning. Kate, you are going to take your sister's place as her substitute."
Kate's eyes widened.
A substitute.
Yes, that was what she was and will always be.