Chapter 5 Atena Spanos

• Atena Spanos
• Looking like my sister is a blessing. I'm proud to have her as my twin. We both graduated in business administration, but Gaia is now pursuing a specialization so she can work at the museum like our mother, along with her training in cybernetics.
• I'm still in my room, waiting for her to finally tell me what outfit she chose. Today is her pre-wedding lunch, and we all know how miserable she is with this whole circus our father insisted on putting together.
• If only he could see beyond his profession and look at us as his daughters, he’d realize he’s marrying off the wrong one.
• I hear the door and quickly fix my expression so no one notices that I'm just as hurt as my sister.
• But for the wrong reasons...
• "Come in." I was sitting in the armchair, staring at the horizon, when I felt my cousin Alice’s hands on me.
• "Grandma asked you to come downstairs. She wants to talk to you before Gaia goes down for the lunch." I frowned.
• I left the room and followed my cousin to the garden, where I saw my grandmother Maitê on her knees in the dirt, tending to her roses.
• "Good morning, Grandma. What do you need from me?" My grandmother set down her gardening tools, turned toward me, and motioned for me to kneel beside her.
• "You know, Atena, you two may be identical, but there’s something that sets you apart. I noticed it when you were still little girls," my grandmother began.
• "Your father came up with this madness of forcing your sister to marry Joaquim," she continued, and I sighed.
• "I don’t understand, Grandma. What exactly do you need from me?" I asked again.
• I hoped she wouldn’t beat around the bush. I love her with all my heart, but Grandma Maitê is known for never saying things directly.
• "I want to help you both. I want you to be with Joaquim and Gaia to be with Arthur," she said so casually.
• I felt like my eyes were about to pop out of my head and bury themselves beneath the roses she was tending.
• "Grandma, don’t say that, please. If Dad hears you, he’ll lock me in my room for who knows how many years." She started laughing.
• "Atena, stop being such a coward. We didn’t raise you two to be afraid of your men. We raised you to dominate them and turn them into your little puppies, my dear."
• I held back a laugh as I noticed my father’s security guards approaching.
• "I know at least we raised Laís the right way," she said with pride.
• I had been confused from the moment I stepped into the garden. I kept my eyes on the rose seedlings scattered on the ground, trying to understand what exactly my grandmother had in mind.
• "Since today is the lunch and tomorrow is the wedding, I asked your Aunt Selma to request your Uncle Demetrius to order a few bottles of that whiskey they always get. I’m going to put something in it," she said calmly.
• My God. I was staring at the old lady in front of me, genuinely wondering if my grandmother had been abducted and replaced by an alien.
• "Grandma, are you crazy? What exactly are you planning with all this?" I asked at once.
• "I want Joaquim to make you his wife, and I want Gaia to be happy with her own choice. I know that’s what you want too, Atena. Besides, that boy Matheus might fool his mother, but not me."
• I narrowed my eyes and tilted my head in curiosity. What was this sharp old lady hiding from everyone?
• "Tell me now. What don’t we know?" She pinched my cheek and smiled.
• "Matheus is in love with Alice, but that girl is blinder than a mole," she said, and I burst out laughing at my grandmother’s wild ideas.
• "But let’s get back to what matters."
• One of the guards approached us and said my mother was looking for me and asked if I could go back inside the mansion. But my grandmother was subtler than a horse’s kick when she answered the poor man.
• "Tell Mrs. Spanos that all those people can wait. Atena is helping me with the roses. Now get out of our way." I threw the man an apologetic look.
• "Grandma, I have to go." But she held my hand and kept me there.
• "When the whole party is over and Joaquim is ready to leave, you’ll call your sister to change clothes, and you’ll pretend to be her. Do you understand?" she says, and I keep my eyes fixed on her face.
• I end up nodding, even though my grandmother’s idea seems a bit nonsensical. Still, I think it might be the only solution to our problems, despite all the risks involved.
• "But what about in the morning, when my father realizes that it’s not Gaia who’s home, but me? What will happen to us?" He’ll probably cause a scene and punish us.
• "In the morning, Clarice, Ivone, and Paula will be here. With us around, your father won’t do anything. But remember, consummate the marriage. Give yourself to him. Whether or not you choose to tell him who you are, that’s up to you."
• Heavens, my grandmother has gone mad.
• "I’ll talk to your sister later, just as I’ve already spoken to Arthur. I’m just waiting for Juliana and Claudio to get a little distance from him so I can explain about tomorrow," she says.
• I realize my grandmother has an entire plan mapped out in her mind.
• I see my mother approaching, and my grandmother immediately starts talking about fertilizer and composting. She’s much better at pretending than I am.
• "Atena, everyone is waiting for you so your father can introduce you and Matheus. Come on, Maitê, leave the roses for later."
• My mother walks up holding a dress, looking stunning.
• My grandmother stands with some difficulty. Even though she’s almost seventy, she still looks quite youthful. But because of a car accident, she still struggles to walk properly.
• "I don’t know what the rush is with you two, especially when it means making your own daughters miserable," the old lady beside me says.
• She taps her cane on my mother’s shoulder, who shoots me a dirty look when I let out a laugh.
• "You know these decisions aren’t mine, Maitê. Your son set his mind to this, and I couldn’t change it," my mother says.
• I notice my grandmother scoffing at her words.
• "Nonsense. I taught you very well how to get what you want with Alex. Not to mention, he’s always been madly in love with you and did everything you wished, or has that changed?"
• My mother lets out a heavy sigh.
• "I love my daughters, but we’d rather see them married to people we know than to sons of other families. Just look at what happened with Helena."
• She suffered for years, in love with Tanaka, until she gave herself to someone again.
• "Helena almost killed herself after being abandoned, Mom. What you're doing is different; you’re sentencing my sister to a life of misery," I say, irritated.
• "That’s no excuse, Bonnie. These are the feelings of my granddaughters, and the girls have decided to stay silent to please you two. I see them as sheep being led to the slaughter."
• I pull away from my mother’s arms and leave her talking to herself.
• It hurts to hear the truth about our lives. My sister, the person I love more than anything, is going to marry the man I’m in love with. She’s in love with our aunt Carol’s nephew, a man who’s never even been involved in this world we live in.
• Since I didn’t want to go through the main entrance or the kitchen, I used Aunt Carol’s bedroom door, which was open, just covered by drawn curtains. I knew they weren’t in the room because, as a council member, she must be in a meeting to make the wedding official today.
• But as soon as I enter the room, I come face-to-face with my so-called fiancé kissing my cousin Alice.
• I stop, staring at the two of them, and they stare back at me. No one could say a word, but I found my voice again as soon as I heard my mother’s.
• "Get out of here quickly, Matheus. My mother is coming."
• I grab Alice’s arm, and we leave the room.
• I can’t help but laugh at all the couple-switching going on this morning. If my father weren’t so stubborn, he could have had both his daughters happy. But instead, he only succeeded in making his middle daughter carry such a deep hurt that she can barely stand being in the same room as him.