“Yeah. You didn’t tell me for the same reason I didn’t tell you about Luciano. It’s like the relationship is so precious that you didn’t want to share it with anyone. Like once the secret was out, the relationship might become tainted somehow. So, you wanted to keep it to yourself for as long as possible.”
“Exactly! Alexandro is so…” Gina was desperately trying to find the right words. “He’s charming, he’s strong, he’s funny and most of all he gets me. You know? He doesn’t try to turn me into a submissive. He actually listens to me when I talk. Unlike Chang. If I discovered the cure for cancer, he wouldn’t even use it simply because it came from a woman.”
“Gina, I don’t understand the whole Chang obsession. He’s not the standard to measure anyone by. Who cares what he thinks. That’s what I love about Luciano. He is the complete opposite of Chang. For one thing, he’s kind, super smart, and is constantly showing me how much he loves me. Being gorgeous doesn’t hurt either.”
“Aren’t you doing the exact same thing? You’re measuring Luciano by how different he is from Chang.”
Nina hadn’t really thought about it that way. “I guess I never really considered that. Anyway…talking about Chang makes me crazy. I don’t want to talk about him when I’m so full of love that I can explode.” Her eyes suddenly went from hopeful to nervous. “Gina, I can’t go back to China. I can’t marry Jiong.”
Gina looked at her thoughtfully. She understood exactly what Nina was feeling. They were both in love. “I get it. I understand. Fortunately, you have a couple of months left of school for us to try and figure something out.”
Nina stood angrily. “I don’t get it anyway! Why is he trying to marry me off and not you?”
Gina sighed. “I’m sure he doesn’t think I’m marriage material. Honestly, until I met Alex, he was probably right. If we plan to really be serious about Alex and Luciano, we’ve got to fix things with them. The first thing we have to do is tell them the truth. That there are two of us. We’ve lied enough.”
“We can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Gina, I’ve come to ask you a very important question.” Nina’s eyes dropped to the floor.
“What?” Nina’s sudden change in demeanor was making Gina anxious.
“I need you to go home and pretend to be me. There is a good reason. Besides, Father has never been able to tell us apart. He would never know.”
“Why? You’re not making any sense. I just told you that I think I’m in love, and you want me to just walk away from Alexandro? Would you walk away from Luciano?”
Nina’s eyes started to fill with tears. “You weren’t even supposed to be here!”
“I’m here covering for you! Do you want Chang to find out about what’s really been going on between you and him? You know what happened to Laurette.”
Nina wrung her hands. “Gina, I—he can’t find out. I just need a little more time.”
Gina softened her voice. Nina was the only other person in the entire world that she loved beyond reason. Together, they would make a plan. “We can figure this out.” While she wasn’t confident about it, they had to at least try.
Nina wasn’t so sure. “Look what happened when Chang found out about you and Michaud.”
A shiver went down Gina’s spine just thinking about it. “It’s different with Alexandro and Luciano. They have enough money and power to fight back.”
“You can’t really believe that.” Nina ran her fingers through her hair. “I’m afraid if Chang finds out about Luciano that he might be involved in some type of accident. Think about it. Michaud was only trying to teach you to ride a horse and Laurette…”
“Nina, like I said we can figure this out. We’ve got a couple of months…”
Nina was almost hysterical. “I don’t have a couple of months. I’m pregnant.”
Gina thought the floor was about to fall out from under her. Her eyes automatically went to Nina’s stomach. “What?”
Nervously she chewed the bottom of her lip. “I’m already eight weeks.”
For the second time in one night, Gina was speechless. “Wow. I-I—my God. You’re going to be a mother?”
Nina attempted a watery smile. “Yes. But, what do you think Chang would do to me or my baby if he ever found out? He’s not father knows best. You know him. He’ll think that I would bring more dishonor and shame to our family name. He would punish me or even worse…”
“No. That won’t happen. We won’t let that happen.” As much as Gina hated to admit it, Nina was right. She’d seen what happened to people who defied their father.
Nina continued. “Chang can never know otherwise it might be me in a serious accident. That’s why until I can figure something out and have this baby, you need to go home and pretend to be me for a little while. It’s an incredible sacrifice, but you could literally be saving me and my baby’s life.”
Gina pulled Nina into her arms, and they hugged each other tightly. “We won’t let that happen. We’ll do whatever we have to do to make sure you both are safe.” Slowly, they
