Reflection stared back at me but it wasn't mine but that of a stranger. The ginger hair color, the emerald green eye, perfect detentions, polish skin that radiate wealth, her high cheekbones.

She seems perfect, more perfect than any human that I've encountered in my life.

“This isn't me ... .I look different” I reached up and ran my finger through my face gently in fear then my eyes met with the assistant assigned to me for the past weeks I had been moved from my tiny cottage apartment to this mansion.

“This is your new personality now, your new life Zara" I opened my mouth to protest but suddenly held back my tongue for a thousand times,my name wasn't Ember again but Zara.

It felt too good to be real, my life had been transformed just in weeks from the poor girl in the street to a billionaire spoilt daughter for what I've learnt about her life. And not only would I enjoy this riches and luxury till the grandmother dies but I'll also get enough money to live any kind of luxurious life I choose when the deal is done.

“Eli will meet you soon, so assure that you learn all you're supposed to" I heard him say while I smiled back at my reflection, if this was the only way to get off the dirty pubs and bar I was taking it without any second option.

***********

“Tell me about yourself,” Eli asked, as he sat poised on the sofa, legs crossed neatly, a crystal glass of dark liquor in hand. His gaze cold pinned me in place.

“I’m the daughter of the late Alex and Eloise Blackwood,” I said, sitting straighter, just as I’d practiced. My voice didn’t shake not on the outside. “Born in the spring of 2001 in New York. I was raised between the family estate and our flat in Chelsea until the accident.”

“Which accident?” he said without blinking.

I paused just a heartbeat calculating enough for a sharp glint to flicker in his eyes.

“The plane crashed,” I said carefully. “When I was eleven. My parents were flying back from Florence. Their jet went down off the coast of Corsica. Only their wedding rings were recovered.”

He leaned forward slightly, his expression unreadable. “Tragic,” he said. “And after that?”

“I was taken in by my grandmother, Eloise. I was homeschooled for a while due to the trauma, then sent to boarding school in Vermont. St. Bridget’s. All-girls. I kept my head down. Studied literature, fencing, and piano. I came back to the estate briefly at sixteen before my disappearance.

I watched him. I couldn’t tell if he was satisfied or setting a trap. His fingers traced the rim of the glass like he was polishing a secret.

He nodded once, slowly. “You’ve done your homework.” I felt the tension loosened beneath his words.

“I lived it,” I replied, lifting my chin. “I remember this house. The creak on the third stair of the east wing. The smell of Eloise’s perfume. The copper tub in the guest quarters that nobody uses ⁴because the faucet sings when it runs. You think I’m pretending? Test me.”

He smirked but it was the kind of smile that didn’t reach the eyes.

“Oh, Ember,” he said quietly, using my real name like a dagger beneath silk. “You don’t need to impress me. I already believe you’re her. Because I made you her.”

I swallowed hard without blinking an eyelid. “What about my life, my old life and…” my mouth fell shut as I watched him gently, the smirk on his face was nothing close to nice.

"You're dead to the world, that's all you should know and no one would be able to trace you for Ember. This is your new life and you should embrace that” I watched him stand on his feet but I couldn't let him go yet so soon

" I have a friend”I blurted out in a hurry as I also stood on my feet, finally getting his attention back again I began to speak quickly.

“It looks so bad if I just disappear into thin air without even saying a goodbye to her. She has been a very good friend to me. At least I should be opportune to meet her one last time.

And in one long slide, he was just a breath away, gripping me tightly on my arm. “Your friends, your old life ....are no longer in existence from now on. You're Zara and that's all you have to me, the only thing they need to know is that you've traveled to Mississippi away from everyone to live a very quiet life! Am I understood?!

I swallowed them and nodded my head in agreement. This was all that should be said for now, those lives didn't matter as much as I'll get everything I needed within the next few months.

“They don't matter" I muttered loudly to myself while I watched his expression soften." This is all that matters and should matter” I spoke in Zara’s accent, proud of all my efforts.

“You’ll make the family proud for as long as I let you live in this story.” He stood, walking toward the door, glass in hand. But before leaving, he stopped.

“One more thing,” he said, he handed me a brown envelope and motioned that I should open it and I tore open the envelope and slid out the picture there. I found myself staring at the picture of the woman I've spent weeks learning about “Eloise”. She wasn't hard to recognize, and as I stared at the picture I felt her daring glare rest on me.

Her hair was all grey and her expression was stern and hardened maybe because of tears of experience handling all Blackwood companies and wealth.

“Eloise may be old, but she’s not a fool. She’ll ask you something personal. Something only the real Zara would know. Be ready, your audience is waiting ....”