The Unwanted Wife and Her Secret Twins (Mia and Kyle) novel Chapter 376

Chapter 376 The Girl in the Mirror

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Chapter 376 The Girl in the Mirror

Mia’s POV

The name meant nothing to me.

Alice Jones. I rolled it around in my mind.

“Alice Jones,” I repeated. “I’m sorry, I don’t know anyone by that name.”

Officer Martinez glanced at her notes. “She was involved in the kidnapping case. Part of the conspiracy with Victoria Whitmore and Taylor Porter.”

The kidnapping case. Someone involved in taking my children. The woman who looked like me.

“Yes, ma’am. Alice Reeves was her real name. She’s the one who impersonated you at the school.”

My throat felt dry.

“She wants to apologize?” The words tasted strange in my mouth.

“That’s what she says. But you’re under no obligation to see her. You can say no and we’ll escort you out right now.”

I stood in that sterile hallway, listening to the distant sounds of institutional life-keys jangling, doors closing with metallic finality, the soft murmur of voices that never quite rose above a whisper.

“I’ll see her,” I said.

Officer Martinez nodded. “Same room as before. Fifteen minutes maximum.”

I walked back to Interview Room.

When the door opened, I understood immediately why the name Alice Jones had meant nothing to

She was young. Much younger than I’d expected-early twenties, maybe, with the kind of fresh- faced appearance that belonged to someone just out of college. Her dark blonde hair had been cut short, probably by the prison barber, and hung in uneven chunks around her face. Without makeup, her skin looked pale and slightly splotchy, the way everyone looked under fluorescent lighting.

We really do look alike.

Not exact-her nose was slightly different, her cheekbones higher, her mouth a little wider. But in the general shape of her face, the color of her eyes, the way she held her shoulders, there was enough similarity.

Looking at her was like looking into a funhouse mirror.

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Chapter 376 The Girl in the Mirror

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Alice sat perfectly straight in her metal chair, her cuffed hands folded in her lap. When she saw me, her eyes widened slightly and she drew in a sharp breath.

“Oh,” she whispered. “Oh wow. We really do look alike.”

I remained standing near the door, studying her face. She was staring at me with the kind of fascination people usually reserved for celebrities or exotic animals, her head tilted slightly to one

side.

“I’ve only seen pictures,” she continued, her voice soft and slightly breathless. “Taylor showed me dozens of pictures, but seeing you in person.”

Alice’s voice had a slight drawl-Southern, maybe, or Midwestern. Nothing like my own clipped East

Coast accent.

“You wanted to apologize,” I said, settling into the chair across from her. The metal was cold against my legs, even through my jeans.

“Yes.” Alice’s hands twisted in her lap, the cuffs clicking softly against each other. “I wanted to-I needed to tell you how sorry I am. For what I did. For what we did.”

She was nervous. I could see it in the way she kept glancing up at my face and then away, in the slight tremor in her voice, in the rapid rise and fall of her chest. She looked like a college student called into the dean’s office, not like someone who had participated in kidnapping three children.

“I never meant for anyone to get hurt,” she continued in a rush. “Especially not the kids. When Taylor first approached me, she made it sound like… like we were just going to borrow them for a few hours. Like a prank, almost.”

Alice flinched. “I know how that sounds. I know how stupid I was. But Taylor, she has this way of making everything seem reasonable when she explains it. She made it sound like we were helping, like we were teaching you some kind of lesson about appreciation or something.”

She looked up at me then, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “I swear to you, if I had known they were planning to actually hurt the children, I would never have gone along with it. Never.”

I studied her face.

“How did you know Taylor?” I asked.

Alice’s cheeks flushed pink. “She found me. I was working at this coffee shop near Columbia—just trying to make ends meet while I finished my master’s degree. Art history,” she added with a self- deprecating smile. “Not exactly the most practical career path.”

She took a shaky breath. “Taylor came in one day and ordered this incredibly complicated drink— half-caf soy milk latte with vanilla syrup and cinnamon, extra hot. I remembered it because it was so

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Chapter 376 The Girl in the Mirror

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specific, and she was so polite about it. Most people who order drinks like that are kind of demanding, but she was really sweet.”

“She started coming in regularly,” Alice continued. “Then one day she stayed after closing. I was cleaning up, and she was still sitting at her usual table, just watching me work. When I asked if she needed anything else, she said she had a proposition for me.”

“What kind of proposition?”

“Money.” The word came out flat, ashamed. “She said she’d noticed I seemed stressed about finances –which was true, I was drowning in student loans—and that she might be able to help. She offered to pay off all my debt if I’d do her a favor.”

Alice looked down at her hands. “I should have known it was too good to be true. But forty-three thousand dollars is a lot of money when you’re eating ramen noodles for dinner every night.”

“What was the favor?”

“She showed me pictures,” Alice continued, her voice growing smaller. “Pictures of you and the

children.”

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