"You're Elizabeth Rodriguez's sister?" I asked her astonished. I was pretty sure the bottom lip was practically on the floor of my living room as I looked at her, waiting for her to reply.
Yes. I knew who Elizabeth Rodriguez was. Well I knew the basic stuff that was on Google which wasn't a lot by the way. She was pretty low key from what I gathered. Though even from the few photos the paps were able to capture she seemed to always be  ready cause all her photos were amazing.
She was the perfect woman that any man could want as a wife. Beautiful, amazing personality, you know the whole package. Which sadly I wasn't.
For a moment, I felt my heart tug with jealousy
when I compared myself to her. She was like a goddess while I was a mere human at the lowest rank.
I shook my head, ridding myself off those depressing thoughts as I tuned back to the present where I was waiting for Gina to reply my obvious question, but I felt like I just needed the confirmation.

"Yep!" She said popping the p at the end before gulping her wine.
"How?! I mean... I know how but... "I said stuttering.
"I know. Shocking right? I often wonder how we were siblings too you know. She was the pretty Martinez while I was the Gothic rebellious Martinez. Its ironic that despite me being the crazy rebellious one, she was the one that ended up rebelling against our parents." She said releasing a sad chuckle.
"You guys must have been close."
"We were thick as thieves. Always planning and executing plans together. We were practically like twins." She said and I smiled as I remembered two kids who were exactly like that.
"Even though she was five years my senior, she always treated me like I was her equal. We were best friends. Shared everything. Had same interests and dislikes which most people would find boring but we understood each other better that way.
"I was the first to know about her relationship with Alex. The first to know even when she had planned to elope with him in the hopes that that would give my mum no option but to drop the arranged marriage between her and the duke. We even planned it together.
"When she was disowned, she promised to come back for me. She wanted me to finish school first then I was to apply to a college in the states but my parents found out what I was planning plus I got news that she was sick. Things just went downhill from there." She finished, adding another full glass of wine into her tumbler.

I felt for her. I knew what it was like to loose the only person you hold dear to you. I had lost four. Though I was lucky enough to still have one sibling with me unlike my dear friend.
"Am really sorry. I know saying sorry won't do much but I want you to know,  here for you. I may not be Elizabeth but I can try to make your life less lonely."I told her wrapping my arm around her shoulder, pulling her to my side for a hug, which she returned with one of her own.
"Thank you. I know we just met and all but I think am already attached to you."she said.
"Awwww.... Am attached to you too boo." I said as I kissed her cheek.

"Anyway, I think I've ranted out enough about my sad excuse of a life. Tell me all about yours. How's everything?" She asked.
"So far so good..."I told her, my thoughts instantly drifting to the incident at the office. How I wish I could rid myself off those thoughts.
"You don't look too sure about your statement boo. What's up?" She asked.

I thought about telling her what happened. Lifting the burden off my chest. But then I remembered that this was her brother in law. If anything it would be weird to tell her. So I looked back at her, with a convincing smile on my face and told her I was okay and quickly changed the subject and thank God she took the bait.

It was close to ten pm and I was yet to get some shut eye. Gina had left me at around seven pm, saying she had some commitments to attend to, leaving me to go back to my series that I still wasn't able to concentrate in. But thank God she had left me the wine so at least I had some company and I was nearly halfway through.

Speaking of my wine, I glanced at my nearly empty cup and sighed, getting up to pour myself some more when I heard a knock on my door. I thought it was one of my neighbors and decided to act like I was asleep or something, figuring that they might go away but the person on the other side was pretty persistent.
"What's with people knocking on my door today!" I exclaimed to myself as I rolled my eyes but got up anyway to go see who the fuck was disturbing my peaceful off day.

Opening the door slightly to see who it was, I nearly shut the door thinking that my tipsy mind was playing tricks on me, but then I thought again and opened the door even wider.
"What the fuck are you two doing here?!" I exclaimed, my voice echoing in the silent hallway.
"Language." Scolded Zoe with a glare, her arms akimbo before she replaced the serious face for a smiling one that made her look a little more innocent than usual, which after staying with them for more than a month I had learnt was a sign that she was up to no good. Case in point.

"Hello Dee!" She greeted me snapping me out of my daze but I still didn't budge.
"Aren't you going to let us in?" She asked innocently.

I looked at the pajama clad girl and her brother as they stood in front of my door. They each had a backpack on their backs but other than that, the rest of their physical appearance made them look like they were simply walking around in their house.
Which made me wonder, what the hell were they doing outside of their homemade prison? Had they snuck out?

"Dee?" She called me again and this time I did snap out of my thoughts and turned back to them.
"Oh sorry. Please come in."I told them, letting them pass me at the door.

As soon as I closed the door I turned to face them, glaring at them to give me some sort of explanation as to why they were in my apartment.
"Now what are you two doing here?" I asked in my serious tone.
"We were bored and decided to come here. I see you had company. Did we interrupt your date?" She replied nonchalantly as if she was talking about the weather, taking a seat on the two seater, Zack sitting beside her.
"Bored?! You came here cause you were bored? What the heck Zoe?! Does anyone even know you are here?" I said moving to take the wine bottle to the kitchen but leaving my tumbler with some that I could probably drown myself in later after my nervous attack was over.
"Again, language."She scolded me again.
"Don't tell me not to curse when your reckless behavior is giving me a mini heart attack, young lady!" I scolded her back and as we were having a mini sharing contest with Zoe, Zack was busy smirking at us, clearly enjoying the show. These kids were definitely something else.
"And you didn't answer my question. Does anyone know you are here?" I asked again.
"You didn't answer mine either." She replied with a shrug.
"You are in no position to bargain. I might as well throw you out." I threatened.
"But you won't" she replied calling out my bluff.
"Urggh! Just answer my damned question Zoe!" I exclaimed, pulling my hair.
"Okay okay. Jeez! Don't go all crazy on us. No. No one knows we are here."
"How the heck did you get here then?!" I exclaimed widening my eyes.
"With an uber. And before you ask, we used dad's credit card to pay." She replied with so much ease I thought this kid was crazy.
"Great! Just fucking great! Am so getting deported for kidnapping now."I started to rant as the two watched me with amused faces.
Glad they found my mini attack funny when they were the fucking cause of it. How two kids can be so much to handle is beyond my thinking.
"How did you even get my address? Or manage to get out of the gate?" I asked.
"Leaving the mansion was easy peasy. We snuck into the boot of dad's car as he left and snuck out when the car was parked. Then using our tab we called for an uber and came here. Though I have to admit, sneaking out of the boot was a bit difficult, hence why we are late." She explained as if she was explaining some scientific theory she just discovered.
How they were calm was beyond me. I was basically about to have an asthma attack.
"And the uber driver wasn't the least bit suspicious? "
"He was. We simply told him we were going home from a sleep over that turned out to be disastrous. So we snuck out and walked a few miles and since we didn't have phones, we claimed that we had no means to reach our parents."
"You two are in serious trouble, you know that right? What if something happened to you guys?" I asked scolding them and at least they had the decency to look guilty.
"Nothing happened though." She countered.
"This time. What if you are not so lucky next time?"
"We are sorry. We just missed you." She said solemnly and I sighed, sitting on the coffee table and took each of their hand into my own.
"Its fine. am glad you are safe. And I missed you too." I told them with a smile.
"Have you guys eaten anything?" I asked them standing up to go to the kitchen.
"Nope. Unless you count potato chips as food.... Its all we had time to munch on.." Replied Zoe.
"Well I finished almost everything here so I can't make anything edible..." I said as I perused my pantry, which reminded me I needed to go grocery shopping soon.
"Do you want pizza?" I asked them.
I don't think I've ever seen people jump up and down with joy at the mention of pizza like this two.
Its probably cause they are mostly forced to eat "healthy" as advised by their father's girlfriend. Gosh!  I hated how the woman controlled these kids even before she was part if their lives officially. I seriously pity them if that ever does happen.

Taking my phone, I texted their dad and Eddie first before I ordered two large Hawaiian and mushrooms and pepperoni pizza then sat down with them, putting on nickelodeon to keep us busy.

Since they had never had Hawaiian before, we had to share the two pizzas amongst ourselves, not that I was complaining cause I was full on my fifth slice.
After we watched two more movies before they blacked out at around one am and I had to move them up to my room, choosing to sleep on the sofa bed.

Watching reruns of supernatural as I tried to sleep which was proving to be a  hard task, I was finally getting drowsy when I heard another knock on my door.
I was seriously starting to consider moving houses at this rate.
The person on the other side was really impatient, which was irritating the hell out of me. I wasn't in the mood for anymore human contact and I just wanted a few hours to myself before the kids woke me up.
Sighing when I heard the fourth knock, I got up and went to the door.
I nearly slammed the door shut on the other person's face. And this time it wasn't from shock but pure irritation.
In fact I nearly did it except, the person put their foot on the door, jamming it.
"What the hell do you want now?" I asked with an exersparated sigh.
"Hello to you too Miss Lanji." Said the arrogant asshole, aka Mr. Rodriguez, aka my fucking boss.
Could this night get any worse?!