The Billionaire Twins Need A New Mommy! - Chapter 328

Chapter 328: Guess who’s my muse?
[Flashback]

The young Lola quietly picked flowers in the garden while another little girl stood nearby. Just by their appearance, one could quickly tell their social standing. One wore an adorable dress, her hair neatly braided with little clips on the side. The other girl, in contrast, wore a humble shirt and long pants. Her hair was loose, slightly curly, and looked a little disheveled.

A princess and the pauper.

“Young Miss, are you going to give that to the madam?” asked the other girl.

Lola beamed, turning to her. “My mommy said she likes the flowers here. I want to put them in her room.”

“Oh.”

“These flowers are so pretty,” the young Lola mused with a smile. “They’re the prettiest I’ve ever seen.”

The other girl tilted her head, studying Lola’s side profile.

“The prettiest?” she muttered, glancing at the flowers in the basket and then at Lola. “Young Miss, you’re prettier than them.”

“I am not,” the young Lola answered, but her words trailed off as she got distracted.

Aileen, the other girl, frowned slightly. In her eyes, Lola truly was very pretty. She was also kind, even though Aileen was just the daughter of a maid. Lola had never treated her differently, despite coming from a wealthy family. If anything, Lola would dress her up sometimes and had given her a lot of dresses.

“Young Miss, that’s not true at all!” Wanting to cheer Lola up, Aileen stepped forward and shouted. Her sudden rise in voice almost made Lola fall backward.

When Lola turned to her, all she saw was the determined little girl.

“You are prettier than those flowers—no, you’re the prettiest!” Aileen shouted. “If only you could see yourself through my eyes, you would know how pretty you are! And sometimes, I wish I could be just as pretty as you. If there’s someone ugly here, it’s me! Not you!”

Lola blinked, confused by Aileen’s outburst.

“Aileen…” she whispered, puzzled. “I said these are the prettiest flowers, and I’m not like them. I’m a girl, not a flower.”

“Huh?”

The two little girls stared at each other blankly until Aileen’s face slowly turned red. She hung her head, dread written across her expression.

Did she just embarrass herself?

Lola studied Aileen for a moment, then a smile crept onto her face. But then, the corners of her lips curved downward. She pushed herself up and stood in front of Aileen.

“Aileen, what do you mean by saying you’re ugly?” Lola frowned deeply. “You are not ugly.”

Aileen paused, looking up in surprise. All she saw was Lola’s encouraging smile.

“You are pretty too!” Lola exclaimed. “We are like twin sisters because we’re both pretty!”

“Twins?” Aileen blinked, staring at the radiating princess before her. “Young Miss, why would you say that?”

Lola reached for her hands and squeezed them. “From now on, if you call yourself ugly again, you’re calling me ugly too! We’re twins, so we look alike!”

And from that moment on, Aileen never thought of being ugly—for Lola’s sake. She did it first for Lola, but eventually, it gave her confidence in herself.

*****

[Present Time]

If Lola were to call someone her first friend, it would be Aileen. The two had grown up together because Aileen’s mother worked for the Young family. Loren considered Aileen’s mother part of the family, so she took both mother and daughter in.

Sadly, when Loren passed, Jasmine fired many workers from the home. One of them was Aileen’s mother, because she had tried to protect Lola. Aileen’s mother didn’t want to leave, but she had no choice.

That was when Aileen left the Young residence as well.

They promised to keep in touch, but that never happened. Lola became busy plotting her escape from the Young residence, and one thing led to another. It had been years since she had seen Aileen.

“I missed you so much!” Aileen sat next to Lola at the nearest café. She studied Lola’s face as if etching it into her memory. “How are you? Oh God, I have so many stories to tell, I don’t even know where to start!”

“Me too!” Lola bit her quivering lips, feeling emotional. She then lightly slapped Aileen’s shoulder. “You didn’t reach out!”

“I did try!” Aileen frowned. “Even Mom went to your residence, but they turned her away every time. They said you didn’t want to see her at all.”

“That’s not true,” Lola gasped. “I didn’t know Auntie tried to visit me. Had I known, I would have waited for her outside the gates!”

“We know,” Aileen smiled, nodding reassuringly. “We never believed a word they said.”

Lola’s breath hitched while Aileen tried to hold back her tears. They looked at each other for a long moment before hugging. When they parted, Aileen sniffed hard.

“Mom and I knew it must have been hard on you,” she said. “And that there’s no way you could hate us. It was all Jasmine’s fault. That evil stepmother.”

“Pfft—” Lola sniffled and laughed. “She really made my life a Cinderella story.”

“Are you okay now? Do you still live with them?”

Lola shook her head. “No, I left the moment I could.” Relief shone in their eyes. “What about you? You look…”

She drew back to inspect Aileen again. “You are stunning.”

“I had to take care of myself, otherwise I might bring shame to my twin sister,” Aileen quipped, scanning Lola’s face. “I knew it—you really are the prettiest. In fact, you’ve exceeded my expectations. You’re like a goddess.”

Sadness flickered in Aileen’s eyes. “You didn’t become a celebrity?”

“No,” Lola shook her head, smiling. “I found something else I loved doing. Aileen, our childhood goals changed. I might’ve wanted to be a celebrity back then, but our hearts change.”

She then raised her brows. “Like you. You are not working in a morgue, are you?”

As far as Lola remembered, Aileen had wanted to work with the dead—doing their makeup and dressing them so the people they left behind would see them one last time at their best.

“No,” Aileen sighed. “But it’s not so different.”

“What do you mean?”

“I work with mannequins,” Aileen smiled, cupping her cheek. “I’m a fashion designer. Guess who’s my muse?”