Page 90 of Heart of a Villain

The group muffled their laughter.

Adrían stretched away his discomfort.

“You’re not going to ask what this is?” Joel asked, brushing Ayesha’s temple with a kiss. “Why we got you a cake a day early?”

“It’s cake, Joel,” she said. “I have no questions other than where are the plates and forks. Honestly, though, maybe I should be laying off the cake.”

“Eesh…”

She waved her hands as if to withdraw the statement.

“I won’t forget you said that,” he added, placing another kiss against the side of her face. “I’ll deal with you later, Mrs. Lattimore. For now, the reason we got the cake early is because the DNA results came in.”

Ayesha and Sayeda exchanged a look.

The DJ mixed in “Up” by Cardi B.

“We’re going to give you and Sayeda a cake cutter,” Joel continued. “If the inside is green, then you two are sisters. If it’s red, then you’re not.”

“Do you already know?” both Sayeda and Ayesha asked.

“We do. We all do.”

Joel handed them a cake cutter, and they took simultaneous deep breaths before bringing it down into the body of the cake.

Adrían handed them a plate.

They flipped the slice onto the plate, the interior revealing what looked like either a white cake or vanilla.

Joel frowned. “What? Why’s there no food coloring?”

“Lattimore, you had one job,” Dez chastised.

“I know, I know. I mean, I know I told the baker not to add food coloring if their DNA was an identical match, but…”

He trailed off.

Ayesha and Sayeda stared at him until the words appeared to sink in.

“Wait, what?” Sayeda asked.

Ayesha rotated a finger. “Run that last part back?’

“You two share the same DNA,” Joel said.

Both women continued to stare, but it wasn’t clear whether their brows were narrowed in confusion or shock.

“Identical DNA,” Ayesha said as if reciting lines in a Broadway play. “Identical DNA.”

“You’re sisters,” Julien added. “But that’s not all. You two…are twins.”

They dropped the cutter and eased apart, facing one another. At the same time, they turned back to the group and asked, “Twins?”

“Does that mean I’m older?” Ayesha asked. “Or is Sayeda younger?”

“We’re still working on that,” Julien began, “but it’s looking more like Sayeda’s your age rather than the other way around.”

Sayeda squeezed her forehead. “Wait…hold on, wait. Twins means more than just the same father. We have the same mother?”

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