Double Trouble: Seventeen; More Prodigal children
by Cariad
 
 

Double Trouble
~Seventeen~
Aidan Crane was not an attractive person. He had deeply set eyes and prematurely gray hair—which he died platinum blond. At some point in time, he had a terrible accident with the chlorine in the pool, which resulted in subtle pockmarks all across his face and his upper body. His smile—the few times when he was not glowering—was toothy and feral. As with the rest of his personality, which allowed for no middle ground, he either dressed impeccably or like an absolute slob. Despite his callous treatment of everyone around him, or maybe because of it, he possessed his fair share of Crane Charisma.

“No happy felicitations for your only son, Father?” Aidan asked on a sneer. Now that Ethan had been disowned, he was prepared to pounce on opportunity and seize control of the Crane Empire himself.

“W-welcome home, son,” Julian stammered, his hand clutching absently for a drink. “This is an unexpected surprise.”

Aidan’s eyes fell on the quivering brunette by his father’s side. “And what have we here, mon petite?” he asked, leaning to whisper something in French in a low voice near her ear—a favorite trick he used to entice the females. “Is this the one that Ethan chased?” he said, giving a flirtatious grin to Theresa.

“Ethan’s a sore subject at the moment,” Holly volunteered.

“And Holly,” he said striding over to her. Unlike their eldest brother and her father, Aidan, measuring less than six feet, did not stand much taller than the girls did. In fact, if Julia were standing in her killer platform boots, she would probably be the same height or taller than her Aidan. “You’d like to know that I saw a few shows while I was away. Anthony Warlow in Sidney, Michael Ball in London, and Linda Eder in New York on my way home.”

Holly gritted her teeth. He only mentioned the names of popular musical stars to irritate her. Unless one of his sugar-daddies or sugar-mamas had an interest in Broadway, he probably would not have seen them regardless of how much Holly enjoyed their music.

“You’ve been to Australia?” Theresa asked, getting excited.

“Several times,” Aidan replied, putting an arm around Theresa, noting her slightly rounded stomach, but after she dropped the brat, he mused, no wonder Ethan chased her tail.

“To answer your question,” Holly interrupted, “I’m more into Greek tragedies at the moment,” Holly said, flashing a glance between Aidan and his victim of charisma.

“Really,” Aidan drawled.

“Oh yes,” Holly said. “I just finished Oedipus.”

Julia gave her sister a rude nudge with her elbow. Whereas Holly had enjoyed the play as manditory reading, Julia had struggled through it but was well aware of the basic plot.

Holly caught Julia’s gaze, flicked here eyes to Theresa and then down to her watch. She tapped her right littlest finger against her thigh. “I’ll take her now, you get the afternoon,” she said in their secret language.

Julia nodded with the barest of movements and twitched her thumb against her forefinger. “I’ll do posture and poise, you get the basics.” The interchange did not last more than a few seconds, but both the twins knew exactly what the other was going to do. “Aidan,” Julia asked sweetly without missing a beat as Holly’s Oedipus comment flew over his head. “I would like to speak with you for a moment. I don’t know where you’ve been recently, but some things have probably transpired which you are unaware of.”

Aidan glared at Julia, damning her from tearing him away from buttering up and obviously easy lay. “Fine,” he said, before turning back to Theresa. “You will go with me to this New Year’s Eve Ball,” he told Theresa. There was no question in his tone, only an order.

Theresa opened her mouth to agree, but Holly hushed her and said, “Theresa is already spoken for that evening.” She pulled her stepmother out of the house, fully aware that Ethan was being replaced in Theresa’s mind—even if Theresa was not aware of it yet. But that’s how infatuation ran, Holly thought with a sigh. One object was easily replaced with another.

However, there was no time like the present to start on her Father’s task. “Welcome to The Club,” Holly said to Theresa. “This Club is entirely based on affluence and influence.”

“Influence and what?” Theresa asked. She was not expecting Holly to start right in on how to be Mrs. Crane.

“Affluence,” Holly supplied briskly, starting off at a walk towards Harmony. Theresa had to run a few steps to catch up. “Who knows whom,” Holly said as she saw Theresa out of the corner of her eye. “And how much money you have. You’ve heard, perhaps, your brother ranting about the Good-Old-Boy’s network? Well, this is it. This is the network. Perhaps in the middle of the New Year’s Eve Ball, there will be a dozen or more major business transactions. And you, my dear, are a commodity.”

“A what?” Theresa asked.

Holly sighed. “Obviously Ethan went easy on you. Here’s the deal. You don’t own a company, nor are you associated with any philanthropy, therefore you are merely a body upon which the Crane wealth is displayed. How well you behave as well as how you dress and act reflects directly upon Crane Industries. Understand?”

“I get to wear expensive clothes and live in the big house on the hill?” Theresa asked. “I knew that. I think Julie would explain it better.”

Holly shook her head. “No, she wouldn’t. We all have roles Theresa, and your role is closer to the one I have to play.”

“I-I don’t understand,” Theresa said. “Why can’t I be me?”

“Because you are Mrs. Julian Crane,” Holly spat, “and there are certain behaviors expected of one in your position. Break them and not only are you finished in the Club, but the fortunes of the Crane family fall as well—and that will not be tolerated by Father, no matter how much you beg him to forgive you. And it will be tolerated less by Grandfather Crane. My parents probably have not had sex since Jules and I were born. It is no secret that they despised one another. But do you know why Grandfather tolerated it? Because Mama was the perfect hostess. In public, Mama always behaved as she should in her role as Mrs. Crane—up until the end, but I’m sure you know about it. The fact is that she kept Ethan’s paternity a secret for more than a quarter century—so think on that when you think on discretion. Grandfather does not tolerate scandals. And you’re going to create enough of one already without behaving like a star-struck buffoon. Do you understand now?”

“I-I don’t know,” Theresa stammered on the verge of tears.

“Smile, Theresa,” Holly ordered in an icy tone that brooked no dissention.

Theresa burst into tears. “I can’t!” she wailed.

Holly sent a silent prayer to the heavens. “Welcome to The Club, Theresa,” Holly repeated coldly. “No matter how terrible you feel on the inside, no matter how much you hate the person standing next to you, no matter how much they smell or slobber all over you, you’ve got to keep on smiling your best society smile. So let’s see it,” she said in a frigid tone. The smile she showed to her stepmother showed no warmth or kindness. “Mourn in private,” she snapped. “That’s what you do when you’re a Crane.”

Theresa wiped tears and mascara from her eyes. “You don’t have to be so mean about it,” she sniffed.

Holly arched an eyebrow. “I don’t have to be mean?” she asked. “Need I remind you that my mother is going to be at this party. My mother loathes you. Gwen and Rebecca are going to be at that party. Gwen has not forgiven you for stalking and stealing Ethan—especially after she invited you to be in her wedding party. Rebecca is going to be none too pleased to hear that you—the girl that ruined her daughter’s life—has now usurped her from her place at Julian’s side. Theresa, nothing I do to you will be mean compared to them.”

Holly stalked off once again, leaving Theresa to follow as she would. She wanted the rich life too bad, Holly thought, she’ll follow. Holly knew she and Julia had their work cut out for them on getting Theresa society-trained, and silently wondered when they would have any time to do anything about Rebecca—something terrible enough to make her think that the Crane fortune was not worth the misery.
 

* * * * *

Julia sat at a table in the Book Café, nursing a latte and a sore neck. She had drawn Aidan out of the foyer and tried to explain to him that he couldn’t get under Theresa’s skirts because she was already married and pregnant. Aidan had only laughed. Wedding vows meant nothing to him. In that way, he reminded her of her father. When she had explained further that Theresa was his stepmother, but that they were keeping it secret, as requested by Julian, until New Year’s Eve, Aidan had only countered that it would throw Rebecca off the trail if he seduced Theresa. Suddenly, Julia felt really bad for the girl. She had no idea what it was like to be a Crane. She only had seen the smiling magazine articles.
Behind closed doors, she had screamed at him and forbade him from going near Julian’s wife which, in retrospect had been a bad idea, for it only fueled Aidan’s desire to get Theresa. He had grabbed her by the throat and hurled her against the wall, completely losing his temper. He slammed the wall with his fist on his way out, before putting on a seductive grin intending to find Theresa in the foyer. Julia already knew the girl had left with Holly, and she was only standing up once more, taking deep breaths to relieve the choking feeling when Aidan stepped back in, his face darkened with fury.

Julia had covered her throat with a scarf, not knowing if Aidan’s tantrum would leave marks. She was not surprised he lost his temper that way. It was the same person that backed into a kid on crutches when the injured kid had not moved fast enough. Julia sighed. She pitied the poor girl whose father made her marry Aidan Crane.

Julia sighed and looked around the café. She saw one of the Six Dwarfs and someone completely unknown standing in the doorway. Grumpy—the strawberry brunette who couldn’t abide Reese’s (Doc’s) presence—was speaking intently with the new boy. He had bright red hair, and a familiar essence about him. As he began walking towards her, she realized he looked like Sam Bennett and her brother Ethan. In fact, other than his red hair, he was a remarkable copy of her mother’s lover—with a strong chin, broad shoulders, a chiseled look, and the more familiar Bennett eyes.

“Holly Crane,” he said as he reached the table.

Julia shut her eyes in pain. Yet another man after Holly, she thought bitterly. Back at Weymouth-Hampsted, it was Julia who attracted all the attention, and here, in three days, her sister—her studious serious sister—had attracted all the guys to her like moths to flame. At times like this, Julia wished she was the only person who looked like herself!

“You’ve been disrupting my family,” he continued, “and I’m giving you a warning to stop it.”

“I am not Holly Crane!” she spat, louder than she wanted to.

The Bennett sat down at Julia’s table. “And I suppose she’s your evil twin then,” he said with heavy sarcasm on his voice.

“Actually,” Julia replied with a breeze, “she is.”

“I’m not buying lakefront property in Death Valley,” he warned.

“Then it must have rained a lot,” Julia countered, “because I am not Holly. I'm Julia.” She could tell by his look that the Bennett was not buying her story. Unfortunately, it was the truth. Furious that he would not believe her, she whipped open her purse and withdrew a photo of the two of them together at the beach from the previous summer. Their arms were around each other, and both had identical smiles on their faces. She slapped the photograph down on the table. “First twins born in 1984,” she said with sarcastic pride in her voice.

“So now I know you have an identical twin sister, how do I know you’re not really Holly pretending to be her sister?” he countered.

Julia was gradually getting upset at Sam-Bennett-With-Red-Hair. “You know,” she said in a bitchy tone, “if you can find my brother Ethan, he will let you know that I am Julia and not Holly.”

The Bennett paused for a second. “Ok, we started this one all wrong,” he said. “I’m Noah Bennett, and my little sister Kay, whom I love dearly, is pissed as hell that you are apparently stealing her boyfriend.” He extended his hand.

Julia shook it cordially. “And I am Julia Rose Winthrop Crane, and I too love my sister dearly, and you should tell your sister that if she really wanted her boyfriend, she should pay a little more attention to him as opposed to stiffening in repulsion every time he looks at her.” She added a quick bright perky smile at the end, suddenly inspired on why her parents’ marriage ended.

Noah burst out laughing in a very contagious laugh. Julia could only hold her sulky indifference for so long before she became infected with his laughter. He wiped his eyes. “You know, after all the lectures and explanations that Dad gave me about him and Ivy, in three seconds, I understand,” he said.

Julia cocked her head in a gesture to continue. She had been right. He was Sam Bennett’s second son.

“If your mother was half as beautiful and half as charming at your age, I understand completely why Dad fell,” he said.

Julia arched an eyebrow. “You have not seen my charm, Noah Bennett,” she insisted. “Nor are you likely to. You are my half-brother’s half-brother,” she explained.

“Already have someone who catches your eye?” he asked.

Julia gave a secretive feline smile. “Yes,” she said. “He’s handsome and can provide me with the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed.”

Noah grabbed his chest in a pantomime of a broken heart. “Well then little sister of my older brother,” he said, “I hope he makes you very happy and provides you with all the jewels and expensive trinkets you want.”

“I suppose that sounded pretty shallow,” Julia conceded.

“Nonsense,” Noah said, “It shows that you’re honest with yourself. And I truly hope he’s everything you want him to be—or I’ll rough him up some. I’ve had lots of practice looking out for little sisters, and I’ll gladly take you under my wing.”

Julia laughed. “I think I already prefer you as an other brother,” she replied. “Can I trade for you, and then you can become accustomed to my lifestyle as well?”

“Ethan’s not that bad, or so I’ve heard,” Noah countered. “Ok so he sometimes seems a few sandwiches short, but is he that bad to live with?”

Julia gave a wry smile. “It’s not Ethan. He’s a dear and means well. It’s my other brother that I could live without. I’d trade him for you any day, and I’ve known you all of two minutes.”

“No one could be that bad, Juliet,” he said. “But if that is your wish, fair lady,” he said with a flourish and a bow that made Julia laugh once more, “then you shall be an honorary little Bennett sister.” Upon standing from his flamboyant bow, he tousled her hair like an older brother. She despised the trick, but half of her wanted him to do it again. Her father used to tousle her hair, she thought with a smile.

“Speaking of little Bennett sisters,” Noah said, “I see my little sister Kay, and she looks none too pleased that I have adopted her.”

“She probably doesn’t know that there are two Crane girls in Harmony now.”

“Tsk, tsk,” Noah chided. “You are an honorary Bennett now. But as Kay never mentioned the possibility of a twin, I believe you are right.” He waved Kay over with a happy grin.

Julia turned back to her latte. If only she could have had someone like Noah as a brother as opposed to Aidan. She heaved a sigh, pitying once again the poor girl who would be forced to marry Aidan.