A New Essence

Chapter 6

"Why can't Oprah come along with us to the party?" Cora asked her mother for the hundredth time. Oprah just smiled to herself as she sorted out all the scattered clothes of Cora. 

Audrey sighed, "see Cora, this is more of an official issue and Oprah wouldn't be so... er... comfortable there. Why don't you try to understand?"

"Miss Cora," Oprah finally spoke up when she saw that Cora wasn't even remotely convinced with the idea of her not going along. "I will be waiting at home for you while you go and have some fun with your parents. Anyway, I don't like going to parties. I thought you remembered that much about me."

"You don't like parties?"

"Nope, I like the house better."

"Will you be fine alone?"

"How will she be alone? There are so many maids along with her in the house," Audrey said.

"Of course," Oprah caught along with Audrey, "there are going to be other maids as well and I am required in the house to direct them with their duties."

"Is that so?" Cora pondered over what she said, "but if you feel bored or alone, call me and I'll come back," she smiled.

Oprah smiled. She remembered the child so well when she was a kid. Because her mother was often away on business trips and other things like that, Oprah was always the one who was by her side. Cora was a tough child, often labelled arrogant, headstrong, stubborn and other things like that, but little did anyone know how gentle, sweet, caring and kind she was. To the people who hurt her or anyone she cared about, she was the demon from hell and to the people whom she liked, she was the nicest person. Due to her short temper, she was often involved in fights which sometimes escalated to the point of getting way too serious, but Cora often found a way to get out of the situation. During all of that, she still managed to charm her way into the hearts of many guys and girls alike. Cora was just like that even now. Even after losing all of her memories, she still showed the same attitude and carried herself just the same as she used to. Only if she hadn't gotten into the car crash, she would have been so much more by now.

Cora looked around the grand bouquet hall which was decorated royally. She was by her father's side, who was busy boasting about how well each and every party they threw looked. Cora wasn't in the least bit interested in the bragging speech of her father's or the extremely appreciative look of her mother. Rather, she was engrossed in the familiar feeling which gnawed in the pit of her stomach. She saw all of this somewhere before. It was her memories which were trying to surface as she was taking all of her surroundings in. Maybe she had been in the same kind of environment far too many times in her past, considering how much her father bragged about the parties he threw.

"Did I often attend the parties you gave?" Cora asked, turning to her father.

"Of course you did! Do you remember something?" He asked, his entire face lighting up.

"Not really, just having a sense of familiarity is all," she dropped the conversation and walked ahead.

But it was not only the sense of familiarity which was clawing at her to remember. It was something else.

Something which she forgot and needs to remember.

By the time she registered the reality, the party was in full flow, with the guests pouring in through the doors and her parents were busy mingling with everyone that came. They introduced her to people she couldn't even think she would have known before and each one of them kept asking her if she remembered them. She didn't even remember herself, how in the world was she supposed to remember them? She slowly sneaked out to the food section of the party and decided to eat something to fill her growling stomach. Now that her brain was doing so much of recollection, all the energy in her body seemed to be draining real quick.

As she was busy dumping in all the contents of the glass into her stomach, her father called her. "I want to introduce my daughter to you. Cora, he is Joseph Baxter, my best buddy back in the day and she is Lisa Baxter, his wife."

"Charlie?" Cora exclaimed looking at the person who walked towards them. "Charlie! How did you come here? Why didn't you tell me that you were going to come?" She ran towards him and hugged him.

"Dr. Baxter? How come you are here?" Audrey exclaimed as she saw whom Cora ran to.

Joseph and Lisa chuckled as they saw them react to their son's presence.

"I'm so sorry, but I am not Charlie. I'm Jackie, his twin," Jackie said after he got over the initial shock of his brother's patient running towards him and hugging him. He slowly pulled her away from his body to smile at her apologetically.

"You are... You are Jackie?" Cora asked as she took in all of his features. She saw Jackie before, but that was when even Charlie was with them. They looked so similar that she didn't even think twice before addressing him as Charlie. Now that she carefully saw Jackie, she found a few differences. Jackie was more formal in his way of speech, walk and stance, whereas Charlie was a bit more informal. Jackie had a serene aura which seemed soothing, but Charlie didn't. Charlie was a bit more complex in his own way, his eyes seemed a lot more dangerous and dark, somehow taunting and tantalizing, irresistible and mysterious, which made her want to know him more, tease him some more and spend a little more time with him. Jackie being the splitting image of Charlie, was nice too, but Cora didn't feel the same when she was with him. She was a lot more calm and felt much more  peaceful while she was with Jackie. That excitement and the kind of rush she gets when she sees Charlie was missing.

"I'm sorry for not being Charlie," Jackie chuckled at her lost face and lead her to their families. "Good evening, I am Jackie Baxter, CEO of the Baxter companies," he introduced himself.

"You had twins?" Cora's father exclaimed and Joseph laughed. "How come I never saw both of them at once?"

"Well, Charlie often preferred to be away from the cameras. And even if he did, he would address himself as Jackie and everyone would believe it. I just respected his decision in staying away from the media."

"They look so identical," Audrey mumbled and shook her head. "Maybe because we are not in the business field anymore that we don't know many of this generation's faces. My son takes care of everything these days. We barely step out for anything anymore."

"Son?" Cora's head snapped towards her parents. "You have a son? I have a brother?"

"Didn't we tell her this?" Her father asked and her mother fell silent. Of course, they haven't mentioned anything about having a son.

"How do you think we sit so leisurely at home, not bothering about our business?" Cora's father asked and she was pissed off.

"Well, how did you think I would know, considering the fact that I was in coma for 9 years, have amnesia and have no memories about anyone and not even me!" She tapped her foot impatiently and huffed. "Some parents you are!"

"Well, we are sorry about that," Audrey tried apologizing. "We were so caught up in the fact that you were back to us that we completely forgot about your brother. Now that he lives abroad and hardly ever contacts us since the time you went into comatose, we don't really talk about him. He prefers to be alone and aloof from the family, so we respect his decisions."

"Forgetting to tell me about my own brother is not a simple matter. That was such a lame excuse anyway," she rolled her eyes. "Where is he now? Did you guys even tell him that I woke up or did you forget that too?"

"We did tell him that, but he was too busy with his schedules that he couldn't make time to fly all the way here. He is coming today, though. To meet you," Audrey smiled and Cora's stomach lurched. She didn't know why, but the topic about her having a brother and him coming to meet her was giving her jitters. She didn't see this person yet, she didn't even know his name, but for some reason, she could feel a connection to him on a deeper level. It felt like she had known him forever, but she still couldn't place any memories of him in her life. It was so frustrating to her. It was as if there was a piece of delicious looking chocolate, but no matter how hard you try to reach for it, you still can never touch it.

"What's his name?" Cora asked. It was about time she got to know him as well, now that she was scratching the walls of familiarity.

"Ethan Rowan Rhonda. He used to love you so much that he was scared to let you go anywhere without him," Audrey smiled in reminiscence and Jackie frowned.

"I think I met him sometime during a few business conventions. I am familiar with his name."

"Is that so! That is great! You can meet him formally here and become good buddies like your father and me!" Cora's father said and Jackie smiled.

Cora excused herself from their chatter and returned to the food she was meaning to feast upon. Her stomach was growling louder than ever and she realized that simply standing and talking to random people also took away her energy.

"Cora, do you remember me?" A voice spoke from beside her and her head immediately snapped towards the source of the sound. It was way too familiar, just like the voice that has been echoing in her head for so long, the voice she wanted to get rid off somehow, the voice whose owner she wanted to see so desperately, the voice which kept her awake most of the night when she was at home. She finally heard the voice in reality and she was seeing that person right then.

He was tall with tanned skin, dark hair and was handsome to the point of it being unbelievable. He was in a black suit with a crisp white shirt and a grey tie, which matched his eyes. His face was stoic and his nose and jaw was sharp, as if someone sculpted it with care. His voice was far from being friendly. It was emotionless, sharp and curt, extremely business-like. Cora tried to recollect his face from her non existent memory and she started tensing up. His presence was overwhelming to the point of her memories trying to erupt like a volcano and in no time, she was sucked into the abyss of darkness, unable to handle the pressure.

"Cora! Cora! What happened? Talk to me!" She could hear his voice over and over again in her head and this time, it wasn't business-like. This time, it was thick with emotion, a sense of worry and it was fervently calling out her name. It somehow filled her up with a sense of satisfaction, a sense of fulfillment before she was completely taken over by the darkness around her.

It was Ethan.

It was her brother.

He was there, right in front of her.