I don't own "Girl in the Mirror" by Cecelia Ahern.
A/N: If you haven't read this short story by Cecelia Ahern, you've missed out on her turn as a modern Daphne DuMaurier. Creepy as anything.
So this is another ending to her story "Girl in the Mirror." It's about a girl named Lila, who gets trapped in a mirror on her wedding day. And her impostor is going to marry the love of Lila's life, Jeremy. Grellie (Grandmother Ellie) knows because she paid the price for freedom from the mirror: her sight. But will Jeremy know before it is too late?
Jeremy didn't know. He didn't know that she had replaced Lila. She had told him that Grellie was confused. She told him that everything would be okay. But something told her that he didn't quite trust her.
It was after the ceremony. They were in the hotel room. There was a large mirror over the bureau. And she looked into it. She saw Lila staring back. And so did Jeremy. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
"Tell me what you did with Lila." Jeremy said very quietly, very calmly. She tried to pull away from him, but his arms tightened around her.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you need to tell me what you have done with the one and only, original Lila. You need to tell me where she is, where you came from, and how to switch the two of you back. Or I will be the first groom in history to strangle his wife's cheap impostor."
"I'll never tell you." she tried to break away from Jeremy, but he was faster and stronger. His hands were around her throat in a split second, and she was choking. "Ok..." she whispered through her closing throat. He released her and twisted her arms behind her back.
"What are you?"
"I used to be a person. But there was this mirror. And I went through it. And waited for years. And finally my chance came."
"You mean you trapped Lila in a mirror?"
"Not just any mirror. A special mirror. At Ellie's house."
"Well then, we are off to Ellie's."
"We can't go there now. What will people think? We're on our honeymoon." she was an impostor, always concerned with appearances.
"I'm not on my honeymoon. My honeymoon will be spent with Lila."
"But Jeremy-"
"Get in the car or I will kill you standing where you are. I don't care if I lose my life over it. If Lila is dead, then I'm dead too. I will murder you in cold blood."
Soon, they were driving down the precarious road to Ellie's. They reached the manor house and entered without knocking. Ellie hadn't bothered locking the door.
They went straight to the spare bedroom and there was Lila. Jeremy saw her and knew that he never loved her more than when he saw her standing there.
"Get into that mirror." Jeremy ordered the impostor. She balked. Dying in the real world was looking ever more appealing to her. It beat spending her life in a mirror.
Jeremy gave her a rough shove and she stumbled. Her hand stretched out, and Lila's icy hand clasped hers as she slipped into the glassy surface of the mirror.
"You only have one choice. Stay here and let me live my life." Lila told her double. She stepped towards the mirror.
"That's not how it works." Lila's impostor sneered. "If you step through to Jeremy, you'll fall down dead. I have to make my choice."
"Get over yourself. You're still so vain that you'd still choose to stay. You'd never choose to lose your eyes." Lila spoke the truth. As much as the impostor hated it, Lila was right. She could never choose a life of blindness. Lila approached the sparkling surface of the mirror.
"You'll die!" Lila's impostor screeched, but Lila stepped through the mirror anyway.
That moment was the defining moment of Lila's life. She stepped through the mirror as it shattered into a million pieces around her. She stumbled to the ground in the spare room, and Jeremy caught her.
"Lila!" Jeremy embraced her, and she fell into his arms gladly.
"I love you, Jeremy." Lila kissed him.
"I love you." Jeremy kissed her back.
"I'm sorry I missed our wedding."
"It wasn't any fun without you there. I'm sorry I went through with it!"
"Would people think it was weird if we did it again?"
"Probably, but I don't care."
"Let's just do it between us." Lila suggested, but a movement by the door stopped her.
"Lila?" Grellie's voice came through the darkness. Lila and Jeremy realized that they hadn't bothered with the lights in the room.
"I'm here, Grellie. It's really me."
"I know, darling. I know. You look so beautiful in your dress."
Lila strained to see Grellie in the light from the hall.
"I can see you, Lila." Grellie nodded. "What did you do?"
"I stepped through the mirror without her consent. And she...she said I would die. But I would have rather died than lived like that."
"Your love for Jeremy gave you the courage to see through the mirror's lies."
"Yes, it did."
"And the spells apparently were broken. I can see you." Lila fumbled for the lights and discovered that Grellie had her own eyes once more. "Did I hear you two discussing your wedding vows?" Grellie asked.
"Yes." Jeremy nodded. Turning to Lila, he said, "What if we did them here, with Ellie? She's the only one who really matters."
Lila couldn't speak. Tears came to her eyes as she nodded happily. Jeremy understood that Grellie meant the world to her, no matter what anyone said about her. And he had known that all along.
"Wait." Lila found herself saying. If Jeremy had withstood all of the insanity of the last few hours, he deserved to know the truth about Vincent.
"What is it?" Jeremy asked.
"At my hen party last week, there was this guy. And I did something I'm not proud of, in the toilet. With him. And I understand if you never want to see me again, but I couldn't go through with marrying you again without telling you the truth."
"Lila, I forgive you." Jeremy wrapped his arms about her lovingly, and held her.
"I didn't ask for your forgiveness yet." Lila pointed out.
"I still forgive you. I'll always forgive you your mistakes. Will you forgive mine?"
"What mistakes?"
"For mistaking that horrible thing for you. For going through with the wedding when I knew something was wrong. For not listening to Ellie's warnings."
"I forgive you, Jeremy." Lila leaned into his embrace, and he began to recite his vows, without letting go of her.
"I, Jeremy, take thee, Lila, to be my lawfully wedded wife. To have and to hold, in riches and in poverty, in sickness and in health, until death do us part." Jeremy took Lila's hand and slipped her engagement ring back on her finger. He had forced the impostor to give the rings back to him at the hotel. "I love you, Lila. I love you and only you. Always you." Jeremy slid the wedding band onto Lila's finger, and kissed her hand.
Lila repeated the vows to him, adding, "Jeremy, you are the only one for me. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.
"You saw me in the hotel mirror and you knew. You've always known me better than I know myself."
Jeremy produced his own ring from his pocket, where he had placed it when he had reached the hotel room. He had known something was wrong, and he hadn't felt right wearing it.
"I love you, Jeremy." Lila whispered as she slid the ring onto his finger. His hand closed around hers and he pulled her closer to him, kissing her deeply.
"I love you, Lila." Jeremy whispered back. "And I always will."