She raked her hair back into a ponytail, then tucked her knee-length flirty skirt under her as she sat on her bed. Ellie sat on her vanity chair opposite her, sad smile on her face.
"So it sounds like you had a good time then," Ellie said, then attempted to ignore the longing in her heart for a real family.
"Ya it was great. We hung out and told stories and took lots of pictures," Emma responded.
"Can I see the pictures?" Ellie asked tentatively.
Emma gave her a confused look but nodded and reached into her desk, extracting the envelope from her drawer and patting an empty space on the bed beside her. Ellie took up the space beside Emma and watched as she removed the pictures and adjusted them in her hands.
The first depicted a loving couple, arms looped around each others, standing in a luxurious backyard beside a pool.
"That's my aunt Summer and my uncle Seth," Emma said, pointing to the couple, then flipping the picture. Ellie stalled; there was something startlingly familiar about the young, dark-haired woman's' face, something that made Ellie believe she had seen her before. But Emma had moved on to the next picture and Ellie brushed it aside.
The next picture was of a medium-height, good-looking guy around eighteen with unrulely brown curls and a charming smile standing behind Emma, his arms crossed over her collarbone, elbows resting on her shoulders, head resting against hers.
"My cousin Reese," Emma said, then flipped the picture.
The next was of Reese, Emma and another girl, splashing around in the infinity pool. "And that's Reese's sister Hannah," Emma said, pointing to the girl who was beside Reese with the cute face.
The next picture was of what seemed to be Emma's whole family standing in front of a large fireplace. "Those are my grandparents Sandy and Kirsten, my aunt and uncle, Reese and Hannah, me, and my dad," Emma said as she pointed to each person.
She made a move to go to the next picture but Ellie stopped her, eyes wide and staring.
"What is it?" Emma asked, concerned.
Ellie pointed silently to the background of the picture on the mantle of the fireplace, mouth agape.
"Is that what I think it is?" Emma asked, awe-struck.
"Do you have a magnifying glass?" Ellie asked.
"Sure," Emma said with a coy grin on her face. She hurled herself off the bed with Ellie on her heels and ran into her dad's study, thrusting the picture onto the desk and pulling the magnifying glass out of the top drawer.
"My dad uses this to put intricate details onto his work. He's an architect," Emma said, pulling up two chairs. Ellie sat in the one that Emma was occupying and watched as Emma adjusted the picture and focused the magnifying glass on the fireplace mantle.
In a mahogany frame set just off the centre of the mantle, a picture of Ryan and Marissa curled up on the couch adorned the frame. They were sitting on the Cohen's living room couch, Ryan's arm draped around Marissa's shoulder, Marissa leaning into his embrace. They looked to be around eighteen.
"No way," Ellie breathed. "That's my mom."
"And that's my dad," Emma replied. "Son on a bitch!" She stood suddenly from her chair and ran into the living room.
"Emma!" Ellie yelled, running after her. Emma stopped beside her fireplace, looking at the pictures that adorned the room. "Emma what are you doing?" Ellie asked.
Emma picked up an old picture, one that showed Ryan holding baby Emma who couldn't have been more than a couple weeks old. "There was always something off about this picture," Emma said, flipping the frame over and unfastening the clips. She removed the picture from its frame and looked up to Ellie after noticing a crease where the picture had been folded. Carefully, she unfolded it and gasped as the hidden part of the picture came into view.
Beside Ryan with Emma in his arms was Marissa who was holding an identical baby.
"That's me," Ellie said, pointing to the baby that Marissa was holding.
"Does this mean that we're twins?" Emma asked, finding her breath catching in her chest.
"Emma!" a male voice rang out from the front hall.
"My dad!" Emma hushedly whispered to Ellie.
"Em?" Ryan called again. He walked into the living room and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Emma and who he assumed to be Ellie standing side-by-side in front of the fireplace, a picture of him and Marissa holding their girls clutched tight in Emma's grasp.