Tiffany's POV
My heart was beating so fast I thought it would jump out of my chest. The crowd was going wild with whispers and shouts. Everyone was looking at Stephanie, then at me.
"It's a lie!" I screamed, my voice shrill and desperate. "She's the one telling lies!"
Grandma Dario looked confused, her eyes moving between me and Stephanie. "But… she does look like our daughter," she said softly, and her words felt like a knife in my heart.
I looked at Myron. He was giving me a death stare, his eyes telling me to fix this, to shut her up. I had to do something. I couldn't let this fake ruin everything we had worked for.
I rushed towards Stephanie, my beautiful white dress feeling like a costume now. "You need to stop lying!" I shouted right in her face. "I'm sorry that Myron chose me, but that doesn't mean you can come here and ruin my engagement party!"
Stephanie didn't even flinch. She looked calm, which made me even angrier. "I'm not here to ruin anything, Tiffany," she said, her voice clear and steady. "I just want to tell the truth."
Grandpa Dario stepped forward, his face serious. "Young lady," he said to Stephanie, "you are making a very huge accusation. I hope, for your sake, you have proof to back this up."
Proof? She couldn't have proof. Myron said everything was perfect.
I ran to Grandpa and held his arm. "Grandpa, please, don't listen to her! She's obviously lying! She's just jealous!"
He gently patted my hand, but his eyes were on Stephanie. "Then you have nothing to fear, my dear," he said to me. Then he turned back to Stephanie. "Please, present your proof."
My blood ran cold.
Stephanie walked towards me. Before I could move away, she spun me around so my back was facing Grandpa and Grandma. I tried to struggle, but she was surprisingly strong.
"Her birthmark," Stephanie announced to the room, "is fake."
I felt her pull down the sleeve of my dress, exposing the part of my back where the star-shaped birthmark was drawn. The crowd gasped. I heard her take out something, a piece of cloth. She started rubbing my skin.
At first, nothing happened. I felt a small spark of hope. Myron had paid a lot of money for that special ink. He said it was waterproof and wouldn't smudge.
I saw the relief on Myron's face from across the room. He thought we were safe.
But then, I felt the damp cloth rubbing harder. I felt the ink starting to come off. I could see it on the white cloth in Stephanie's hand. It had smudges of black and red. The perfect star was melting away.
The crowd gasped louder. My whole body went numb with fear.
Then, Stephanie turned around and pulled down her own dress strap, showing her bare back. And there, in the exact same spot, was a real, perfect, star-shaped birthmark on her skin.
It was over. I knew it was over.
But she wasn't done.
She walked to the table and pulled out more things from her bag. "The fake diary you wrote," she said, holding it up. "The handwriting doesn't match my mother's real journals, which I have right here." She placed a worn, old book next to Tiffany's new, fancy one. They looked completely different.
"And the birth certificate you have is a forgery," she continued. "Here is the original, signed by the doctor who delivered me and my mother's best friend as a witness."
I felt dizzy. How did she get all this?
Then, she held up her hand. In it was a beautiful, old ring with a large green stone. I had never seen it before.
"This," Stephanie said, her voice trembling with emotion, "is the Dario family heirloom. Passed down from mother to daughter for generations."
This was my last chance. "It's a lie!" I cried, pointing a shaking finger at her. "That ring belongs to me! She stole it from me!"
Stephanie actually laughed. It wasn't a happy laugh. It was a cold, sharp sound that sent pure dread right through me. I knew then that I had made a terrible mistake.
She opened her bag again and pulled out a bunch of old photographs. She showed them to everyone. They were pictures of a little girl, Stephanie with a beautiful woman who looked just like the Darios' late daughter. In every picture, the little girl was wearing that same green ring on a chain around her neck.
She turned to face me, and for the first time, I saw pure venom in her eyes. "These were taken a very long time ago," she hissed. "Long before your treacherous mother and that demon I call a father decided to kill my mother and covet her wealth."
Then she turned to my grandparents, her voice breaking. "Grandpa, Grandma… her family is responsible for the death of your daughter."
The room exploded in noise. Everyone was shouting.
Suddenly, two big men in dark suits grabbed my arms tightly. I started to shout and yell, struggling against them. "It's all a lie! Let me go! She's lying!"
Just then, the main doors of the hall swung open. A man walked in, and my heart leaped with a new hope. It was Myron's father! He had come to help us! He would fix this!
But my hope died in a second.
He didn't even look at me or Myron. He walked straight across the room, right towards Stephanie. He put his arm around her waist, pulled her close, and kissed her gently on the cheek.
"Good job, babe," he said softly. "Let me take it from here."
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. My jaw dropped open. I turned to look at Myron. The shock on his face was beyond anything I had ever seen. He looked completely destroyed.
But then I saw the look on Grandpa and Grandma Dario's faces. It wasn't just shock or anger. It was fear. More than fear. It was pure terror. They weren't looking at me or Stephanie anymore. They were st
aring at Myron's father as if he was a ghost who had come back to haunt them.