"I am so excited to have you guys on my show." Anis squealed "I'm an avid fan of Crushed Diamond, not just me but my friends too. They were so excited when they heard I was having you on my show…" she pointed to a group in the audience.
The group howled and screamed.
The band waved back at them.
"I also prepared this." She signaled two assistants who stepped forward to set up a table and placed a tray of assortments in front of Edwin.
"Is... Is this okay?" Fred asked anxiously as he stole a few glances at the cameras. This was a live show, right?
"Yes, feeding the bird is an absolute must." Anis redirected her focus to Edwin "My friends and I, we got you our favourite chips and the famous seven-layer dip. I had to pull so many strings to get that, and I really hope you like it." She chattered excitedly.
"Thanks." Edwin did not hesitate to indulge in the offering laid out before him.
"Can I-"
Edwin smacked Joshua's hand before he could grab a chip.
Anis cackled "Okay… okay, let's get serious for a minute." She said with a wide smile as she turned to face the cameras squarely "Today, we have the sweeping sensation, Crushed Diamond, with us." She focused on the group seated to her right "Well?"
Lillian straightened and waved meekly at the camera "Hi, I'm Lillian the leader, songwriter and bassist."
"Yoo! Jaade, drummer."
Zed beamed brightly "Hello, I'm Zed and I play the keyboard."
Still overly aware of Edwin's carefree munching, he waved gingerly "I'm Fred, I play the electric guitar."
"Joshua, electric guitar." He crunched happily on a chip he managed to wrestle away from Edwin.
Edwin accepted the napkin Fred handed to him, wiped his hand and mouth "I'm Edwin, the singer." He said after clearing his throat.
Anis sighed wistfully, "I am so happy, I can die right now."
Zed giggled "Please don't."
"You're right, if I did, I wouldn't be able to make it to your next show."
"You... You came to our show?" Fred probed.
"Did I?" Anis gestured to the display screen and a slide show of pictures of her and her group begun to play.
Joshua inspected the screen "She did. That's her, all right."
"I'm really a fan, you know."
"We don't doubt you..." Lillian added quickly "... it's just the whole experience has been quite surreal for us. We never thought we would make it this big." She faced Lillian "Right?"
The rest of the band echoed her sentiment, the rest but Edwin who was working on a second chip bag.
"Let's get into it." Anis drummed on the table with both palms "First question, How did the Crushed Diamond become the Diamond we see today?"
"Well Zed, Fred and I went to the same university. We met at the Rock Club." Lillian explained.
"Rock... Rock Club?"
"It's a theme bar." Zed answered, softly "Thinking back, the name lacks a little imagination."
"A little?" Joshua remarked snidely.
"Well..." Ignoring him, she continued "...Joshua is Fred's cousin, so it was almost natural that he joined. You know, nepotism and all that."
"Hey!" Both Joshua and Fred protested.
"Then Jade..." Lillian threw the sloth-like individual, who had now joined Edwin and Joshua in their carefree snacking, a side glance "...she just waltzed into one of our practice sessions, picked up the drumsticks and said she wanted in."
"Really?" Anis asked with muffled laughter.
"Yea." She turned to Zed for corroboration "Remember?"
"It was so random. This girl walks in and sits at the drumkit, our drummer back then was so confused. He was also late so…"
Anis gazed at the person in question "Jade?"
"They were playing my favourite song, and I like… I was like feeling it."
"Oh... That's... That's it?"
Jade slung her torso over the armrest "Yuup."
"Oh... Okay. I guess." Anis returned her attention to Lillian "How about Edwin?"
"Oh... That was all Joshua."
"Joshua brought Edwin into the band?"
"Yes!" He interjected proudly, "I found the lost bird and brought him under our nest. Me, the one everyone claims got in through nepotism." He shuffled towards Anis "I have skill."
"He was annoyingly persistent." Edwin said dryly.
"I mean, he did something great, didn't he?" Anis asked.
"Yea..." Joshua adopted a gossipy tone "He was singing in karaoke bars, it was crazy. Imagine, karaoke."
She chuckled "I saw the videos."
"It's crazy, right? I did a good thing, didn't I?"
"Yes, yes you did."
Lillian huffed "Please don't indulge him."
"Anyway, I made it my duty to bring him in..."
The interview continued in that friendly, casual and comfortable manner until Anis raised a particularly popular topic of discussion.
"I just have to bring it up, cause a lot of people are very curious about this 'feeding the bird' ritual. How did that start?"
The members exchanged uncomfortable glances with each other before their gazes focused on Edwin.
Anis looked from one member to the other and followed their line of sight to the person whose face was basically buried in the almost empty nacho bag. "Sorry, did I-"
He looked up innocently "It's fine." He placed the empty bag aside, accepted another napkin. After wiping away the crumbs he took a deep breath "My food was always carefully portioned before I joined the band. I was only allowed to eat at certain times and eat certain foods, or I would get into trouble, so I guess now I'm sort of overcompensating for that."
Her brows furrowed in confusion "What...what do you mean trouble?" She turned to Lillian who shook her head anxiously.
Everyone avoided her gaze.
"I'm sure you heard the rumours..." Edwin stated candidly "...well, they're technically true. My parents were set on marrying me to a rich alpha and eventually, progressed to pimping me out for money."
She turned to the producer.
In a few seconds, they had cut to intermission.
"Someone has to explain to me what is going on." Anis demanded.
"Edwin?" Lillian asked.
The rest of the band remained seated while Anis led Edwin and Lillian away into a private discussion with the producer, Ned. They were given a brief summary of Edwin's past.
"I knew his twin was married to Alexei but that's insane." Ned commented "Is it alright to do this?" he whispered.
"He already started talking, we can't just act like it didn't happen. Let's do it." Anis spoke "I'll bear responsibility if it goes south. I have his assistant's number."
"Anis…" he hissed.
"I don't really mind. Isn't it better to have it out in the open now rather than people speculating about it later on?" Edwin asked.
Lillian was positively frantic "That-"
"The rumours are always coming up, let's deal with them now."
Ned took a deep breath "If at any point, you feel it's too much, you should stop."
"Okie." He made an ok sign with his hand and flashed the three a reassuring smile before hurrying back to his seat.
Zed gave his hand a firm squeeze when he returned "This candid part of you always amazes me." She whispered.
"It's fine."
"I'm sorry, I know it's sort of leftfield, we weren't trying to jump you or anything like that."
"This is a very serious issue and one that should have been reported to the proper authorities."
Anis huffed "Don't reprimand her."
"We will get shit for this. Why didn't they just report it."
"He didn't want to and his parents are missing." Lillian said quietly.
Ned and Anis exchanged a look "Is that so?" the corner of her lip lifted "Lillian, please return to your seat. We'll resume in a moment."
"This is crazy." Ned started once he was sure she was out of earshot "I don't want that dude on my neck, please…"
"I'm going ahead with it."
"You-"
"It's the right thing to do."
Anis returned to her chair.
The cameras started rolling once again.
Anis's previous fan-attitude was replaced with the no-nonsense professionalism she was well known for.
"I'm sorry for springing that on you randomly, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Edwin started.
"It's no problem, honestly I would like to hear more about it. If that's fine with you."
He glanced at Lillian, who gave him light nod "Back home, it was my eldest older sister and my elder twin. Our parents have always been crazy folk for as long as I can remember. My twin and I are omegas and right from birth, we have been cultivated to fit their ideals of what omegas should be to satisfy alphas."
"What about your sister?"
"She's not. They just never paid her any attention."
"You said your meals were being portioned."
He nodded "Growing up, we had a slice of fruit or a handful of nuts for breakfast. Lunch and dinner were often salads or something like that."
"Nuts and fruits? Vegetables? That's all you ate growing up? Did you have any dietary constraints?"
He shook his head "Not that I'm aware of. In fact, when we ate outside what they permitted, we got punished." He stared awkwardly at the tray "...I really like junk food."
"Did they take away your favourite toys or ground you?"
He drew in a deep breath "We didn't have toys. No. sometimes, we were starved or they would give us this really disgusting juice…" he scrunched up his nose and shuddered at the memory "…whenever, we drank it we would end up vomiting or pooping uncontrollably."
"Every time?!"
"No there was one time, Edith, my sister went to her classmate's birthday party, and she came back with a slice of cake. So, she gave it to us to share. My mothers found out and... what's that thing where you put a water hose down someone's throat... that thing, they did that while my sister screamed and begged them to stop. Later they locked her out of the house that night. We were both really sick after."
She turned away from the camera "That can't be..."
"It's true." He leaned forward "I have a few fake teeth cause the constant vomiting messed up my teeth so badly Clarisse said it was bringing down my value, so she got them implanted." He explained as he parted his cheek with a finger to show her the teeth in question.
Anis blinked rapidly, simply too stunned to speak.
Fred handed him another napkin to wipe his hand.
Anis's frown deepened "I wasn't doubting you. It's just a lot to take in that parents would do such things to their children but please, continue. What about school? Your teachers? Your neighbors? No one thought to intervene?"
"At the time, we thought it was normal…" he turned to his bandmates as if seeking their validation "…we were never really allowed to mingle with others. We always had to go back home immediately after school. Only Edith had the freedom and that was because they didn't care what she did."
"So, no one tried to step in?"
He scratched the corner of his eyebrow with a finger "I think there was a time Edith spoke about our home in class, the teacher stopped by."
"And…?"
"They gave them money and that was it. Edith was punished for it; they kicked her out. We eventually had to stop going to school, Clarisse said alphas don't like omegas that are too smart."
"Clarisse?"
"My alpha parent."
"She set the tone for all this?"
"There was Thessa too, but yea, mostly Clarisse."
Anis massaged her temples as her anger built up even more. A part of her had known that it would be a heavy story, but the scope was beyond her imagination. Sure, omega rights weren't as liberal as they were now a few decades ago but even for back then, this was just too much. Both parents would have definitely been arrested and tried for child cruelty. She made a pained expression "In my line of work, I hear a lot of things so I can only guess that things got worse as you both got older."
"You're right." He nodded.
Straightening her spine, she puffed out a slow stream of air from her mouth "So when you were pulled out of school, what happened?"
"They educated us themselves, mostly about stuff they thought would be relevant as a useful spouse. It was just a bunch of stupid stuff like cooking, the right way to talk, what to say, what not to say... You know, things like that. It wasn't really useful stuff."
"WOW."
"When we turned eighteen they started introducing us to potential partners."
"That's when the p-p-"
"No but I eventually got engaged."
"You... You did? To one of the people your parents introduced you to?"
"Nope." He said casually "I met someone but the marriage they hoped for never happened. I think the alpha and his family could tell my parents weren't normal."
"He called it off?"
"He did." He answered with great nonchalance "After that, there was no offer for marriage and according to them, the older I got the less value I had so they just decided it would be more profitable to drug me and pimp me out to the highest bidder."
Anis took a desperate sip of water "They did this to both you and your twin?" She asked.
"No. It was just me."
"Where was your brother?"
"He had run away at the time. Shortly after, my sister also left."
"And they just did not care that their children had gone missing?"
"His situation was a bit…"
"A bit?"
"He had a medical crisis and… he could no longer function in the way they had hoped so they cast all their focus on me."
She stared at him silently for a few seconds "Edwin, how did you manage to make it out of there?"
"Oh..." a tiny smile formed on his lips "I have both my sister and my brother to thank for that. Before Edith left- I'm sure you know about Edith."
She nodded "Your sister, everyone knows about her. You just recently found each other."
"Yea, she woke me up in the middle of the night and handed me this box full of birth control"… he made a gesture with his hands to show the size of the box "And was like no matter what, to make sure they never found it and to never ever get pregnant or it would be trapped there forever. The next day she was gone."
"Why... Why didn't she take you? I'm not criticizing her, it-"
"Edith had her own troubles."
"I know it must not have been easy for her."
"It wasn't and I'm very glad that she built her life outside of all that."
"Yes." She adjusted in her seat "Your brother?"
"So, a few years ago, my parents found out my brother had settled down. He managed to build a good life away from them because life only gets better the further away you are from them." He said with an awkward laugh. He straightened when no one joined in, rather he received tearful and pitiful glances from those around "So he started a new life, yea. Apparently, he also put himself through school, met someone and moved to this country. He was dating this really impressive person at the time, they're married now. Anyway, Clarisse and Thessa found out about it and basically hunted him down, trying to see how much money they could squeeze out of him."
A hand flew to her mouth "…no." she gasped with a shaky breath.
"They drugged me and snuck me into their bed, but things didn't play out like they planned. I was unconscious when the whole incident happened, so I don't really know what happened. When I came to, I was in the hospital."
Anis flew out of her chair, visibly trembling "Please give me a moment to collect myself." She added quickly before taking quick, determined steps away from the set.
He turned to Zed and Lillian "Did I say something I shouldn't have?"
Zed smiled warmly at him and gave his hand another squeeze "Not at all."
When a calm Anis returned, she wore a professional smile, but her eyes were wet "My apologies..." She said, lowering into her seat "...I was overwhelmed for a minute there, almost lost my cool."
"It's alright."
"Please go on."
"After that night, I never saw them again. My brother and his husband made sure I got a lot of care and…" he sighed, at that point, the studio was filled with a lot of sniffling "…they asked what I wanted to do and I said I would look for Edith. So, I… I uh, went back home." He gestured to Joshua with a smile "Joined the Crushed Diamond and eventually, found my sister."
Jade reached out suddenly to wrap him in a tight hug, Zed followed suit until the entirety of the band was wrapped around Edwin whose tears were buried in their embrace.
Anis let out a long sigh.
Save for the small cries and sniffles, the auditorium was silent.
While the interview was ongoing, something very interesting happened. A particular story had surfaced. Someone dug up a picture from a few years ago. It was a picture of a company picnic where Alexei had made a surprise appearance. Standing next to him was a person that looked just like Edwin.
The internet sleuths came forth.
Hours after that interview aired, New Era Designs had made centre stage, so did Marielle's and Hanzel.
No persons from those institutions made any concrete statements.
Alexei and the rumoured husband never stepped forward to make a clarification.
And OPS… they had a whole new storm to weather.
"Did you see the interview with the budding rockstars? Well, if you haven't, Crushed Diamond's lead singer, Edwin, unloaded what can only be described as the most jarring and earth-shattering truths. Rumours about his supposed twin being married to Hanzel's very own Alexei Rockwell, have been flying around, if this is true, what would that mean about the actions of OPS?"
The guest speaker laughed sarcastically "He said there was no abuse on his part and he was right, but everyone insisted on attacking while the real perpetrators were elsewhere... well, allegedly."
"If he had just let his husband come forward, a lot of this would be avoided."
"OPS said it was a false alarm, the man said his husband was in recovery, but you insisted on subjecting an ailing person to this madness?"
"Why did he ask to remove his gland if-"
"Oh, just shut it and just admit you were wrong, you targeted the wrong person."
"If it's about being wrong OPS will have a lot of questions to answer."
"Like why they investigated only the alpha husband and not the parents? That has to be systemic bias…" they turned to another person with a polite smile "…you've always had something to say about systemic bias, don't be silent now. Please, speak."
"This is not a joke."
"Of course, it's not. You wanted to hound the big bad alpha capitalist and completely missed the point."
"There were so many things amiss with the situation, but your focus on a specific narrative blinded you. No smoke without fire, was it? He made a consultation and asked a question, suddenly OPS was at the door, but no one thought it was weird."
"It's normal to come to that conclusion because Alexei Rockwell has always been vocal about his dislike for omegas."
"That has clearly been exaggerated, and you know it."
"What I want to know now is what does this mean for OPS going forward?"
Mari sighed, she had long suspected such a thing but to actually have it confirmed wasn't any less groundbreaking, being an omega herself, she understood the twin's trials to some extent but only a little bit of it. She wiped down the counter aimlessly as the debate raged on in the background. She glanced at her son who was leaning over the counter chatting away with a friend. "Rose." She called out.
He looked up to her with a questioning gaze.
The ache in her heart eased slightly, grateful again that neither she nor her child had been subject to such a fate "Nothing dear, I just need to go back to make a call for a bit. Remember, if-"
He nodded "I know, if anyone asks I don't know anything."
She grinned at him before walking off.
He returned to his previous position.
Gavin glanced at the screen "I'm surprised they haven't dug up mine yet. But with things like this, the real big bad alphas get to hide for a bit longer."
"Dude..."
"Just saying." He shrugged; he scrutinized the person before him "Did you really not know he was an omega?"
"I didn't. I was so shocked. The interview made my parents so angry."
"Hmm..." He circled the rim of the cup with a finger "…honestly, not even sure I have a right to feel righteous anger." He straightened "Who would have thought Alexei would fall for an omega?"
Lein scanned the floor before lowering his voice, "Why doesn't he like omegas?"
"Wouldn't it be better to ask your boyfriend that?"
"I can't really..."
Gavin squinted at him "Still on thin ice?"
"Others don't really come up between us."
"Wow, I'm so jealous." He remarked dryly.
"Come on."
"You'll understand if you meet their father. I asked my dad about it once. He was like, in his heydays… their dad was like a major force to be reckoned with. Noone in this city could make a move without his permission or something like that but then, he met this crazy omega that got him addicted to pheromones."
His eyes widened in surprise "That's insane."
"Nah… the insane part is that omega is Alexei's birth father."
"Shit."
"Yea... Apparently, a lot of history there..." Gavin smacked his lips "How have you not met the man? They basically worship him, always introducing their friends to him and whatnot. I guess even in a centre, he still has a lot of pull."
Lein scratched the back of his neck, that wasn't really a question he wanted to think about but if he had to...
The ringing of Gavin's phone cut through his thoughts.
"Gotta go get Sol from my mum's." Gavin informed, emptying the contents of his cup. "I'll see you at group, yea?"
"Totally." Lein stared at the retreating back and couldn't help but wonder how this person was holding himself together and raising a kid.