Chapter 5: Across the Wall, At Last

Driving, I felt something was off—was that car following me? Couldn’t be a crazy Samantha fan coming to take me out, right?

Looked closer—a Cadillac. Way pricier than my car. Well, if I’m gonna die, at least it’s worth it.

Didn’t expect it to follow me all the way home. Out came Luke Grant.

My brain wanted to run, but my feet stayed put. I watched him walk over, smiling. “Daniel said… should I consider…”

I slapped my hand over his mouth. Disobedient brat!

He just smiled with those hazel eyes, all charm, no CEO dignity. Then I realized my hand was burning, so I pulled it away, hiding it behind my back.

“You know I’m not her?”

“Of course. I knew from the start.”

My face darkened. “Then why’d you marry Samantha? Was she a stand-in?”

He seemed surprised. He chuckled. “No. She’s your sister—I thought you two got along.”

“What a joke.” Family drama out in the open now.

“You still don’t know who I am?”

I shook my head.

“Can I take you somewhere?”

“Where?”

“My place.”

Wait, what?

He saw my hesitation and pointed next door. “My house.”

Unbelievable—less than fifty meters away.

I followed him inside, upstairs, into a room. He pulled open the curtains—right across from my room, clear as day. But I’d never noticed anyone there.

He explained, “It’s one-way glass, decorated on the outside. From outside, it looks like a wall. From inside, it’s glass.”

I started wondering if I’d ever done anything weird in my room.

“Ahem, I wasn’t spying, but… I was always here, so I’d see you sometimes.”

He pulled a walkie-talkie from a drawer and pressed a button. “Hello, Miss Across the Way, can you hear me?”

Wait, what?

Then the same line came from outside the wall. I stared, wide-eyed.

“A childhood toy, didn’t expect it to matter so much.” He kept talking into the mic. “Remember now?”

His voice had changed with age and static, but the sound from outside brought back so many memories.

My mother was once a star, but faded after marrying my father. She left during pregnancy, so we took her surname. She spent a fortune on a ‘psychic’ who said her daughter was her destiny. The date of birth lined up with my birthday.

Twins should’ve been born the same day, but because of complications, Samantha survived by chance. I was kept in the room to provide ‘good luck,’ while Samantha lived normally, even spoiled.

Still, she didn’t see it that way. Mom always told her if only she’d been born the same day as me, we’d both be ‘useful.’ Mom was fooled. She faded into obscurity.

At first, she just kept me home, then eventually wouldn’t let me out of my room. But to Samantha, I seemed even more ‘favored.’ Confinement as love—that’s how she was raised.

Alone in my room, I started acting, just like Mom. She got me tutors, I read tons of books. That’s how my world took shape. I imagined crowds, lively scenes. I got used to it.

Until someone from across the wall spoke to me. At first, I couldn’t believe it. But I had no choice—he was my only audience. He was much better than I expected.

So I never told him my troubles, just talked about books and ‘people’ I’d met. One day I asked who he was. He said he was next door, but lied—it was a wall. I called him ‘Wall Brother’ as a joke, and he played along.

After years of solo acting, I finally had a spectator. Mom’s mental health was up and down. One day, she begged me to help my sister. Samantha was desperate to get into a famous director’s crew, but she wasn’t good enough. Mom thought of me.

For the first time, she asked me to go out. Just that once, and I knew she loved Samantha more than me. Maybe I was just born bad—I was insanely jealous of Samantha.

As kids, Samantha would visit, call me ‘sister’—like looking in a mirror. Then she stopped coming. When we passed each other, I’d whisper, ‘Such an important audition… I guess Mom really does love me more.’ She believed it.

After filming, I came home, and Wall Brother never spoke again. I didn’t know where he went. When I acted alone, I faced the wall more often.

“So where did you go?”

“I was called back.” He let me be silent for a long time, then explained, “I was an illegitimate child. My mom hid me here. When the old man died, the legitimate son was gone, so I inherited.”

What happened to the legitimate son? How did he inherit?

I didn’t ask.

“Before I left, I wanted to tell you to wait, but you were already gone. When I came back, your room was empty, so I found your sister.”

“My mom went abroad for treatment and took me. She told me about Samantha and her lover before she died.”

“I gave her money. The family pressured me to marry, Samantha wanted a marriage to spite her lover, so we had a fake marriage.” He emphasized, “We never did anything.”

“You don’t have to tell me.” I said on purpose.

“But your face at the restaurant said otherwise.”

“Oh, right! Why’d you grab her then?!” I remembered to complain, raising my voice. He just smiled, and I blushed.

“I guessed you didn’t want to see her then. And since your relationship wasn’t what I thought, I should get my money back, right?”

His tone was playful, like it was perfectly reasonable. You can get it back? So stingy!

“I need to save for a wife. I’m an old bachelor, after all.” He read my mind, took my hand, and kissed it lightly. “So… will you consider me, Rachel?”

I considered for a month.

During that month, the show aired, ratings soared. Especially the ‘Real and Fake Best Actress’ hashtag. The diva and Best Actress both backed me up. The lawyers fought it out, but in the end, it was proven I was the rightful award winner. I paid the show a penalty, but still made more than I lost.

I started using the name ‘Rachel Grant’ and officially entered the entertainment world. Samantha and her lover disappeared again—rumor has it she ran off this time.

Before that, she tried to get Daniel back, even showed surrogacy documents. Since it was done abroad, she didn’t break any laws, but she couldn’t show her face here again. She never really cared about this place—her whole life was about chasing Rachel’s affection.

The internet went wild, waiting to see how Luke Grant would respond. He produced proof that Daniel was a distant relative’s child, and the surrogacy never happened—Samantha just didn’t know.

Her lover knew all about it, which is why he never saw Daniel. No wonder they looked alike. So Daniel naturally stayed with Luke Grant—and with me.

In the end, I made up my mind—I agreed. I ended up with my most loyal audience. No one can say I slept with a fan, right?

I still dried Daniel’s hair. He apologized. “Sorry.”

“For what?”

“For being mean to you at first.”

“I wasn’t great to you either.”

“Because Samantha said you stole her life.”

I just laughed. “She said that?”

“But if you see her, you have to call her ‘Aunt.’”

“She said that too.”

“When Dad came to pick me up, she told me to be good to you and eat well.”

“Eat your veggies and I’ll thank you, little troublemaker.” I pinched his nose. “Go to bed.”

“Look, Dad’s here already—he’s better at this than you.”

Luke Grant was at the door, watching us, waiting for me to finish ‘sleeping with my fan.’

The end.