New Life : A Second Chance

Kevin got up and roared at them, "How dare you! How dare you!!"

The twins sat on the couch, a bit perplexed at the reaction Beatrice's father was giving, based on what Yuri had said.

They wanted to marry Beatrice, so what was with the 'how dare you' statement? 

Of course they dared! Who wouldn't want Beatrice??

Melanie, who had been in the kitchen, rushed out quickly. She saw her husband, pointing his finger at the two boys … well, first at one, then the other, then back … it looked like he was waving.

"Dear, what's wrong?" Melanie asked anxiously. 

Her husband looked so agitated, with his fair face a bit red as he was glaring at the two boys. The two boys, on the other hand, were simply sitting there without any expression. No anger or confusion to give a hint as to what they were feeling.

Kevin huffed, pulling down his shirt even though it wasn't crumpled or had riden up somehow. 

When he saw Beatrice coming over, he demanded while pointing towards the boys, "Did you know that the boys have been switching? That you've been dating both boys?"

Beatrice was confused for a while. What was her father saying?

"I don't understand, Father. What do you mean?"

"You're dating Yuri, right?" Kevin asked.

"Yes, and -" Beatrice started, thinking it's best to tell him now, but she was cut off.

"Did you know that sometimes it's Zack instead?!" Kevin bellowed, "These boys said they're dating you with the intention of marrying you. Imagine! BOTH! They are just playing you!"

Beatrice's eye twitched.

Looks like her father jumped to conclusions based on one sentence. He thought that the twins were both trying to win her favour with the 'winner' being able to marry her? 

Then again, it wasn't that far a jump to what she had initially thought as well when the twins were chasing after her.

Beatrice slumped her shoulders down and gave a big sigh.

"Father …" she began, but the twins stopped her this time.

"Beatrice, let me," Zack said, getting up, followed by Yuri.

"Mr. Chin," Zack said, "This is a misunderstanding."

"Is Yuri dating Beatrice?" Kevin asked, cutting him off. 

Dominance! Show dominance! He must not let the boys take over and talk. The two young men had this rather intimidating aura around them and truth be told, Kevin's knees were shaking a bit.

But this was his daughter they were talking about!

No way would he show fear in the face of evil!

"Yes," Zack replied patiently.

"Did you go out on a date with Beatrice even though she's dating your brother?" Kevin snarled through clenched teeth (which he had to do to stop it from chattering).

"Yes," Zack answered, causing Melanie to gasp.

Kevin emboldened, roared angrily at him, "See?! SEE!" 

"And you!!" Kevin said, pointing at Yuri, "You knew this and you let him take your place and date your girlfriend?!"

"HOW DARE YOU PLAY WITH MY PRINCESS!!" Kevin spouted, gasping.

Melanie snapped out of her stupor and rubbed Kevin's back, "Dear, calm down. Calm down."

"HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN …" 

"We're not playing with Beatrice," Yuri said calmly, his melodious voice slicing through the angry roar in front of him, "Our love for Beatrice is true and we love her deeply. Naturally, we would like to marry her."

'With, or without your blessings' the twins said in their hearts. They weren't bold enough to actually say it out loud as it would put Beatrice in a spot.

She would most likely punish them for being so insolent towards her parents, too. That was far scarier.

"You keep saying 'we we we' all the time," Kevin said, "Don't you have your own identities? Not only are your features identical, you're both wearing the same thing! You deliberately did this to confuse people, right? Confuse my princess?!"

"Yes, we have our own identities," Zack said, "And yes, we dress the same so that people can't tell us apart. It helps us in our job."

"And Beatrice isn't confused by us," Yuri said, "She knows us well."

"So you are telling me that she can tell you apart?" Kevin said, a bit sidetracked.

"Yes," the twins answered.

"I don't believe this," Kevin muttered. 

He told the twins to follow him then said to his wife and daughter, "Sit on the couch." 

He walked out towards the opening of the living room and made the twins to stand hidden behind the wall while he stood at the living room opening.

"You said she can tell you apart, right?"

"Yes," Yuri answered.

"Fine. Let's put this to a test," Kevin said.

He turned towards Beatrice and said, "Tell me, who is this?"

Kevin reached out and grabbed Yuri's arm, bringing him out into the open. Beatrice answered, "Yuri���

"And this?" Kevin asked, as he pushed Yuri back behind the wall. He moved his hands about dramatically then pulled Yuri out again.

"Yuri."

Not convinced, Kevin put Yuri 'back' and this time, pulled out Zack.

"Zack."

"Zack."

"Yuri."

"Zack."

"Yuri."

"Yuri."

"Zack."

"That's enough!!" Melanie said, finally not being able to stand it any longer, "Just how long are you going to keep doing that?!"

Kevin shook his head, seemingly snapping out of a daze. He looked at his daughter and said, "You really are able to tell them apart."

"Yes, Father," Beatrice said in relief, "What is this about?"

"So you knew the whole time whenever Zack pretended to be Yuri to go out with you?"

Beatrice frowned, "He never pretended to be Yuri."

"So you were cheating on Yuri with Zack?!" gasped Melanie, grasping what the conversation was about, her hand on her chest. She looked at Yuri (or who she thought was Yuri) in pity.

"Mother!" Beatrice said in dismay as she looked at her mother.

"I'm so sorry, Yuri, that you had to find out this way," Melanie said, appalled at her own daughter's behaviour. She thought she had taught Beatrice better than this.

"And you, Zack. How could you do this to your own brother? Your own twin?!" Melanie scolded Zack.

The twins watched the scene in amusement. 

From the way the father jumped to conclusions and fiercely defended his daughter - to the way the mother was so soft-hearted that she actually sided with the 'wronged' one, made them see why Beatrice was the way she was.

Fiery and kind.

Fierce and soft.

The best of both parents were inherited by her.

"Please, this is all a misunderstanding," Zack said.

Yuri smiled, a dazzling smile that stunned Melanie for a while, "Yes, there's been no cheating. I have not been cuckold."

Then, they stood straight as they looked at Beatrice's parents seriously.

Yuri said, "We are deeply in love with your daughter and seek your permission to marry her."

"We, as in, both of us, to Beatrice," Zack added for good measure.

Melanie looked at them with their mouth open, then slowly looked towards her husband that seemed to be frozen solid like a statute.

Then, both of them turned to look at Beatrice, who looked at them sheepishly and said, "Two for the price of one?"

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"Where do you work?" Kevin started the interrogation.

After the initial shock, Kevin made them sit down at the couch again. Beatrice was forbidden to talk and had to sit a bit further away behind Kevin.

"We are the Nitoxing's Chief Operating Officers," answered Yuri.

"Oh? What's your salary?"

"$800,000," answered Zack.

"Not bad. That would be over a million annually then," Kevin mused. At least his daughter would be living comfortably. One with that salary was good enough, but two? 

Zack blinked then shook his head, "I'm sorry, Mr. Chin. I meant $800,000 a month, not a year."

"And that is before the bonus, too," Yuri added on, "Typically, it's at least $1 million."

Kevin's hands trembled as he took a glass of water to drink.

This was way beyond what he expected. He studied the two boys intently.

They answered each and every question of his patiently. They did not appear exasperated or treat this like it was beneath them. Despite the fact that they earned more in a month than he did in a year, Kevin felt that the two men were rather humble.

Not pretentious or snobbish.

Maybe they weren't so bad after all.

Meanwhile, Melanie's mind was still reeling over the fact that Beatrice had just brought back home two boyfriends. She studied them intently. They were very good looking, even if they seemed rather stand-offish a bit.

They had dark hair which was short and neat, with some bangs that occasionally fell over their eyes. Their oval-shaped face had eyes that seemed to be a mixture of blue and green, and they had rather full bottom lips.

Melanie looked at her daughter, then them. Images of very cute grandkids popped up. Melanie started grinning.