She's No Beauty Queen

At the two week mark Angelina had given up all hope of being rescued. She spent every second she wasn't singing completely numb.

The man—she still didn't know his name because he lived alone and never bothered to introduce himself—came home with a furious expression at the end of his workday and shoved his phone in her face. "What is this? Why are your personal social media accounts being updated still when you're here? Are you a fake?"

She squinted at the screen. What on earth? She hadn't taken either of those pictures. They appeared to be at volunteer events that were on her schedule that she hadn't been able to make it to because she was stuck here.

Did that mean he was looking for her after all? But if it was a doppelgänger that meant he thought she was safe and wasn't sending anyone out after her. How was she supposed to know which was which in a crazy situation like this?

That wasn't important right now. She needed to come up with a plausible story so her captor didn't get set off and decide to kill her!

"Those were taken before I came here," Angelina lied. "I take pictures at all of my appearances but don't post every time. My social media accounts have to be carefully maintained so there are updates a certain number of times a week."

He instantly relaxed. "Oh. That makes sense. I'll get your songbooks so you can start singing."

The man took them away whenever they were done so she couldn't potentially use them as a weapon by throwing them at him in a surprise attack first thing in the morning or tearing pages out to stuff down her own throat. For a total nutcase he was surprisingly thorough at times.

Angelina was barely able to focus on her singing because she was too busy worrying about what on earth was up with those pictures. That woman looked exactly like her.

She heard some weird myth about everyone in the world having 7 doppelgängers a while back. Was that actually true? What are the odds that one would happen to show up when she went missing?

If this was someone Eddie hired to pretend to be her makeup was probably used to get the transformation as accurate as possible. He would have access to her public social media accounts through Aria's iPad.

But what if there was actually someone out there who looked just like her who took over her life on purpose after finding out she was engaged to the wealthiest man in Monterey? He wouldn't actually fall for that, would he?

Angelina wasn't sure. They really didn't spend all that much time together. If an imposter did enough research in advance and knew how to mimic her voice there was a chance she could get away with it.

Which one was it? She was doomed if there was an actual imposter but if it was someone Eddie found so she wouldn't get in trouble with the Miss California organizers that meant he knew she was missing and was trying to keep things as normal as possible for her career while trying to get her back.

Why would he go to all that effort though? Did he care that much about their deal? It wasn't his fault she got kidnapped. He wasn't responsible for this sort of thing.

Once her singing was done for the day Angelina had more time to think about both potential scenarios. An imposter seemed incredibly farfetched but it would explain why no one had bothered finding her. It meant Eddie didn't know she was gone.

But if an imposter had access to her social media was she a hacker or did she play her part so well that she was now staying in her house and could use the iPad? The thought of a strange woman so near her daughter made her furious.

Eddie wasn't an idiot though. If someone pretending to be her suddenly put the moves on him not realizing the stale contractual nature of their relationship he would realize something was up. She had a hard time believing he would go along with something like that considering he never did anything romantic with her whatsoever.

At the very least he would wonder what had gotten into her. Keeping up an act long-term would be difficult unless the imposter knew Angelina intimately and she didn't have any close friends.

Ironically, the person closest to her was Eddie because of how many of her secrets she had spilled to him during their brief two week friendship. There wasn't a woman in the world who would know enough about her to be able to pull off pretending to be her for long.

Unless she claimed to have amnesia following a seizure episode? That could account for any behavioral inconsistencies.

She was thinking in terms of soap operas now. This was ridiculous!

Angelina pushed that aside and put more thought into the other possibility. That Eddie purposely hired someone to pretend to be her. He did know her best so he would probably be able to tell her whatever she needed to know to convincingly pull it off.

It didn't answer the question of why he would be so devoted to maintaining her career…or why she still hadn't been found after two weeks if he was genuinely looking for her.

Eddie. What on earth was he thinking right now? If he was looking for her was it simply for Aria's sake or did he actually miss her? It never seemed like he did when they were apart for her tours. And he wasn't exactly warm with her when she was at home.

It had to be to get her back for Aria. He didn't want his daughter to grow up without a mother or he would have offered her a sponsorship in return for giving birth then leaving to raise her alone instead of offering marriage.

That didn't explain why he would help her by finding a substitute if that was what he did though. All of this was making her head hurt.

'Eddie, I hope you find me soon so you can explain all of this to me in person,' Angelina thought tiredly before trying to force herself to sleep. She had another long day in captivity ahead of her tomorrow.