Bella pauses to run through her mood-zapping routine before she continues. Being annoyed is unhelpful and makes her more likely to misstep; any validity it might have is not currently relevant and can be saved to explore more thoroughly later.
When she is done, she looks (almost) perfectly calm.
"The facts," she says, "are that Maria Stark gave birth to one child seventeen years ago. Given the Starks' status as public figures and how easily information will leak out of a hospital regardless of any and all rules to the contrary, something which I've heard Charlie complain about several times because it makes his job more difficult, the act of concealing the birth of a second child would be absurdly complex. If they didn't want it or didn't want people to know about it, it would be easier to claim it died at birth, but that would also have been national news and I could find no such article.
"While it's possible for people who are not twins to look very much alike, perfectly identical cousins or strangers are a strictly fictional occurrence. You and Tony are the same age. In adolescence, even a year's difference between you would be noticeable. The least outrageous explanation I have been able to come up with for a twin who is not a twin is cloning. I doubt you could present a scenario that I could reasonably dismiss out of hand."
no subject
When she is done, she looks (almost) perfectly calm.
"The facts," she says, "are that Maria Stark gave birth to one child seventeen years ago. Given the Starks' status as public figures and how easily information will leak out of a hospital regardless of any and all rules to the contrary, something which I've heard Charlie complain about several times because it makes his job more difficult, the act of concealing the birth of a second child would be absurdly complex. If they didn't want it or didn't want people to know about it, it would be easier to claim it died at birth, but that would also have been national news and I could find no such article.
"While it's possible for people who are not twins to look very much alike, perfectly identical cousins or strangers are a strictly fictional occurrence. You and Tony are the same age. In adolescence, even a year's difference between you would be noticeable. The least outrageous explanation I have been able to come up with for a twin who is not a twin is cloning. I doubt you could present a scenario that I could reasonably dismiss out of hand."