My Betrayed Heart, My Stolen Life

s voice or the beep of a machine. It was

Host Vitals Stable. We

septic filled my nose. I was in a hospital. The last thing I remembered w

oticed I

ear me? You've been in

rful, overriding thought: Sarah. Emily. Josh. I had to get home.

ne. I have to

architect, a man who built things, who provided. Six months of my

whole ride home, I pictured their faces. Sarah's warm smile. Emily's excited squeal. Josh running

roses I'd planted along the walkway were gone, replaced by generic, tidy shrubs

t pounding with a mix of excitement and a strange, new

was quiet.

? I'm

tos on the wall, but someone had rearranged them

he looked beautiful, but her face was pale

, her voice flat

sed you" or "Are you ok

girl, just stared at me. Josh hid behind her, peeking ou

s Dad," I said, m

y heart began to br

lked out of my bed

urbingly like me. Same height, same build, same dark hair. Like a slightly off, distorted mirror image. H

honey?" he asked he

ew all too well because it used to be mine. Then, his eyes slowly drifted over to me, standing in t

gonizing months, had turned into a nightmare. This man had

cial and familial structures have been

ead was back, cal

front the usurper and r

. Gather data befo

de the territory and be

t this man, this copy, and at my wife, who stood there and let him t

But no sound came out. The shock was a physical we

tood there, a stranger in my own home, while